How I think it will shake down...
Gone for sure: Fehr, Lewy, Calvert, Hamonic, Urbom, and Robak
Probably gone: Rajala, Raedeke (chance of Schenn being gone too)
Given those departures the BWK's are left with Wiebe, Hale, Hayes, De Serres, Bestland, and Schneider as 20 year olds. Given the way Wiebe has played since Kelly acquired him I would say he is a lock as a OA. On defence you can probably say the same thing about Bestland. While he may not be elite like Hamonic or Robak he is pretty dependable and we can expect the same from him next year. Should the rumours of Toews reporting be true I think we can pencil him in as an OA, otherwise Kelly should keep Schneider and depending on his play, possible trade him for someone with more sandpaper (I still think Schneider is incredibly soft).
Hale is a plug, and according to the rumours, not a good teammate...he's not coming back.
I doubt Philly will sign De Serres and Hayes isn't going pro, so Kelly needs to find out what to do with them. Frankly, I don't have a whole lot of confidence in either, nor would I be willing to keep one of them over Bestland, Wiebe, or even Schneider. Liston is obviously the future in goal and is already getting invited to Hockey Canada camps so I can see it being his job to lose. Trade Hayes and De Serres for anything you can get (hopefully an 18 YO goalie with nominal dub experience who will come cheap) and let Liston compete with him, kinda like how Plante competed with Nichol until he eventually took on the #1 job in the latter part of the season.
Up front that leaves...
Stone Schenn(C) Glennie
Walker Wiebe(A) Ferland
Euro? Ciarelli Sinatynski
? ? ?
Thats a brilliant 1st line and a decent 2nd line. After the top 2 lines though, there will be a lot of reliance on rookies. I would hope that we could bring in a two-way Euro who we can slot in on the third line (but thats easier said than done now that it isn't a Memorial Cup year). I'm not overly familiar with how the prospects did in Midget, but I imagine Dakota Conroy, Jason Swyripa, Tyrel Seaman, Austin Lewis, and even Wheaton King will all be vying for a spot on the 3rd/4th line.
On defence...
Melnychuk(A) Bestland(A)
Miller Schneider
Fransoo Roy
Elmes Hunter
That looks pretty patchy...definitely the weak spot. Again, maybe Kelly can try and draft a Euro to bring it up to snuff because it will certainly be an area teams will try and exploit. Now that I think about it, I would probably want a Euro defenceman over a Euro winger...defence, as is, will be a problem.
In Goal...
Liston
?
Pretty easy here, Liston is an elite prospect and Hayes and De Serres have been given their shot and didn't deliver. No point keeping either of them around anymore. It's time to move on. Whether the team can perform next year may hinge on whether Liston can play as advertised.
Hopefully its another year of reloading, not rebuilding
"You can't always win, but you can always feel like you deserve to"