Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
We're not experts on what other teams have to offer.
Just try and put yourself in Sakic's shoes for a minute. You only have a few key pieces assembled with MacKinnon, Duchene, Landeskog, Jost, Rantanen and Makar, E. Johnson as your grade A commodities. You are under intense pressure to retool as fast as possible. COL already did their rebuild. They drafted Duchene, MacKinnon, Landeskog and made the playoffs. They don't want another full rebuild. They don't want to go backwards and be trading one of their only established Grade A commodities for picks/prospects. Sakic needs someone NHL ready who is a Grade A young player (like a Seth Jones). At worst he needs someone who is a Grade A young player who is close to NHL ready (like a Mikhail Sergachev).
If you were Sakic who would you be targeting from the Flames? The deal would have to revolve around 1 of Bennett, Tkachuk, Jankowski (only if they were high on him and thought he was a top two line centre), Brodie, Hamilton, Gaudreau, or Monahan. I don't think I'd even trade Duchene for a deal entered around Valimaki because he's probably not NHL ready enough to sell that deal to my ownership and my fans.
Put yourself in Sakic's shoes. Like actually think about it from COL's perspective. Don't just cop out and say they're rebuilding and they'd be willing to accept prospects/picks. They don't want to be rebuilding and they don't want to set their rebuild back a couple years by turning an NHL asset into pieces that are not NHL ready.
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If I were Sakic, I'd look at rebuilding my blueline as quick as possible with high quality young pieces. Sakic has a lot of nice players up front, but lacks young defencemen and prospects, alongside a high quality goalie prospect. The Flames COULD offer both.
I'd then realize no one is giving me a Noah Hanifin for 2 years of Matt Duchene, and start thinking of how else I could do it. No one is trading a top pairing d-man in his early 20s for Matt Duchene (...probably the reason Duchene is still an Av), so the best option is to go after guys who look poised to step into that role. I think Fox fits that bill, and I think Andersson could also be the foundation for a 2nd pairing.
Makar, Johnson, Andersson, Fox, Barrie (although he's also rumoured to be on his way out of town) is a very promising blue line.