Quote:
Originally Posted by Poe969
What GM is going to trade away their #2 guy, even if it means getting a top 6 player in the lineup? Top defensemen dont get trade...
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Totally different situations.
1) Hamilton was third in ATOI on the 20th place team in the league. That team needed a shakeup badly. Brodie was still ahead of him in ATOI btw. Brodie is 2nd in ATOI on the 2nd place team in the league. Our coach just said that he is extremely happy with the roster as-is and doesn't feel a need to make any acquisitions.
2) Hamilton was traded because it still left us with three veteran top 3 defensemen in Giordano, Brodie, Hamonic. One of the reasons this was possible was because Brodie had almost three years of success with Giordano they could bank on, not a pair of games against the Arizona Coyotes and the hapless 2019 Anaheim Ducks
3) Hamilton not traded one for one for a top 6F. He was part of a package for a top6F and a top 4D with more upside than Hamilton and more years of team control. Hanifin's lack of experience was acceptable because the could afford to pair him with either Brodie or Hamonic almost always while sheltering him on the second pair with Giordano taking on the big matchups. The proposed return for Brodie - draft picks and cap space - are weak arguments at best. Brodie only has a 4.65M cap hit which makes him one of the best performance / $ players in the NHL, this is exactly the kind of contract a contender needs and assuming cap space is more valuable is misguided at best.
4) Hamilton was not a locker room favourite. Brodie has not only been one of this team's most dynamic players in both its playoff appearances, he is basically best friends with the captain of the team. All the guys have nothing but praise for him off the ice, talking about how he's quietly one of the most intense and competitive players on the team - whereas Hamilton seemed only out for Hamilton.
6) Brodie may be a RD but can fill in on the left side when injuries occur as he is a natural LHS. This versatility is at a premium as it gives the coach a lot of flexibility.
7) Regardless of what a few keyboard warriors have to say about his "gaffes" or "Giordano carrying him" he has some of the best even strength numbers of any defenseman in the NHL including being fifteenth in the NHL in points. Hamilton might have had similar offensive numbers, but was also a penalty machine which tarnished his overall impact. Brodie on the other hand is a rare defenseman who in a typical season draws more penalties than he takes - this allows the team to be on the powerplay more than the penalty kill.
8) On that note, Brodie is a key PKer for this team and I'd wager we have one of the best kill rates in the league whenever Giordano takes a penalty because we have Brodie able to step up into that role. Hamilton did not kill penalties for us.
9) The one similarity between Hamilton and Brodie is that both are, in fact, top defensemen on their own merit. The difference is that Rasmus Andersson has never proven against real competition that he can make a positive impact in a true top pair role. The assumption that just about anyone can play with Giordano in that role totally undermines the high level of play his two partners have exhibited.
10) A lot of the argument for trading Brodie is that he is a pending UFA and Hamonic is a more unique style of player and should therefore be favoured. What's lost in this is that Brodie is more durable, plays a more sustainable style of play because of his skating and durability, and his offensive consistency is too easily brushed aside because of dated definitions of "defensemen". Most of the argument for trading Hamilton was that we needed a left D to re-balance our D core - which is exactly what happened in that trade. Our D core is presently balanced - two high end right D, a Norris caliber #1, and a pretty solid top #4. The depth is fantastic but I ask you this - why even bother acquiring Hanifin if we knew Valimaki or Kylington could step right into our top 4? Because we didn't, and we still don't. 20 yo Noah Hanifin was more proven than 22yo Rasmus Andersson and even then Hanifin was by far the biggest question mark about our team coming into this season.
If we can add a high end forward and extend him, we should. But that means we will have to move out bad salary and package guys like Emilio Pettersson with Neal or Zavgorodniy with Stone to do so. We're not touching our top 3D (Gio-Brodie-Hamonic) or our four kids (Hanifin-Kylington-Valimaki-Andersson) if we have a modicum of sensibility.