Late in the summer is an excellent time to sit back and ponder what an NHL team’s roster might look like in that upcoming fall. There’s little hockey to watch live, and most of a team’s roster moves have already been made.
But why stop at just thinking about that upcoming fall? With so much time between puck drops, why not think ahead even further?
After all, NHL teams aren’t built all at once (well, except for expansion teams, I suppose). They’re built piece by piece over the span of years, usually with both the short-term and the long-term kept in focused consideration.