[mrdonkey]

Originally Posted by Bingo

But the guy that's leaving can't play a bottom six role because he isn't a defensive player and lacks the foot speed.

Lucic does not do either of those things either.

He won't get to play with top six players in Calgary so he won't score.

Which is true, but irrelevant when assessing the value of the player to the team acquiring him. He *will* get those minutes with Edmonton, and has a reasonable chance of bouncing back in doing so. That has value.

Ultimately we are debating the difference between Czarnik and Peluso here. Both players who have a different role but who probably don't have a place in a contending team's opening lineup. They're both bad, just different types of player who you don't count on to contribute much. It's a wash.

Lucic has a better chance of adapting to a permanent bottom six role and is still a spooky guy to deal with.

This is where I think you're wrong. The league has moved away from big dumb gorillas who can't skate, because players simply don't engage with them. They leave that their own tough guy to mix it up and put on a show, and by and large it acts as a deterrent to nothing. The place for this kind of player has long since faded, except in Alberta it seems.

If there wasn't a toxic asset going the other way I'd hate this. But the differential seems to be getting ignored here.

I'm not ignoring it, I've very much taken that into consideration. Lucic had to be moved just as bad as Neal did, so that aspect of the trade balances out in my mind. It's easy to handwave things away by saying "this was the best offer available," but it's not like teams were beating down the door to get Lucic either, and he had long outstayed his welcome with the Oilers. The Flames held the leverage with a contract that theoretically held less risk and should've been compensated for that.

There is no way the Oilers can lose here. So why was the sweetener only valued at a 3rd round pick? It's ridiculous.

The only conclusion I'm left to make is that the 'sweetener' was not a hockey asset at all, it was the money saved by Murray Edwards. As a fan I really don't care about some London-based billionaire's bottom line, so that's how I'm judging it. It's a crappy trade not because of the players involved (which are equally bad), but because of what *wasn't* included to make up for the Flames taking on the far more problematic contract.