[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Nelson

If the Flames trade for RNH, he would be their second line centre in my opinion.

Perhaps that's the role he would be given. But it's questionable if that results in an improvement in the Flames' success.

I would never not trade for RNH just because they asked for Bennett to be the second piece alongside Brodie. Do ppl realize RNH had 69 points last season? Bennett has 79 over the past 3 seasons.

Do you realize how much ice time RNH has been handed in his career? With top shelf players? Draisaitl was a goal shy of the Rocket Richard this year, McDavid is a perennial Art Ross / Hart contender. Taylor Hall's won a Hart Trophy. Jordan Eberle is probably the worst regular linemate RNH has had, and I wonder how many here, cap notwithstanding, wouldn't do a Janko/Eberle swap with respect to offense.

Over the span of Sam Bennett's career, RNH has had a 5v5 primary point rate of of 1.14. Bennett has had a 5v5 primary point rate of 1.21 in his career. Mikael Backlund, whom 69 pt RNH is supposed to be "upgrade on", is up at 1.30 over the same time span. It's telling that RNH is the lowest of the three despite being older than Bennett and more reputed as an offensive producer than Backlund. That should tell you how propped up he is by the big minutes he plays on a hapless Oilers squad.

I don't doubt that RNH plays a ton of minutes on the Oilers, or that he's a useful player, but there's some serious reason to think he's very much being propped up by some damn good players. Those 69 points you allude to last year? 41 of them were created in concert with either McDavid, Draisaitl, or McDavid AND Draisaitl.

For all the flak TJ Brodie takes for playing with Mark Giordano, it's amazing how much refusal there is to acknowledge when certain forwards leaguewide are not the dynamic point producers their numbers say they are. We've seen enough of Nuge here in Alberta to see how invisible and ineffective he can be so very often, yet the stat sheets are such tempting foolsgold.

I think there is some serious anti-Oiler bias blinding ppl to how good of a trade Brodie + Bennett for RNH + JP would be. RNH would be the most valuable piece in that deal by quite a bit.

Brodie is the best player in such a deal. Hands down. The Flames fanbase is so incredible disillusioned due to the visibilility of his turnovers that they're unable to identify that. There's also a serious question mark around RNH's primary point production, which is weak any way you look at it. If Bennett produces more goals and primary assists per minute of 5v5 icetime, there's a serious possibility that RNH is the THIRD best player in such a swap. An RNH who has to share icetime at center with Monahan and Backlund, and isn't on our top PP unit with Gaudreau/Monahan/Lindholm/Tkachuk all being firmly planted... there's a serious chance he'd be a failure of an acquisition for the Calgary Flames.

The only reason a Brodie/RNH swap would remotely make sense is that Brodie is a UFA in a year while RNH has two years left on his deal - it'd be purely a contract trade (and misguided, since a top4D with Gio, Andersson, and Hamonic would be one of the slowest in the league especially with Gio another year older). But adding Bennett makes it instantly lopsided in favour of the freakin' Edmonton Oilers, regardless of whether Puljujarvi is the return. I'd offer Jankowski, or even a Dube for Puljujarvi, a prospect for prospect swap on the hole JP can turn it around. Bennett to EDM would be incompetence.