It really doesn't. It means that the process of negotiating with the person is easy. It doesn't say anything about the substantive results of that negotiation. It mean's he's not an ass and doesn't drag things out by offering Kyle Pettit and a 3rd or whatever garbage you're proposing when it doesn't benefit either side of the negotiations.
Your point doesn't really change mine...? I take issue with the last sentence - someone's ability to be a negotiator is not binary. You don't just have easy and difficult negotiators. Of course, I don't want someone who's easy, and I don't want someone who's difficult either. Benning is so easy that a GM had to point that out. I don't like it, and neither should anybody else.
And again, haven't proposed anything. Players like these are, however, available for whatever combination of picks. Look at the Vey trade.
Being a good negotiator isn't about sticking to your guns until you get your way - it's about finding a common value to facilitate trade. Benning can adamantly demand that the Hawks trade us Clendening for Cederholm all he wants, but it's not going to ****ing happen. You can try the Craig MacTavish route of habitually overvaluing your players and not accepting anything but... and then you end up with a team that's still in rough shape because all you've managed to add to it is waiver wire pickups and FA signings. I guarantee the Oilers would be in better shape if they'd traded Yak for players to fill their roster holes.
I'd bet Benning specifically targeted Clendening because of his value profile to the Canucks. He's young, NHL ready, a PPQB and a RHD -- all things the Canucks definitely need (and he fits that profile perfectly). Post WJC-Forsling's value about a 2nd round pick, which is about what I'd value Clendening at too (if not a bit more - was the top scorer on the IceHogs as a defenseman). To me, Clendening == Forsling.
The big difference? Clendening is likely NHL ready and can help now.
re: negotiations, see above.
Look, I don't have a problem with the value of the trade. On paper it's probably fair. But you don't hate the optics of it at all? We're a team that should be hording prospects, especially 18 year old ones who have played fantastically in the SHL.
That really isn't what it means, at all. In fact, YOU didn't negotiate at all. You should stop posting in this thread, you're throwing dumber ideas after dumb ones.
Please explain what ideas I've said are stupid and refrain from telling me what to do, thanks.
