St Louis and Alex Ovechkin part ways

[CaptainCrunch]

St Louis Time-Picayune (AP)


Just a day after signing Alex Ovechkin to a 3 year $9 million dollar per year contract, CaptainCrunch continues to put his stamp on his team as he sent Ovechkin to the Nashville Predators in exchange for C/LW Ryan Nugent-Hopkins a first round pick in 2022 and defensive prospect Vaakanainen, Urho.


"It was tough to let Ovie go, he's one of the best scorers in NHL history, but at the same time, Ryan is a bit younger and we save 3 million on the cap, as well he's a very good two way forward with a very good hockey IQ".


With his elite defensive ability and solid playmaking skills, its likely that Hopkins will slide into a second line spot with Dustin Brown and JT Miller.


"We were also happy to receive a first round pick, as we want to start rebuilding our pipeline, and Urho is a good young two way defensive prospect, that we feel will develop well.


"I'd like to thank Camba8 for the interesting talks"

[Swayze11]

Good value for Ovie. Nice deal guys!

[simmer2]

Ya good job guys. Well done all around.

[SportsJunky]

I like it.
Player for now.
Prospect.
Pick.

Good return for the Blues.

[TurdFerguson]

that's a solid return for Ovie.

[CaptainCrunch]

I really enjoyed the trade talks on this, it took place in the span of a couple of days.


Part of me hated trading Ovie because having him on the left side with Landeskog and Pearson would have been a solid left side. And Ovie is Ovie, with his overlying stats he should be able to score with anyone that can even push a puck across the ice.


But Hopkin's has a lot of good flexibility. He and Miller can play wing or C, so I can move them around. Plus Hopkins has an 80 df high passing and decent scoring, which is in the high IQ area on my new spreadsheet. (PH +PA+SC)/300 = average Hockey IQ for me.


I liked the idea of picking up another first even if it is for 2022, its an asset in the basket, and Uhro is a good prospect, former first round pick, I think he's one of the top 100 drafted prospects for 2019 iirc.


I looked at RNH from an age perspective, from a salary perspective and I expect that his ratings might see a McDavid effect this year.






Overall its a good deal for both sides

[TheScorpion]

I'll say this about Ovie as someone who has had him: he can be disappointing in the sim.

For that reason, I like the return for St. Loo.

[MJK]

Seems like a fair trade to me. You know what you get year in and year out with Ovie. Not so much with RNH. The rest makes it even imo and Ovie showing no signs of slowing down.