Craig Laughlin Fan
Rejoint: nov. 2019
Messages: 5,296
Mentions "j'aime": 5,742
The Mantha trade has been far from a failure in DC. While losing him to injury for much of the year hurts, Vrana had the same issue, and Mantha is better at creating plays, getting into dirty areas that Vrana doesn't do nearly as much, and plays a better defensive game than Vrana. The 2nd rounder given up to make the upgrade was definitely worth it, and I get the feeling that this will become clearer next season.
Fleury at 4.5 is... well rough. He's going into his age 38 season and is about the same sv% goalie as Vanecek. Whatever experience he would bring would, at best, offset the 4.5 mil you have him getting, which could look really bad about 10 games into next season.
I wouldn't touch Mikheyev if he's asking for 4 million, if you want to play the youth, there's a good place to insert some. Protas or Leason come to mind.
As for Keller himself, I can't see Arizona trading him. Yes, he is 23, but in about 4-5 years when the team is contending he will be hitting the prime of his career, so trading him for reasons of not being important when they contend is something I wouldn't agree with.