The Ducks have a plethora of quality prospects and there is only a finite amount of roster spots to fill out. The best thing Murray can do is ship out some of their bigger name prospects in order to get quality roster additions now, which is why I moved Larsson, Sprong and Morand out, all good quality prospects but unlikely to take the place of other players such as Kase, Steel, Zegras, Terry, Jones, Lundestrom, Silfverberg, Mahura, Guhle, Fowler and Lindhholm, not necessarily due to them being inferior players but just because of their timing in the organization and the timing of other players.
The Ducks also have the best goalie in the league in Gibson and should take advantage of his prime now. This is why a full rebuild shouldn’t be attempted in Anaheim which is why they should acquire undervalued players like Simon, Rodrigues, Benning and DeMelo. Also, the acquisition of Ehlers would push the Ducks offense to another level.
Pittsburgh Trade:
The Penguins need to get some cap space and getting rid of awful defenseman Gudbranson is one way of doing that, but it will cost them. Dominik Simon is an undervalued player who would bolster the Ducks depth, he had a 10.2 GAR last year, and a 1.8 WAR. Simon would be good enough value to get the Ducks to take Gudbranson’s contract off of Rutherford’s hands.
Ottawa Trade:
This trade is probably the most reliant on idiocy of any of these trades. Gudbranson undoubtedly still has value to some of the NHL’s GMs, however, his contract is still probably too rich for a guy like Eugene Melnyk. With 50% retained on this contract the Sens would likely send back throw in dman Dylan DeMelo of the Karlsson trade. DeMelo is another player who has really good underlying numbers (something Eugene doesn’t care about) he has a 11.3 GAR and a 2 WAR.
Buffalo Trade:
Buffalo is above the cap right now and has a glut of RHD. Bogosian is in the last year of his contract and still has an excessive cap hit. To get him out of town they’ll need to send out, likely disgruntled due to arbitration, Rodrigues. Rodrigues has a 9.9 GAR and a 1.7 WAR, he is a very effective bottom 6 forward.
Edmonton Trade:
Oilers have a lot of quality dman coming up this year i.e. Bear, Jones and Bouchard. They need NHL level forwards. The Oilers seem disenfranchised with Matt Benning GAR 10.3 WAR 1.8 despite his good underlying numbers. Shore is a quality 3rd line forward and has a bit more value than 5/6 Dman Benning, which is why a 4th round pick is included.
Winnipeg Trade:
Jets need cap space for this year and next and Ehlers had a rough year last year. Kulikov is awful and is an obvious cap dump candidate. Sprong is a top 6 forward prospect and would become a quality 3rd line forward right away for the Jets with his incredible shot. Larsson has top 4 D potential and could slide into the 4/5/6 D spot right away. Morand will take a bit more time but has had a really good junior career and projects as a top 9 forward. Ehlers is a very good player, but the Jets only have so many roster spots and cannot afford to be paying a 3rd line forward (he played the majority of the season on the 3rd line) 6M, with this trade the Jets’ lines become:
Connor – Scheifle – Wheeler
Perrault – Roslovic – Laine
Copp – Little – Sprong
Vesalainen – Lowry – Appleton
This is a cap dump plus a trade for Ehlers. WPG gets a top 4 D prospect, a top 9 forward prospect and a top 6 forward prospect. They also free up 10,333,333M to make room for signing Laine, Connor and adding a player like Gardiner.
DeMelo is way better than Gudbransson, and last I checked 900m is less than 2mil.
I agree completely. That trade is essentially relying on Dorion and Melnyk's archaic view of hockey players and their inability to properly manage a hockey team.
Your analysis is sound, your targets are accurate, but I don't think you've paid the right price in any of your trades. For example, if I wanted Demelo, I'd give them Sprong.
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