Quote:
Originally Posted by Poe969
Speaking of Gudbranson; I wonder if he could be the next Colborne? He seems to have fallen out of favour in florida and if they end up with Ekblad, they might be willing to part with him. I would love to get a young guy like him off of a team that wants to give up on them the way the leafs gave up on Colborne. There are a few out there and if we can't manage to get Ekblad, maybe we can pick up a "late bloomer" and develop them into a good player.
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I'd be a fan of that too but the cost is going to be much higher. (Well, at least you'd expect it to, but Florida is a gong show.) Hedman had his first really good seasons last year and this year and he was touted as a guy who could step in and make an impact at 18. That didn't happen.
It's very, very rare for d-men to make an impact before the age that Gudbranson is right now. Giving up on him now doesn't make much sense for Florida. It would be like us giving up on Baertschi right now. Lots of potential still, has hit some rough patches, and you're not going to recover the value of your initial investment (3rd overall pick) nor even reasonably hedge against downside based on the timing. It's just totally the wrong time to move him.
But like I said, Florida is a gong show so anything is possible.