Sharks decline that’s an awful lot to give up plus we don’t have cap space.

Declining that would be silly and a fireable offense. Keller is slick af.

That's going to be a sure pass from SJ, that's way to much to give up for another very large contract.

I get the sense that Armstrong was hired to be a mouthpiece/fall guy for ownership.

Ok but who are you dumping to pick up his salery since we would then be over the cap by about 4 mil this season

Hard to say no to Keller. with proper top six linemates he would be fire.

Possibly. He seems way too business like to be serious. he doesnt really seem human even

Chayka was a terrible GM. He's all the worst parts of analytics. He's he was good at draft day trades...understanding value, but was last or 2nd to last in the entire NHL in player development. Maybe EDM was worse. Guys like Domi, Duclair, Strome, Deangelo were all sent away.

The Coyotes are a really weird example of Murphy's law. Chayka was no Boterill or Chiarelli, but people always pretend like he was a solid GM. I think he was mediocre at best. He was a very high risk GM. Deals like Chychrun's and Dvorak's are great and an example of how gambling on a players' ceiling early on can pay off. But contracts like Keller's and OEL's kind of show the opposite. He did a great job drafting guys like Jenik, Hayton, Soderstrom, Maccieli and a few other nice picks, but also absolutely ****ed the organization by cheating the system and evaluating draft eligible players illegally, and then dipping on the organization before they got a crucial 1st and 2nd rounder revoked. Not to mention paying a premium for Haylor Hall didn't pay out well AT ALL. That was a utter waste of assets. The complete disaster that was Arizona's relationship with Dylan Strome was poorly managed too. Sad to see the future severely hindered from possible decency because they took needless risks.

"He's all the worst parts of analytics" spot on yeah 💯

His background is statalytics some pseudo scientific and kinda convoluted visual tracking system that virtually ignores the crux of the matter (GF%)

Helpful in general but jfc don't get myopic with it

Wow! Barrett Hayton used as an example of a great job of drafting. Wow. How so when he could have easily been acquired 5+ picks later? When like 30 players behind him had much more promise (Quinn flipping Hughes for one) and higher NHLe rates...

He's my de facto example of horrible drafting btw

You wouldn't even trade down to take Hayton at 10 because you might miss... idk... a guy like Evan Bouchard with some of the highest NHLe rates in ohl history, many translatable NHL talents out the whazoo and at 18 having the poise of a 30 year old...

Veleno & Berggren had more promise among others

Even the NHL mainstream saw Hayton as a big reach and were confused why he went that early, the broadcasters awkwardly tried to be generous like "yanno maybe they see something... " one talking head guy was cynical though, like, omg lol

In a situation like that, one makes the cap space, even if awkwardly (though the return is quite good tbh)

Keller is a super dynamic winger. adding him basically guarantees the Sharks get back to the playoffs. With proper top six guys like Couture and Meier he would put up some outstanding numbers.

I mean okay you have a point, but Hayton is still a very good prospect. Maybe I shouldn't call him an example of Arizona's good draft choices, but he's not a "horrible" one. A really bad choice would be picking someone like Kaut at 5OA. Hayton was worthy of a fringe top-10 pick no doubt I think. Looking back at draft picks who haven't cemented themselves in the NHL and comparing those picks to other players like Hughes (who was passed on by 4 other teams that could have easily chosen him) is a prime example of creeping determinism. That's not always a bad bias to have, but it doesn't tell the full story.

Guaranty of playoffs from a winger who.... didn’t make the playoffs last year with a similar cast around him as he would have in San Jose.... ok

You mean Melnyk-Dorion 2.0 basically?

for all of those pieces? 2021 1st with or without Keller would be likely top 10, skipping out on another top pick, Donato, Bordeleau (who is probably going to the WJC in 2 months), and a 3rd seems like a very bad move going forward.

Keller won gold at WJC while netting 11 points in 7 games just 3 years ago while getting MVP in 2016