Subban drafted by Bruins; you can't make this stuff up.
Subban drafted by Bruins; you can't make this stuff up.
Pittsburgh trades Michalek back to Phoenix for 2 prospects and a pick. I don't really understand why they'd trade him, especially when Martin is still on their roster.
Subban drafted by Bruins; you can't make this stuff up.
Pretty sure the logic being used is similar to the time value of money, in that a draft pick now is more valuable than one in 2 years. Instead of money earning interest, your draft pick is getting development time. Also the difference between picking #20-30 is extremely small. If the devils end up forfeiting say a #15-20 pick 2 years from now instead is that difference really worth 2 years of extra development? I argue no. However, if the Devils suddenly miss the playoffs these next 2 years (unlikely, and I think they are a playoff team even without Parise) then yeah it could be a big mistake keeping this pick. I personally would have just given up the pick this year to avoid having to worry about it anymore, but I don't feel strongly about the decision one way or the other.I don't really understand why all of these big events always wind up being rich get richer type things. Pittsburgh gets better, Washington gets better, Chicago got a steal... always seems like it's the same teams' GMs doing well at times like this. The Sabres' first round steal worth mentioning, too.
Love Isles grabbing Vish since he makes them better and doesn't cost them real money but boy does Anaheim look like they're collapsing on the other side of that. This has to be Selanne's last year in 12-13, Koivu's gotta be almost done, Ryan wants out, and that team is already super shallow. And now they lost their best D for basically nothing... EDIT: Just looked this up. Getzlaf, Perry, Koivu all have contracts up after this year. The only three players with contracts after next year are Ryan, who wants to leave, the incredibly overpaid Beauchemin, and Sbisa. Time for a rebuild?
I'm not sure I really understand the Canes' end of their trade (though I think Staal is a lot better than Sutter and will likely prove that this year by putting up 70 or so, which will probably be irrelevant because that team still doesn't have even close to 6 top 6 forwards), but I think the most confusing part of this weekend to me is the Devils. They have to give up a first round pick very soon. They finish 2nd, and have the chance to give up a horrible pick, and not only do they not do that, but they get a very missable prospect who is the son/namesake of someone who crushed their dreams in 94 with that pick they shouldn't have used. Whaaaaat?
I definitely think it's better to have a player peaking at one time vs another. If Parise signs long term I expect the Devils to be competitive for at least another 5 years while Kovalchuk (and hopefully Parise) are in their prime, Elias is still playing, and Henrique and Larsson are improving. A pick right now has a better chance of making some sort of impact during those 5 or so years than one drafted 2 years from now. I also can't picture Kovalchuk's production suddenly falling off within 2 years due to old age when he's only 29. And his 6.6 cap hit is actually pretty good for a player like him. If Parise stays here his cap hit will likely be the one that's eating up too high a % of the cap.I don't think that's a very good argument about value when you're looking over the long term; it isn't inherently better to have an asset peaking at one time or another because it's not like at the end you have two sums of money and one got to compound longer; neither player is gonna play forever, the cycles just occur in different time periods. I think all that really matters is optimizing value because if you get a better player or pick later you can still move it for more than you could with a weaker asset. It also matters little after a while when players were drafted -- can even you tell me what year half the players on the Devils were drafted?
In the Devils case I'm not sure i think it's safe to assume they're picking at 15-20 even after this year but realistically they're going to struggle a little after Kovalchuk gets a few more years on him due to the percentage of cap he's taking up, I'd almost want to wait it out and get prospects that are going to be peaking as he's retiring if you can't get someone who's going to be making an impact in the NHL in the next 3 years or so.