I would still try and trade Z and then sign Connauton and one other guy of that ilk who have NHL experience, but at salaries you don’t mind having buried in the AHL for a year. Then to start the season I would go with a 13F/8D roster so that you have the depth on hand to rotate the two rookies in and out of the lineup as needed. You probably start the season with pairings of Graves/Makar, Girard/Timmins, and Byram/Johnson which maintains the coveted lefty/righty combos and gives you Cole and whoever there to mix in depending on matchups or play when they think it would be better for a rookie to take a day off and spend some time with the skills and video coaches.

One thing that nobody seems to be mentioning very much is that this upcoming season is going to be a very compressed schedule, and I think having at least 10 D of at least NHL potential is going to be a must for most teams, and especially this one if they run with two rookies. I think having a stable of those 8 (including Connauton or whoever) plus having MacDonald, Lindholm, and another whoever in Loveland should be pretty good.