Traded away
Foligno
Marleau
Muzzin
McCabe
Trade down (Sandin)
Mrazek (traded down 13 spots)
ROR
Received
Sandin
Trade down (Sandin)
Kapanen
This is interesting, thanks for doing it. I am going to comment on the substance of this and realize I may get pulled into a Dubas/not Dubas debate...but here we go.
Contending teams trade first rounders, we seem to have traded seven and got 3 back, plus a high second on a trade down (Mrazek). That's a net of more first round picks than I thought we had over this timeframe.
I also think the circumstances around some of these trades is worth considering.
He traded Marleau and had to attach a first. He felt he needed the space to keep a couple of young guys in Kapanen and Johnsson.
He then dealt Kapanen to regain a first rounder the draft where we lost the Marleau pick. He got a pick a couple of spots lower. That pick was Amirov and this whole thread looks a bit different if he were in our top nine right now.
He traded what would be and was going to be a late first for Foligno. That didn't work out, largely due to injury. He was a sought after player and signed with term and money that off season with Boston. However, I remember at the time of this trade reading that first round picks that year had less value because Covid wiped out most of junior hockey. There was less ability to scout and rank players. We ended up taking Knies with our first pick (57 overall) that year. That was a good save, though of course we could have had a first AND Knies.
Muzzin and McCabe were not rentals and were each contributors to our D for years. McCabe came with three years of retention too. These were hockey trades, not TDL rentals. Good teams for this. Muzzin got cut short due to injury.
He traded a 25th for a 29th (Sandin) and 76th (SDA). You can say that Sandin is not your type of D or whatever, but no one of significance or as good as Sandin was taken between the pick we traded and the one we got. He got a free th is round pick and gambled on a lottery ticket in SDA. This was a GOOD trading of a first round pick.
The Mrazek cap dump was similar. Yes it was his mistake to sign him in the first place (injuries played a role again) but the recovery cost was to trade down 13 spots and get Minten, apparently the guy they wanted all along. There is no one in those 13 spots that has us full of regret yet.
The last was on ROR. That's a rental that didn't work out because we didn't win. I really do believe they felt they could re-sign him and then it goes into the Muzzin and McCabe category if he does.
..but then he turns RFA and tough to re-sign Sandin into a pick he turns into Easton Cowen. Not a bad recovery at all.
So, what's the net of these five years?
He gave up a pick for Foligno in a very questionable draft and took Knies later. Not bad.
He dumped Marleau to retain two kids and then dealt one of those kids to get a similar pick back in the same draft along with Evan Rodrigues and Filip Hallinder, later turned into McCann (briefly). Not bad.
He acquired two mainstays on D and one with three years retained at 50%. Not bad.
He traded down twice (once to dump a bad deal) and both times for the guy they would have selected with the higher pick (Sandin and Minten). Later turning Sandin into Gustafsson and Cowan. Not bad.
He gambled on a first for hometown kid ROR. It didn't work out out, the trade would look quite different if we still had ROR
That's not all so bad, now is it?
