Would like him in Montreal but imagine the Evans + Mailloux special isn't getting it done. I do think he could thrive under St. Louis though
I mean Clarke will be near or above 100 NHL GP at season's end and it probably wouldn't hurt to give Willander a year in the AHL unless he absolutely forces your hand so I feel like it would be manageable
I don't really think we know what a year in the AHL will, or won't do for Willander at this point. It's perfectly normal for players, especially in that sort of vein, to jump straight from NCAA after a couple years, right to the NHL. That may or may not be the case with Willander...but i think that when you're moving big pieces like Boeser and acquiring guys like Clarke, you've gotta take a bit of a longer-term view of how you're allocating your assets to create a balanced team, with ideally not too much potential, eventual redundancy.
Calum Ritchie and a second?
Edit no futures shoulda read more
To me, this would be an offer i'd jump on if i'm LA. However, it also raises an intriguing quasi-3-way potential as well. I'd be interested in something like:
To COL: Brandt Clarke.
To LAK: Brock Boeser.
To VAN: Cal Ritchie+.
But i'm probably unusually high on Calum Ritchie. It'd also solve the problem for Vancouver of losing a top-end offensive forward without replacing them.
Hronek-Brandt-Myers for now, with Willander climbing up the ladder, isn't a bad situation to be in though. RHD always fetch a premium, and trading one for a good winger later, as needed, isn't a bad plan to me either.
Plus after Myers game last night.....I think the Soucy treatment will do wonders for him, at least for a bit, to cool him off.
I agree that improving our D isn't quite as dire as earlier this season, with the additions of two Pettersson to the back end.
I'd prefer to keep Boeser long term, but he seems to have had it with all the BS on this team this year, as much as any of us, and our scoring by committee and random 3 point nights for plugs strategy is what Tocchet seems to prefer, rather than using the skill he inherited.
There would be ways to work around it...but ultimately, i'm just not sure that it makes the most sense to acquire a guy like Clarke with a big trade chip like Boeser, with the intention of probably ending up moving a guy down the road anyway. It's the sort of thing Buffalo have backed themselves into a weird corner with (only LHD) with Dahlin, Power, Byram. I'm sure especially with RHD, you could find a way to make it work...but it seems like something that just adds steps to the process that don't need to be there, and complicate the sort of deals you end up having available to yourself to get "full value" on guys.
I also think it's still worth wondering how much you'd be able to pump up Clarke's value in Vancouver anyway. Because again...he's not necessarily going to get prime offensive minutes and Top Unit PP time there either. So long as Hughes is there...and Hronek probably slots in ahead of him in a lot of ways for Tocchet/Foote as well. So you're trading for an offensive-minded D and powerplay guy...to play on your low minutes 2nd Unit at best, and maybe not even a fixture there over Hronek.
And i don't see Hronek going anywhere anytime soon. Myers has little real value and also isn't likely going anywhere until his deal is done. And Willander shouldn't be looked at as a trade chip either, as he projects as exactly the sort of defenceman the Canucks
actually need to round out their blueline perfectly. More so than Clarke. So it'd end up being a weird prospective "flipping opportunity" with Clarke...where, i'd prefer to see them actually just skip that step and try to move Boeser for something that can backfill that loss up front, sooner rather than later.