Intangir
Registered User
While I agree that we should keep our best defensive prospects I also think, with all due respect, that you're plain wrong to think Zacha isn't worth a first-round pick.
Zacha might not be the most creative player I've ever seen but he is strong along the boards, generally good defensively, quite fast for his size, can be physical when needed, and is a competent sharpshooter to boot when put in the bumper position on the powerplay. That's a pretty good player to add to any team, and definitely worth a first.
To better substantiate my point, I'd say that Zacha is probably not worth a top 15-20 pick (and def not worth 1-15) but anything later than that is fair game for Zacha, with maybe a small plus if the pick is late or depending on the other parts of the hypothetical deal.
I know this is Hockey's Future boards, but picks just don't have the value IRL that they do in us hockey nuts' minds. That is why we often see late firsts traded by teams involved in playoffs races, and more at the draft.
As far as more or less defining Zacha's value, even though the task is purely hypothetical and ultimately meaningless (but is it meaningless if I have fun thinking it up?), I'd say he has similar value to a guy like Lehkonen. Perhaps slightly less in a vacuum given Lehkonen's extremely solid track record in the playoffs and defensive prowess, but still on the same level.
To be honest, I think this is Friedman stirring the pot for clicks on this whole NJ/MTL trade speculation, but if we were to indeed try and acquire Zacha I believe the trade would happen at the draft, and that we'd be either moving Calgary's first-round pick (or perhaps another first we acquire from other trades) or a combination of prospects/picks that would satisfy NJ.
And I think NJ could be interested in Armia as an add to the Zacha deal. He is a good third-liner, an absolute monster along the boards and cycling the puck despite the horrible injury-riddled year that he's had.
Now, before I get run over by NJ fans, I get it, the contract isn't great and Armia hasn't produced this year. But in the playoffs last year Armia was fantastic, a big reason why we went to the finals, and I think he will turn it around next year in a major way with a longer offseason and coming in healthy this time. Also, playing with a team that isn't suffering from eyebrow-raising levels of man-games lost while at the same time blatantly trying to get a coach (that has clearly lost the room) fired to start the season should also help tremendously.
Moving Armia to NJ could also warrant some sort of sweetener sent to NJ to take the contract in addition to Zacha's haul, but it would not be a major add-on I think, perhaps a B prospect or so.
And the reason I think we're going to try and move away Armia in spite of the fact that he is still a really good player is that he might not be a "fit" for us going forward because of our new management's wish for a change in paradigm and putting heavier emphasis on speed than before (where character was supposedly our #1 criterion... I know, great strategy right...).
Anyways, this is all speculation and my opinion. Flame away if you wish, or if I somehow ruffled your feathers.
With that said, cheers and good evening.
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