Wasn't a top anything when he was waived
Neither was Vey when he was traded, which was my entire point.....
Forgot about the lockout,
And no, Martinez was not as established as Voynov, Voynov played three full years in the AHL, was more acclimated to the pro game than Martinez, and quite simply, has more natural talent than Martinez.
Martinez played a year and a half in the A, and then was called up, but was never able to fully establish himself, all the way up to last year one can argue.
But you are going to think what you are going to think, regardless, you think putting Hickey on waivers was bad asset management, you are probably in the minority with that.
So Voynov was NHL established because he played more AHL time? I guess Andrew Campbell was a veritable stud? You are changing your argument each time I defeat your point, but whatever, enjoy your thoughts. There's nothing wrong with calling bad asset management, DL's done it before and will do it again. All GM's do.
He's the Isles #6 d-man. Let's not get carried away. He's improved a great deal since he was with the Kings. I wish him nothing but the best - seemed like a kid with heart. But he's hardly a top 4 d-man.
At the time, he didn't have trade value. It happens. Like the Kings signing Kyle Quincy off waivers. This is why the CBA was drafted the way it was - to give some of these kids stuck in insanely deep organizations a chance.
The only reason Quincey wasn't traded by Detroit was due to a medical issue:
https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nhl/rum...nearly-traded-for-Kyle-Quincey?urn=nhl,195831
Operating inside a bubble, up against the waiver wire is not very conducive to making a trade. Detroit was in a similar situation and thought they had mad it work, but medical issues stalled it. Since it was the start of the season, similar to Hickey, there wasn't a lot of other options. That happens coming out of camp when most teams already have their own unproven players they want to give a shot to. Most teams would rather see what their own drafted and homegrown players can do rather than trade for someone else, not to mention those teams already spent a full summer signing players to fill holes.
At the trade deadline or the entry draft thought, that's a different mindset, Vey being an example for that. Vancouver felt he'd be a fit on the team. If they had gone through the entire off-season, maybe they sign a guy in UFA that can do the same job and they decline to trade for Vey in September. And do you see Vey making the Kings out of camp? Maybe, maybe not, just like the Hickey situation.
As for Hickey, I'll let overall ice time dictate best where he slots in on the Islanders blueline. Following the waiver claim he was eating up 16:51 a game in icetime which was 6th on the team, though 5th if you don't count Brian Strait who missed two-thirds of the season. Last season he was 6th as well at 18:52 a game, but if you ignore Visnovsky and Czuczman, who played a combined 37 games (and really Czuczman was just a trial run as a college UFA after the Islanders were pretty much eliminated from the playoffs), he was 4th. This season, which granted is quite short yet, he's 4th at 19:54, just two seconds per game behind Nick Leddy.
I'd say overall, he's been a #4 in NYI, and clearly his ice time is increasing as the seasons go on.
As a comparision, Muzzin got 17:53 in 2012-2013 and 19:01 last season. He hasn't played this season. He was 5th and 4th respectively in ice time for LA those seasons.
I'm not saying Hickey is as good as Muzzin, I think LA made the right choice between the two, I just feel Hickey, if shopped at the trade deadline or at the draft, could have fetched something. I suggest a 2nd or 3rd based on what Vey fetched for us. I don't see that as outlandish in any way, shape or form.