Once a Kings Fan Too
Rejoint: juin 2018
Messages: 39,695
Mentions "j'aime": 24,617
I think that the problem with the multi-sided dialogue over this proposal arises because a lot of people don’t understand, or perhaps don’t recognize, the difference between a “cap dump” and a “cap casualty.” A “cap casualty” is a good player (i.e., a player performing to or exceeding his contract) whom a team decides to trade in order to achieve cap compliance or increased cap flexibility. Kevin Fiala and Oliver Bjorkstrand are the perfect examples of cap casualties. A “cap dump”, on the other hand, is a player who is seen as not worth his contract, or performing below it. Sean Monahan is the perfect example of a cap dump, for whom his team has to pay to move out. (Max Pacioretty can’t be used as a comparable precedent because WHO KNOWS what goes through the minds of people in the Las Vegas front office?)
All players have inherent or intrinsic value. That value may vary from team to team (i.e., one year of Travis Sanheim is worth more to a contending team like Los Angeles which needs a LhD than to a no-hoper like Montreal), but it exists nevertheless. Kerfoot has positive value because, as you pointed out earlier, he’s an excellent penalty killer and two-way forward and his contract is not an embarrassment like, for example, Brendan Gallagher’s is. Anyone who thinks that he’s a cap dump should ask themselves what Kerfoot would bring were the Maple Leafs able to hold onto him until the trade deadline and then marketed him then. Your point here is that Kerfoot’s value is decreased by context, not by his skill level.
Monahan was clearly a cap dump. But trading a player who is seen as underperforming his contract and surplus to his team’s needs when that team has a cap issue doesn’t mean that any transaction by such a team, or any other team, is a cap dump. Suppose for whatever reason the Calgary brass had decided to trade Andrew Mangiapane (who has essentially the same cap hit) for a first-round draft pick and a prospect, a la Kevin Fiala. Does the fact that the trade is made to give the team cap space make Mangiapane a cap dump? Of course not.
Some fans have contended here that there is a distinction between Bjorkstrand and Kerfoot, presumably based upon the difference in cap hits. Nonsense. Bjorkstrand got traded for a third and a fourth . . . clearly below his value and solely because Columbus needed cap room. Kerfoot isn’t as highly valuable a player as Bjorkstrand, but is being traded for the same reason while still perceived as having on-ice worth, so his trade value should be less than Bjorkstrand’s (say, a third OR a fourth, which is how you’ve valued Beckman), but still positive.
In short, not all moves made for cap compliance or flexibility are “dumps.” Some are just selling low.