Our first in-season trade just transpired. It took nearly a week of protracted negotiations, some name-calling and some blackmailing with compromising photos, but finally the GMs of the Powder Rangers and Patrik Stefans reached a blockbuster deal.
To the Powder Rangers: Niemi, Leino, Gudbranson, the Patrik Stefans' 3rd rounder in 2012
To the Patrik Stefans: Mason, Couture, Ekman-Larsson, the Rangers' 6th rounder in 2012
Analysis:
The fifth place Powder Rangers are led by two top-ten (I’ll admit it now) franchise players in Kopitar and Stamkos, but plagued but underwhelming early performances from a number of should-be scoring roster forwards (Okposo, Grabner, Cole and Havlat all sit below eight points). So newly acquired disappointment Ville Leino should fit right in. Gudbranson, despite Wittman’s attempt to sell his fantasy potential, is a slot filler in this trade and Regehr is well aware of that. This is a bit of a gamble as the P-Rangers are only carrying five defencemen this year – a serious injury to the top four would spell trouble. The real driver for this trade was the P-Rangers’ issues in the crease – Hiller is not cutting it as a starter and Mason isn’t playing well enough to be a fantasy backup keeper, never mind an NHL starter. Niemi shores up the P-Rangers’ goaltending for the foreseeable future. However, as he slots into Mason’s roster spot, his impact will not be felt until he overtakes Hiller as the scoring goalie – eight points to make up.
The 12th place (but only 12 points behind fifth) Patrik Stefans have handed the starting goaltender duties to a young Corey Crawford. He’s played well enough to earn it, but Wittman acknowledges the serious risk he is now exposed to should an injury occur. When you think about it though, very few teams in the KL have two legitimate goaltenders that keep pace with each other for the whole season such that one could replace the other if injured. It’s a risk we all take and one history has shown we are prepared to deal with when it arises. Mason provides some diamond-in-the-rough potential, but probably less than the Stefans gave up in Leino. Ekman-Larsson solidifies a strong core of young and old on defence (Kulikov, Wisniewski, Gonchar, Pronger). He’s potentially ripe enough to keep next year (or at least have trade value) and provides injury insurance this year. Couture will start two points back of the scoring roster in Leino’s spot and should be contributing within a week or two. Long-term, we all know Couture is good, but the jury is still out on whether he’s actually good or just or Setoguchi-good. Or worse, Cheechoo-good.
Recognizing a slight imbalance, the GMs agreed to swap 3rd and 6th round draft picks next year. That makes things pretty close in my mind. But it’s more fun if we pick a winner and loser. I have to give less value to any draft picks Regehr acquires because this year he took Chris Kunitz in the first round – so I’m declaring Stefan the winner, but by decision, not knockout.
Unrelated news - a summary of free agent acquisitions to date:
date team drop add
10/17/2011 Dicklas Lidstroms D Girardi MA Bergeron
10/23/2011 Schizzarks M Sheifele M Michalek
10/23/2011 Patrik Stefans J Caron M Read
10/26/2011 Joshfrey Krupuls M Zibanejad J Lindstrom
10/28/2011 Powder Rangers A Stewart C Higgins
10/29/2011 Moilers A McDonald M Hanzal
10/31/2011 Winter Claassics J Leopold K Quincey
11/2/2011 Milan Micahleks J Hudler D Desharnais
11/7/2011 GPhil's Flyers S Elliot C Potter
10/23/2011 Schizzarks M Sheifele M Michalek
10/23/2011 Patrik Stefans J Caron M Read
10/26/2011 Joshfrey Krupuls M Zibanejad J Lindstrom
10/28/2011 Powder Rangers A Stewart C Higgins
10/29/2011 Moilers A McDonald M Hanzal
10/31/2011 Winter Claassics J Leopold K Quincey
11/2/2011 Milan Micahleks J Hudler D Desharnais
11/7/2011 GPhil's Flyers S Elliot C Potter
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