At this point, whenever Mantha and Timashov sign, the roster will be pretty much filled. I know Yzerman said they still may add another forward, but I would think that he would only do so if he uses the other buyout. Personally, I like the idea of using the buyout on Nielsen or Filppula and replacing them with another C/LW/RW that wouldn't cost too much. Here are the top 5 UFA's in that position available still:
IMO, and this is just that, I would re-sign AA to replace Nielsen or Filpulla. Not necessarily to play C, we have a few other players that can do that, but to get a younger, cheaper and more explosive forward. I know he had a crappy year with us, and didn't do too much more to better himself in Edmonton, but with that, it may cost us very little to sign him compared to the others in the 5 above. PLUS it could be that he has a nice bounce back. 1 year, $1M to try to re-start his career again. The ONLY thing is I think he had a very bad relationship with Blashill, so maybe if we could get one of the others. I think they all would be upgrades to Nielsen or Filppula.