Quoting: dannibalcorpse
Not my argument, but I'd jump in and say that you could easily make a case that Dobson and his $4M AAV is the most -valuable- RHD in the league, and if you were starting a team from scratch, he'd be one of the first 2 or 3 picked (along with Fox & McAvoy) - Carlson & Pietrangelo are starting to show their age, Weegar is riding a ton of shooting luck, Dougie Hamilton is great but I worry about the injury history, and Bouchard is just now taking the kind of leap that Dobson took two seasons ago.
As far as the trade, there's two reasons I'd pass if I'm the Islanders: Dobson has a better contract situation (his current deal ends in RFA vs. Marner ending in UFA) and Marner's cap hit means that an Islanders team that is basically capped out would need to magically make $7M in cap space appear. That, last part, to me, is the biggest reason why this is a no-go.
- My rebuttal to your contract situation comment is that Dobson's contract is done after next year. He's going to get a lot of money, as he is deserved. That being said, as good as he is, he's not going to be McAvoy or Fox good, but he'll command as much money as them.
- I think there is a huge misconception with Bouchard. People are saying "he just took off" or "he's a product of McDavid" or "powerplay merchant". People don't realize that 2 years ago, he got 40+ points and played second unit powerplay, a unit that barely saw ice time. Same thing happened last year, until Barrie got traded. 2 consecutive playoffs now that Bouchard has been our best dman. Bouchard is prone to some bone-head defensive plays and puck watching, but he's a fairly solid dman.
- Question about Dobson though. I know he's good offensively, but how is he on the defensive side? I've seen he's a good shot blocker, but is he a good shutdown dman like Pelech?