Quote:
Originally Posted by CalgaryFan1988
I don't get the logic of some fans wanting to trade Stone.
Defenceman get injured all the time, the young guys will get their shot this season. Why trade away our depth, when we don't have any cap issues?
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- Because between Brodie, Hamonic, Andersson, Prout we are already four deep at RD, along with Kulak who has quite a bit of experience at RD. Any more depth could easily be acquired on the waiver wire and probably outperform Stone, who simply doesn't do many things especially well either defensively or offensively. He is still living off the numbers he put up in Arizona when OEL was setting him up with power play one-timers. Last year he was highly dependant on his partner to control the play, while contributing little more than holding penalties when the play was inevitably forced to his side of the ice. The gap between Kulak and Stone was not small at ES, with Stone relying on reputation and penalty killing to keep himself afloat. If you just need a throwaway #6D who can kill penalties, Prout can do that at a more appropriate cost and without two years of term.
I've seen people say that Stone has "proven" he can step into a top 4 role and not look out of place but this is false. All he really proved was that he has a great slap shot and had perfect timing in terms of being traded right before a Brian Elliott hot streak (as did Matt Bartkowski). If Stone is in our top four for any extended period, the results will probably never work out so nicely again.
Andersson is already quite a bit better better as a RD than either Stone or Prout, and Kulak/Valimaki/Kylington are all better as left D. That means you're either sacrificing the best possible top 6D, or you have Stone sitting in the pressbox... and if Stone is a pressbox regular this season, he becomes an untradeable anchor contract that you have to buy out in July. There's actually no proof teams haven't already caught on to Stone's poor value - he might already be untradeable and it's possible CGY was the only team that overvalued him a while back.
Of course you don't want to throw Andersson into the top 4 fire unless necessary - but trading Stone would still leave Rasmus as your #3RD behind Brodie and Hamonic. If there's an injury, we'll also be able to evaluate Andersson in a top 4 role - this isn't a problem. Either he sinks, as Stone has and would, or he swims, in which case you can keep him there and slot a guy like Hamonic even lower in the lineup and that is how championships are built
Overall, by trading Stone you minimize risk, improve your current roster, and still have perfectly sufficient depth.
Is he a terrible player? At 1.25 to 1.5M AAV, maybe not the worst #7D to stuff in your press box, who can look competent in a bottom pair role. But his salary is not irrelevant because you can't put 7 mill in the pressbox.
Trading Stone is not irresponsible, it is prudent, especially if Andersson has shown to be more effective, which he did even dating back to the NHL games he played last season. You can't afford to start healthy scratching 3.5M x 2Y and you're wasting Andersson by pairing him with Stone instead of Kulak. Forcing Stone into the top six for the sake of it, despite not meriting it - that is irresponsible