Verbeek says 1st rounder or no deal.

The discourse around any manner of cap casualty/cap dump has been corroded by garbage like this. In no world would it take a 1st to move a competent, 2nd pairing RD.

I don't hate Cody Ceci, but c'mon, he is not a 2nd pairing RD.

He's a high end 3rd pair RD with some penalty killing ability, but in no way shape or form should he be considered a top 4 dman.

Kinda depends on how one chooses to define the category. First, I'd argue there's VERY little that separates the two categories (high-end 3rd & 2nd pair, that is). To me, a high-end 3rd pairing guy is someone like Soucy who has excelled on an actual 3rd pairing. Someone who, based on his play on 3rd pairings, seems like they should be capable of "playing up". However, apart from his rookie season, Ceci has never played on a 3rd pairing (unless you want to argue his 18:30/gm in PIT was 3rd pairing).

As such, I gather your argument is that he's been playing 2nd pairing minutes and done so poorly and, therefore, should only be called a 3rd pairing guy. However, he's now played two seasons on a top pairing in shutdown minutes with Nurse and not been all that bad at it (though I'm sure opinions differ based on how you view/interpret his stat page). I don't call him a top pairing Dman because he definitely isn't optimally suited to this role (hence why EDM should be trying to upgrade on him), but I also don't think it's fair to diminish the difficulty of the role he's played.

People can absoultely and fairly make the claim that ANA wouldn't be interested because they already signed Gudas (who's ACTUALLY a high-end 3rd pairing Dman and they paid 4mil * 3 for), but not that it would take a 1st or that he's some burden that EDM can't wait to be rid of.

So trade ceci and do nothing to replace him? Nice downgrade

Ceci's best season was playing 18:31/game. No org. with cap space wants or needs him. If you've paid attention to how no cap space has transformed the league, no one is giving up cap space that can be weaponized.

I get what you're saying, that a defenseman's deployment labels their "pairing" level. And I agree there's not much difference between a low-end 2nd pair dman, and a high-end 3rd pair dman, but I feel like players should be labelled at the role they succeed. You could play a defenseman 27 mins a night and he could be absolutely buried and out of his element, but call him a #1 defenseman based off that deployment. I just can't see it like that. Gostisbehere played 22 mins the last couple seasons in Arizona and I won't be calling him a top pair defenseman.

But you're right, it's just a difference in definition. I think a team like Edmonton was/is desperate for defensemen options, and were forced to sign and play Ceci in a top 4 role. That doesn't, to me, indicate he is a top 4 defenseman.

And it's not an Edmonton or Ceci thing, I promise. The Canucks played OEL like a top 4 defenseman, and he played a very hard role that I would not diminish the difficult of. But based on his success there (lack thereof), I would not call him a top 4 defenseman, and the subsequent buyout and new role as FLA's 3rd pair dman makes much more sense to me for him.

Ceci has played 1st pairing comp for Edmonton for the past 2 years, they aren't trading him for just a 7th with nobody coming in to replace him. This is just ridiculous.