Quote:
Originally Posted by gvitaly
Well there are two schools of thought from those of us that are advocating trading a D for forward help.
The first is that some the D that are currently destined for the 3rd pairing have more to give. A lot of our D are relatively young, and Kylington in particular looks like he can take another step. Playing on the 3rd pairing might limit that development. The same can be argued for Mackey who in my opinion was one of the better D in the AHL last year. That way we still end up with an upgraded D even if we move a one of our top 4 D-man.
The second is more about dealing one of Kylington/Zadorov. It seems the D would still be improved because of the really strong top 4, and still have one D that can step into the top 4 in case of one injury. The bottom line is that we have 10 D under contract, I would argue that 8/9 of them would not look out of place on the bottom pairing. For example I don't think that replacing Zadorov with Mackey will cost us any points in the standings.
Personally I'm very cautious about trading someone like Hanifin, but I could see the return for him being similar to what we got in the Hamilton deal. Most of the posters are still on the high from the Tkachuk trade, and think that we can get a star in the making for Hanifin. That said, I actually think that he was the one carrying that pairing with Andersson, and he can become a #1D as soon as this season, but Andersson is on the better(and longer) contract.
At the end of the day, I don't think we're going to trade any of our D until the next Summer. That's when the coaching staff and management will decide which 3D they prefer to keep out of Hanifin, Kylington, Zadorov, and Tanev. One of them will be dealt, my money is on Z.
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To counter your points:
1. Kylington was great last year, no questions asked. However, he looked lost without Tanev next to him. He might be ready to take another step, he might not be. Sutter and Treliving are trying to win a cup so why take the chance? Kylington can be great with easier matchups and lesser minutes. This isn’t a year for development, this is a year to try and win.
2. You don’t see a downgrade from Zadorov to Mackey? Zadorov is a big, good skating, physical defenseman with almost 500 games of NHL experience. Mackey is an NHL rookie who is older than half of the guys ahead of him on the depth chart and hasn’t been able to stick in the NHL. If you’re Sutter which guy are you picking?