Quoting: Db1899
Wahlstrom was better than Fiala in plenty of advanced metrics during the 20-21 season, including goals above replacement, wins above replacing , and standing points above replacement .
Pageau’s contract isn’t bad and Parise was a 3-4 mill dollar player last season so im not sure why you’re bringing him up. Chara I agrees and Toews you’re 100 right. It doesn’t get talked about enough that “hall of fame coach” Barry Trotz pushed for Toews to get traded because he thought Leddy was the better player
Trust me as a caps fan Trotz gets wayyyyyy more credit than he should for just about everything, literally if one lucky deflection in game 3 vs CBJ in 2018 goes the other way the caps get swept in round 1, have no cup, and Trotz remains one of the biggest chokers in NHL history.
Once again I understand why Wahlstrom is a good player and going to be a good player in the future, but Fiala has IMO demonstrated this past year that he is a star in the NHL, of which there are very few. Wahlstrom could turn out to be that player in 2/3/4 years, but he could not -- think of someone like Burakovsky, who had a similar draft pedigree and put up similar numbers to Wahlstrom his first two years in the NHL, who never really broke through and has only this year broken the 50 point mark. Fiala is the real deal right now and is only 25 himself.
I also get Fiala at that price not making sense for the Islanders because of cap space / need to restock prospects / going to rebuild / positional fit / whatever other external factors go into how a team builds their roster. But, to dismiss it out of hand as a massive payment or fireable offense is pretty laughable, especially when worse players in similar situations such as JT Miller or Sam Reinhart got pretty similar returns.