Sprong for Honka

Not bad but where is Larsson lol (and Guhle no?)

Yeah I could have added them in place of Mahura and Hakanpaa. No argument there

I'm guessing that between the four of them, they'll end up taking turns playing between here and San Diego

The way I see it Mahura is behind Larsson, Guhle, Del Zotto and maybe even Hakanpaa (we're really have no idea about him). We'll have to get hit with all kinds of injuries or he needs to make a huge jump in his development to hop over all of those guys. A year down in San Diego being their top guy should be good for him.

As for the trade... meh. I'd rather let Guhle and Larsson get a serious look to stick around. Sprong has 20-goal potential and makes nothing. I'd rather stick with him. I'm really not sure where all the interest in Honka is coming from. Considering his age and contract, if he were any good Dallas would just hold onto him. The fact they want to move him is a big red flag for me.

Honka does not impact Guhle or Mahura becuase Honka plays the right side. Mahura probably doesn't have a shot at the NHL this year, so I think it also fine in that regard as well.

The interest I have in Honka for the Ducks is that
1) he plays the right as previously mentioned, that will fill the hole there and I would rather a young player than someone like MDZ or Holzer there.
2) Dallas in my eyes kind of sucks at not only identifying and picking top talent with their first round picks, they also suck at developing the players they do take with those picks. I believe Honka falls into both those categories, he probably shouldn't have gone 14th OA, but at the same time the Stars are kind of brutalizing his development path by not playing him at all and playing with people who do not complement his style.
3) The Ducks, as most people know by now are extremely strong on the player development side of the organization, we could take on Honka for almost nothing as reclamation project from a team who very clearly wants him out (based on their free agent signings) and develop him back to at least some of what he was touted as that made him appealing enogh for the stars to take 14th OA.

While I do believe Sprong can bring a good goal scoring element to the team in the coming seasons, his hockey sense is unfortunately very subpar and hockey sense is something that you can't really teach (case study: Nick Ritchie). With Sprong being a healthy scratch multiple times at the end of the season I would much rather trade him for a new asset. On top of it all, Sprong may actually be more valuable than Honka (considering Sprong is on a team friendly deal and Honka is unsigned) which could allow the Ducks to pry more than just Honka away from the Stars. Possibly Honka + 3rd for Sprong + 5th? Line mate wise, I do believe Fowler would be the correct partner for Honka. This may just be me reminiscing about the Fowler/Despres pair that I love so much, but i think this has those elements and could help to produce more offense from both players.

No, Honka would impact Guhle and Mahura on the depth chart. It doesn't matter that he plays the right side, better d-men are better d-men and the handedness of a player doesn't solely impact where he is on the depth chart. By that rationale that means Holzer is higher on the depth chart than one or Larsson, Guhle and Del Zotto and that's just crazy. I mean if we acquired Honka for like a pick or a disposable prospect like Sherwood, whatever. But like you said, Sprong has value (not to mention we gave up a quality, young RHD to get him in the first place) so I'd rather not give up on him yet.

I'm content with where we're at right now. Yeah, we'll have a guy playing on his opposite side but so what? I don't think it's worth diluting the group as a whole simply so all three pairs can pass and receive the puck on their forehand.