We were always a long shot to sign him. That’s the part I struggled with considering the trade. I’m fine that we shopped Necas around for years trying to land a big fish despite me preferring he stay. It was obvious he wasn’t a great fit for better or for worse. My issue was trading him for a rental with zero negotiations ahead of time. I hate front line rentals in general, it’s fine for role players but changing your whole chemistry for a couple of months never made sense to me.
Necas should’ve been used for something concrete. If Rants is a rental I’d have trouble making a list of higher prices paid for a rental in modern history. Last years trade was already close to the top of the list. This would be twice we paid a very high rental price for a guy we hadn’t said a word to in advance.
It a big target comes up in the near future we are a lesser contender for that player based on assets.
Then there’s the cost of the contract. It’s early and we have reasons to still be hopeful but you all have seen now that Rants doesn’t drive play much. He’s super strong on the boards when he can stay on his feet, he’s great with possession/poise and he’s a true sniper. A player like that does have value but it’s probably closer to what Jake makes than the numbers we’re talking about. They’re similar and very different at the same time - but I’ve watched them both a lot and to me they have similar impact. I don’t know that 13 million or whatever it is fits what he’s going to bring for us. If he’s above ppg he’ll be doing well for us, and he’s very expensive for that kind of production.
There’s a lot of similarities to JR trading for Shanny back in Whaler days.
