Quoting: Christian17
Ritchie still has potential to be a top 6, GMs love to deal for top draft picks, just look at the Gudbranson trade, any of the Deangelo trades, Crouse, etc., all players that were drafted early and weren't producing. GMs just think they can tap into that potential. Ritchie showed signs last season, and GMs may just toss his performance this year up with all the injuries for the Ducks. Teams like Arizona who are trying to get a quick boost to their rebuild in a 22 year old player would be very interested in Ritchie as he could blossom in a more expanded role.
Hjalmarsson's value is at an all time low, he's had the worst performance of his career this year with ATOI of 21 minutes, and the worst possession stats of his team (and his team sucks). His value is definitely at an all time low, regardless of what your "logical reasoning" claims.
Cody Franson has the best possession numbers on Chicago, that tells me he knows how to keep the puck in the oppositions end which is the best kind of defensemen.
Those examples of teams going after young players are terrible and nothing like Ritchie’s situation. Crouse and the first trade of DeAngelo were completed before either player had even played at single NHL game. Meanwhile, Ritchie’s played in 159 NHL games. Ritchie’s issues and his struggles to transition to the NHL (even though I think it’s the system RC is playing that is the problem) are apparent and for all to see. Conversely, Crouse and DeAngelo were complete unknowns at the NHL level and both had put up better junior numbers than in their draft years, so no reason assume they’d struggle in the NHL. The second time DeAngelo was moved was in a hockey trade for a 2nd line C and a back-up GT where the main piece was the 7th overall pick in the 2017 draft. DeAngelo was pretty much a throw in and of little value (which is exactly what I’m saying Ritchie would be). Hence, DeAngelo has spent most of this season in the AHL. The McCann deal was also a pure hockey trade and McCann was coming off a good first year. Most VAN fans were annoyed and angered by the deal. Only since his trade has McCann taken a nose dive. Conversely, Ritchie is bad now. We’d have had to have traded him last season for McCann to be a good comparison. Yeah, apart from the 2nd trade of DeAngelo, where he was pretty much a throw in as part of a much bigger deal, I’d say those are all bad comparisons. Ritchie isn’t a prospect looking to enter the NHL after putting up some excellent numbers at the junior level (i.e. Crouse and DeAngelo). He’s also not coming fresh off a strong first season (i.e. McCann). He’s an NHL player in his 2nd full year, struggling to produce and just looks bad. Its funny that you now say Ritchie has top 6 potential and are coming up with all these excuses as to why he’s played badly this season, but, at the same time, believe he’s a bust that has to be moved. Nice sales pitch, but professional teams aren’t that gullible. A lot of what you are saying just seems like pure fantasy and wishful thinking. Maybe ARI will think this, maybe ARI will think that (even though you don’t believe any of what you’re saying, you’re just hoping). I mean, why would ARI think that Ritchie will “blossom” into an “expanded role” when you don’t? Are they just too stupid to see that Ritchie is struggling?
Averaging 21 mins a game is like 30 seconds less than Hjalmarsson played in CHI and is good amount of TOI for a top 4 D-man. He’s also been injured this season (missing quite few games) and so would have gotten slightly reduced minutes as he slowly caught up to game speed. He’s 4th in EV TOI and 1st in SH TOI for ARI. His TOI is no indication that he’s been bad or is playing bad and, given that you told me he was on the 3rd pairing 1 post ago, I’m going to take your assessment of his TOI stats with a grain of salt. I will also be doing the same for your assessment of his possession stats. I don’t really care for corsi scores. It’s a stat that is relied on too much by people too lazy to watch a player actually play. I prefer to judge a players defensive abilities with my eyes. Moreover, I’ve never really understood how you get an individual number for a stat that involves the entire team? I mean, do you really think it’s just a coincidence that Hjalmarsson possession stats have dropped since he moved from a good possession team to a bad one? The same goes for Franson. I bet you haven’t even looked at usage too. I haven’t looked it up, but I’m sure that Hjalmarsson is getting mostly defensive zone starts and Franson is getting mostly offensive zone starts.
Edit: I just checked, Hjalmarsson is 3rd amongst ARI D-men for D-zone starts at 56.1%. The 1st guy is Schenm at 58.4%.
Conversely, Franson is last amongst CHI D-men in D-zone starts at 34.2% (2nd from last only to Kane in the whole team) and 1st amongst CHI D-men for O-zone starts at 65.8%!!! Yeah, it’s a lot easier to keep the puck in the oppositions zone when you start with the puck in their zone... lol. This is just one example of why judging a player’s defensive ability based on a number is pointless. Try watching them play next time or, at the very least, try to understand the stat you’re using to judge them by (and it’s limitations).