Quote:
Originally Posted by ben voyonsdonc
This "fleecing" idea is to me a media creation. Every team has a motivation to make a trade. Sometimes the motivation isn't readily apparent and the media may call them "losers" in a trade. GM know their industry better than we do. They essentially work in a 30 person market and they can only receive what someone else is willing to pay for their goods. Sometimes the value is high...sometimes it isn't. They have to determine if they are willing to accept the return that the market is offering.
Sometimes GMs get lucky and the value for their players is really high or a player being offered really fits their needs. These I suppose are the "winners" of a trade but you can't "fleece" someone in the industry. GMs aren't stupid (except Milbury) and will only give up what they want to give up for the assets they will receive. It always takes two to tango in the trading market.
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Exactly. From the way fans talk, you'd think there are some GMs out there who perform jedi mind tricks and persuade their peers to give up more in a trade than they wanted to give up. That's not the case. The whole braintrust of a team will have a pretty firm idea of what their assets are worth, and they won't take less for those assets than their value. You can't trick or bully someone into undervaluing their own assets and overvaluing yours. And if they are wrong in their valuations, it has nothing to do with what's said in trade negotiations.
IMHO, NHL GMs are very, very close in their assessments of what each player or pick is worth. Trades happen because teams have different needs and different tolerance for risk at any point in time.