My initial reaction to the Coyle trade was that it was insanely high of a price. Like, where's the secondary asset coming back to Colorado?!
But the more I think about it the more I think this trade needs to be looked at relative to another trade at the TDL, namely Bjorkstrand.
Gourde (75%) + Bjorkstrand for two 1sts and a 2nd basically breaks down to a 1st for rental Gourde and 1st + 2nd for Bjorkstrand.
Bjorkstrand has roughly the same caphit as Coyle, and also a year extra term, like Coyle. They're both similar hard working middle 6 forwards, but Coyle plays the premium center position.
So if the price for Bjorkstrand was 1st + 2nd, why would Coyle go for less given their similar pedigree and contracts? In fact his price was arguably higher given that he's a center with more playoff experience.
In that light, it's probably fair to say that the price of Mittelstadt + 2nd + Zellers is roughly equivalent to the Bjorkstrand trade (1st + 2nd), albeit with the addition of Zellers since Coyle is a center and thus slightly more valuable than Bjorkstrand positionally. So using the Bjorkstrand trade as a benchmark, Mittelstadt's trade value was roughly equivalent to a late 1st.
Which begs the question, if CMac had traded Mittelstadt somewhere for a return of a 1st, and then flipped the 1st+ for Coyle or another center, would the trade have looked as bad initially as it did?
