Rejoint: juill. 2021
Messages: 1,038
Mentions "j'aime": 541
This is either a good trade for both teams or a bad trade for both teams, depending on what you think their priorities should be.
Considering McDonagh’s age (just turned 33), the number of years left on his contract (4), and his cap hit ($6.75M), it’s a good move for Tampa Bay to trade him before his contract becomes a liability and they have to give up assets to get somebody to take him. In fact, you could argue that he’s already not providing full value for his cap hit, because his offensive production has dropped to the point where he’s no longer the 2-way threat he was when he signed the contract. That’s probably why they didn’t get much back for him. However, if my goal was to win a third Stanley Cup in four years, and I had to figure out who I could get rid of to clear cap space with the least amount of impact on my chances to win another cup this year, he wouldn’t be near the top of my list. Sergachev and Foote could move up in the depth chart, and perhaps Rutta stays and their championship culture can revive Myers’s career, but when I think of who most embodies the shutdown philosophy that the Lightning successfully employ in the playoffs, especially in series clinching games, it’s Ryan McDonagh.
From Nashville’s perspective, McDonagh certainly makes them a better team now. Their defence was already pretty strong, and adding McDonagh could make it comparable to, albeit older than, what Tampa Bay has had in recent years. Another motive might be to make Filip Forsberg want to stay by showing he’ll be coming back to a better team. It looks like they can absorb McDonagh’s cap hit while still leaving enough to pay Forsberg without having to make other moves. But is this enough to immediately vault them back into the league’s elite after finishing fourth in their division each of the last three seasons? If not, where will they be in a couple of years? McDonagh becomes their oldest player, and although they don’t seem to have cap issues now, in a couple of years they may wish they had that $6.75M available to use on somebody younger.
In summary, I’m leaning toward bad trade for both, especially if Forsberg and Palat both still end up leaving. (I assume Palat is the guy that Tampa is trying to free up cap space for.)