Toggle sidebar

How would you rank the top 5 most valuable assets in the NHL today?

  • We sincerely apologize for the extended downtime. Our hosting provider, XenForo Cloud, encountered a major issue with their backup system, which unfortunately resulted in the loss of some critical data from the past year.

    What This Means for You:

    • If you created an account after March 2024, it no longer exists. You will need to sign up again to access the forum.
    • If you registered before March 2024 but changed your email, username, or password in the past year, those changes were lost. You’ll need to update your account details manually once you're logged in.
    • Threads and posts created within the last year have been restored.

    Our team is working with Xenforo Cloud to recover data using backups, sitemaps, and other available resources. We know this is frustrating, and we deeply regret the impact on our community. We are taking steps with Xenforo Cloud to ensure this never happens again. This is work in progress. Thank you for your patience and support as we work through this.

    In the meantime, feel free to join our Discord Server

bobholly39

Registered User
Mar 10, 2013
22,035
14,525
I always enjoy talking and speculating about a player's trade value. How would you rank the top 5 most valuable assets in the NHL today? Take everything into account:

1. Age
2. Contract status (UFA soon, long-term signed, etc)
3. Ability
4. Playoffs vs regular season (ie, Matthews should rank high, but does his playoff hurt him?)
etc

Is McDavid still #1? He's obviously still great - but is getting older, and his contract is up soon'ish.
Connor Bedard is still a fantastic young player- but his stock has certainly fallen a lot (I don't think anyone still considers him a Crosby/McDavid tier prospect, as many did in his draft year). Is he still top 5? higher?
How about Makar or Hughes?
Celebrini?
You can include the #1 overall pick for 2025 too if you want.
Do Matthews/Draisaitl/MacKinnon/Kucherov factor into top 5 due to their overall ability, or are they slightly too old/too highly paid?
 
If I had existing talent, not starting from scratch, I think Mackinnon would lead my list. 6 more years at ~7-11% of the cap. Drai for 8 years at $14M isn’t a bad pick either to have a big 1C that produces in the playoffs. Barkov for $4M (and 3 years less) is also a good pick. If you were a defenseman away- say Toronto- Makar seems like the right pick, but Faber/Seider being locked up cheap for 8 years is compelling. Dahlin for $3m is probably better still. Ultimately, Id rather have 7-8 better chances in Toronto than 2 really good ones, so I’d pass on Makar.

Starting from scratch, I’d go Celebrini or Bedard depending on if I wanted scoring or two-way play. Beyond my sharks bias, I always want to build around a two-way 1C. Ideally he’d be 6’4, but he’s got everything else.

If McDavid was signed for 8x$16M I think I’d have him just after Mack. 8x$19M and he’s still top ten, but hard to take him over Barkov for 2x the price for example.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: jellybeans, Summer Rose and gtrower
1. Cale Makar - may change after his next pay day, but I think he is multiple tiers ahead of any defenseman and is too rare to not value as high as possible.
2. Jack Hughes - Best pound for pound contract in the league. Feels like MacKinnon or Draisaitls previous deals.
3. Bedard/Celebrini - Insane trade value right now on their ELC's
4. Crosby - May not be right, but I think his value if traded as a rental would be way higher than it should be for name recognition and obivous performance.
5. Hellebuyck - Another maybe not for AAV, but the holy crap tier of goalies is so small that if he was on the market, he may fetch a lot.
 
  • Haha
  • Like
Reactions: Reimannsum1988, nbwingsfan, hn777 and 5 others
This is tough, and probably all depends on team positions. Obviously McDavid and Makar have to be near the top given their talents/name recognitions/etc.

Bedard and Celebrini could also be considered given their age/potential and long term team control.

And then guys like Hughes/Stutzle who are young and on great contracts.

It's tricky to think of guys like Matthews/Draisaitl/Mackinnon who are on big time contracts, but have insane talent. Would one of those teams trade them for Celebrini for example? I doubt the Sharks would, but the other team probably wouldn't either given their win now mode.

In terms of pure value, that's hard.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Drake1588
Chet Donnelly said:
You think he's "multiple tiers" ahead of a guy like Quinn Hughes? I don't want to ignite another debate on that topic, but Jesus Christ.
Click to expand...
Yes I do. Quinn is close offensively, but not in the same stratosphere defensively. There are multiple dmen I would take over Quinn for a complete game playing some actual defense. Quinn is more i nthe Bouchard tier for me being a hybrid PP QB, offensive FO only whenever possible guy.
JKG33 said:
Jack has a long way to go before he even belongs in a discussion for this. Maybe one day when he can actually play a full 82
Click to expand...
True. A healthy season would goes a long way, but the AAV and PPG is there.
 
  • Haha
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: Knight53, the_fan, McNucker13 and 10 others
JKG33 said:
Jack has a long way to go before he even belongs in a discussion for this. Maybe one day when he can actually play a full 82
Click to expand...
Even pace-wise he’s not remotely close, and hasn’t proven a thing when the games matter. Hughes doesn’t even drive the bus on his own team or line - Bratt is producing more and is superior off the puck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AhosDatsyukian and KirkAlbuquerque
landy said:
1. Cale Makar - may change after his next pay day, but I think he is multiple tiers ahead of any defenseman and is too rare to not value as high as possible.
2. Jack Hughes - Best pound for pound contract in the league. Feels like MacKinnon or Draisaitls previous deals.
3. Bedard/Celebrini - Insane trade value right now on their ELC's
4. Crosby - May not be right, but I think his value if traded as a rental would be way higher than it should be for name recognition and obivous performance.
5. Hellebuyck - Another maybe not for AAV, but the holy crap tier of goalies is so small that if he was on the market, he may fetch a lot.
Click to expand...
He’s literally hurt non stop, to compare his contract to McK and Drai is hilarious.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: SJinNewJersey, LOFIN, MoneyManny and 1 other person
The Crypto Guy said:
He’s literally hurt non stop, to compare his contract to McK and Drai is hilarious.
Click to expand...
Thats fair with the big injuries, but hes proven to be 90-105 pace guy, just obviously needs to hit the 82 games. Not like hes missing half the season. 20, 20, 4 games missed the last 3 seasons.

If he can stay healthy $8M AAV for a 90-110 point guy until 2030 is insane.
 
ManofSteel55 said:
It's still McDavid.

Then Makar, Draisaitl, McKinnon, Crosby, in no particular order. Elite play is more valuable than very good play even if the very good play is on an ELC.
Click to expand...
If youre ignoring the cap and term, sure. McDavid is valuable in a buble, but he will get $16-20M on this next deal which brings his value down tremendously.

Draisaitl has yet to prove what he can do without McDavid.

MacKinnon will continue to be valuable since hes been arguably the best player for 6 years now, but still $12.6 is a lot.

Makar, yes.
 
Dominance said:
Even pace-wise he’s not remotely close, and hasn’t proven a thing when the games matter. Hughes doesn’t even drive the bus on his own team or line - Bratt is producing more and is superior off the puck.
Click to expand...

Ahh, yes. The clear indication of someone who does not regularly watch Hughes and then saw him play poorly in the gimmick Four Nations tournament and claim he doesn’t do anything when “games matter.” This would be true if you completely disregard the 2023 playoffs.

And claiming he doesn’t drive the bus not only on his line, but the team in general? Lol Jesus.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SJinNewJersey and vtdevils2k
landy said:
If youre ignoring the cap and term, sure. McDavid is valuable in a buble, but he will get $16-20M on this next deal which brings his value down tremendously.

Draisaitl has yet to prove what he can do without McDavid.

MacKinnon will continue to be valuable since hes been arguably the best player for 6 years now, but still $12.6 is a lot.

Makar, yes.
Click to expand...
I'm going to disagree completely with almost everything you have said here. You put aside cap value when talking about elite players, and there are less than 10 players in the league that I would consider elite. Every one of those players is more valuable to have than even the best value contract for a player in the lower tiers. Cap and term come into play when comparing players one to one, or when talking about lesser players.

I think where we disagree, is that you are talking trade value, like, how to quantify the trade value of players in a fantasy trade scenario. But every elite player in the league, in that scenario, falls under "priceless". There is no realistic value for McDavid, McKinnon, Draisaitl, Kucherov, Matthews, Crosby, Makar, Q. Hughes, etc, as there is no realistic scenario in which those players are available for trade. People will talk about ELC players being more valuable based on term and cap hit, but if you think Celebrini, as good and valuable as he is to a team like the Sharks, would be enough in trade for Connor McDavid, you are fooling yourself. Or if you think the Sharks would pass on a trade of Celebrini for McDavid, even knowing they are looking at 8years X 16M+ in salary for the end of McDavid's career, I also think you are fooling yourself.
 
1) Makar
2) McDavid
3) Draisaitl
4) Barkov
5) Suzuki
HM: Pastrnak, Quinn Hughes

I'll probably get some heat for Suzuki, but we're talking asset value. You get an elite 2 way C locked up for his entire prime at under 8M ? Hard to beat that value.
 
  • Love
Reactions: Sasha Orlov
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Ad

Top Bottom