Confirmed Trade: [NYR/OTT] Mika Zibanejad & 2018 2nd round pick for Derick Brassard & 2018 7th rounder

[These Are The Days]

That's some really big assumptions you got going on there. We can do that with every trade. All we can do is break down how it looks on paper until we see how it plays out on the ice. On paper the NYR won this trade because they walk away with a 2nd round pick out of it from a team that likely will be middle of the pack if lucky.

I don't have to assume about Brassard. I feel like Ottawa won because I've watched Brassard and the Rangers go on deep playoff runs the last few years now and even watched him twice in person in the ECF vs the Lightning. He's the kind of guy your team needs to have in order to win a Stanley Cup; contributing in a supporting role on a consistent basis and few are more consistent than he is. I'm not saying he's a superstar, but he's the guy who in a 23 game run to a championship tallied 7 goals and 14 points while the big guns were about a point per game.

You're right that we have to wait until they play for their new teams first but I don't see Zibanejad succeeding on the Rangers at the same level Brassard would in Ottawa. Particularly with the fates of players like Stepan, Kreider and Nash up in the air at any given moment.

 

[MarkStone]

When a fan of the team he just came from says something different, I'm going to have to side with them. Heck most of the Sen fans still think EK is good defensively

Key being A fan. Majority of Rangers fans that have posted seem to have nothing negative to say about Brassard's 200 foot game. He may not be a selke candidate, but we don't need him to be.

 

[Brewsky]

Will the Sens regret letting go another foreign player with a name that starts with a Z?

Find out next time on Dragonball Z...

I like this for the Rags big time, not only do they get a similar 50 pts player who still growing into his own, cheaper, but they nabbed a 2nd as well.

Maybe Ottawa fell in love too much with the reunion of Brassard and Boucher?

 

[darko]

Key being A fan. Majority of Rangers fans that have posted seem to have nothing negative to say about Brassard's 200 foot game. He may not be a selke candidate, but we don't need him to be.

You don't want Brassard on PK but he's not a liability either.

 

[57special]

I don't get this at all from the Sens POV.

 

[MarkMessyay11]

Key being A fan. Majority of Rangers fans that have posted seem to have nothing negative to say about Brassard's 200 foot game. He may not be a selke candidate, but we don't need him to be.

I've watched probably 90-95% of the games Brass played as a Ranger and he's just OK defensively. You're right, he'll never win a Selke, but he's not horrific either. There are times where he'll float around or have a defensive lapse, but not often enough to say he's a bad defensive center. It's probably more of a product of him thinking offense first, than him not knowing how to play defense.

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

Key being A fan. Majority of Rangers fans that have posted seem to have nothing negative to say about Brassard's 200 foot game. He may not be a selke candidate, but we don't need him to be.

The vast majority of Rangers fans posting in this thread are guys who are sad to see a fan favorite go. Brassard is definitely flawed defensively and requires sheltered zone starts to thrive. Check out his 2016 home/road splits:

Home 40GP | 20G | 21A | 41P | +17
Road 40GP | 7G | 10A | 17P | -5

He suffers a LOT when the other team gets the last change. And that doesn't tell the story of the fact that AV did everything in his power to limit his defensive zone face-offs, even at home.

And if you don't take this (and at least one other) fan's opinion on the matter, there's also the writeup from Brooksie, which is spot-on:

Brassard is as good and likable a guy as you could meet in a locker room. He loved playing on the Big Stage of Broadway and in the Big Room of the Garden. Arriving at the 2013 trade deadline from Columbus in the swap for Marian Gaborik, he played an integral part in the run to the 2014 Cup final and the 2015 Presidents’ Trophy.

But even as Brassard — who will turn 29 in September — led the team in goal scoring, he somehow took a step back. He did not embrace the opportunity to break out of his 1A/1B status and become the first-line center, in fact often opining how difficult it was to consistently go up against the opposition’s top guns. He became shockingly delinquent without the puck, so much so that Vigneault could no longer play him with the also defensively deficient Mats Zuccarello.

http://nypost.com/2016/07/18/why-rangers-brassard-deal-was-about-a-lot-more-than-cap-space/

 

[trentmccleary]

All Brassard would need to do is help us maintain possession in the offensive zone to help us improve defensively. Zibanejad has been impatient and/or made the wrong decision enough to cause us to lose possession early in breakouts. Actually, a lot of the offensive players left after Turris' injury and MacArthur being out caused that too. The impatient play led to a lot of one-and-done shots that sent play flying back towards our zone. We needed somebody who could slow the pace of play. A couple of them actually.

 

[Korpse]

Bobby doesnt mesh well with anyone, he needs to pack his bags and gtfo.

Ummm what? He had pretty good chemistry with Turris and MacArthur. Him and Hoffman have great chemistry. The lack of Chemistry between him and Zibanejad was very apparent though.

 

[projexns]

The vast majority of Rangers fans posting in this thread are guys who are sad to see a fan favorite go. Brassard is definitely flawed defensively and requires sheltered zone starts to thrive. Check out his 2016 home/road splits:

Home 40GP | 20G | 21A | 41P | +17
Road 40GP | 7G | 10A | 17P | -5

Now do the same with Zibanejad.

 

[topshelf15]

Now do the same with Zibanejad.

They are going to be shocked when they see this ready to break out player ,whom had a full min and a half more ice time over last season .....and only scored 5 more points

 

[Korpse]

The vast majority of Rangers fans posting in this thread are guys who are sad to see a fan favorite go. Brassard is definitely flawed defensively and requires sheltered zone starts to thrive. Check out his 2016 home/road splits:

Home 40GP | 20G | 21A | 41P | +17
Road 40GP | 7G | 10A | 17P | -5

He suffers a LOT when the other team gets the last change. And that doesn't tell the story of the fact that AV did everything in his power to limit his defensive zone face-offs, even at home.

And if you don't take this (and at least one other) fan's opinion on the matter, there's also the writeup from Brooksie, which is spot-on:


http://nypost.com/2016/07/18/why-rangers-brassard-deal-was-about-a-lot-more-than-cap-space/

Can you explain his 2014-2015 splits?

I don't know what you expect out of Zibanejad but he certainly will need to be sheltered. He failed to step up when Turris was hurt, Pageau managed to.

 

[Sensin5]

As Aufheben pointed out. Karlsson and Brassard on the PP? Damn.

People forget we take all the risk here. Potential is... just that. Potential. If Zibanejad regresses this year to a 40 point player and stays there it is a huge loss for us. If he hits his potential it is a win. We won't know for a few years. Right now it is a smart trade for both teams.

How dare you make sense! How could a trade actually be a hockey trade where both teams get what they need? Surely the Sens got fleeced, no?

 

[DasKaiser]

Sens get hosed. Would rather have a bigger, cheaper, younger and not yet in his prime Zimmy. Whatever Brassard was going to do in the NHL he did a couple years ago!

 

[SpezDispenser]

Sens get hosed. Would rather have a bigger, cheaper, younger and not yet in his prime Zimmy. Whatever Brassard was going to do in the NHL he did a couple years ago!

Hosed!

 

[Kakko]

The vast majority of Rangers fans posting in this thread are guys who are sad to see a fan favorite go. Brassard is definitely flawed defensively and requires sheltered zone starts to thrive. Check out his 2016 home/road splits:

Home 40GP | 20G | 21A | 41P | +17
Road 40GP | 7G | 10A | 17P | -5

He suffers a LOT when the other team gets the last change. And that doesn't tell the story of the fact that AV did everything in his power to limit his defensive zone face-offs, even at home.

I mean, you can tell yourself that, but it's straight up not true.

Brassard's home and away zone starts are near identical.
And his overall zone starts are completely normal for an offensive minded player, including one Mika Zibanejad.

 

[projexns]

Sens get hosed. Would rather have a bigger, cheaper, younger and not yet in his prime Zimmy. Whatever Brassard was going to do in the NHL he did a couple years ago!

The one adjective missing from your group of adjectives is "better."

How much cheaper is Zibanejad?

He's making $3,250,000 this year, plus you paid $2,000,000 of Brassard's bonus. The good thing is that this isn't the cap-hit.

His qualifying offer (and cap-hit) next year has to be at least $3,250,000. He'll have to crap the bed to get only that much, and you really don't want that.

What you really want is for Zibanejad to become at least a $5,000,000 player for you to replace what Brassard already was.

 

[imapylon]

This one could go down as another bad trade by a Canadian team. I had to do a double take when I seen that the Sens were the ones giving up the much better pick.

 

[MarkMessyay11]

Hosed!

Posts like this are ridiculous. I'm a Rangers fan and I'm pretty happy with the deal, and I loved Brassard. But to say either team got hosed is crazy. On paper, maybe it looks better for the Rangers, but Ottawa will be very happy with Brass as long as he continues to play like he has the past 2+ seasons.

Only way it will look "bad" for Ottawa is if Zib reaches his full potential in the next year or two and becomes a 70+ point top-line center.

 

[SenzZen]

For me, the one true frustrating thing about Z is he doesn't carry the puck. If he starts to do that he could be an absolute bull. But he seems to lack the confidence several years into his career. It may seem like a weird criticism, but watch for him to constantly dump the puck or pass it off even when it's not the right play. It kills a lot of potential plays.

Just through his sheer talent and physical gifts, I think he'll always be fairly productive. But for him to truly impose himself on a game, he needs to get past that mental block. For the Sens, I suspect the hope is that Brassard will fit better into their system given he is more in the mould of Turris and Pageau. But that will be up to Boucher.

Here's a post I made a while back that covers this topic- although I thought he needs to handle the puck less:

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=113622047&postcount=761

I see this as the best way for him to take advantage of his tools.

Sens get hosed. Would rather have a bigger, cheaper, younger and not yet in his prime Zimmy. Whatever Brassard was going to do in the NHL he did a couple years ago!

 

[Off Sides]

I actually would give decent odds that Brassard is poised to have a little better season than he did last year if he remains healthy and plays with the right players.

I think he broke through the barrier that many seem to feel Zibanejad is having trouble with.

 

[SpezDispenser]

Posts like this are ridiculous. I'm a Rangers fan and I'm pretty happy with the deal, and I loved Brassard. But to say either team got hosed is crazy. On paper, maybe it looks better for the Rangers, but Ottawa will be very happy with Brass as long as he continues to play like he has the past 2+ seasons.

Only way it will look "bad" for Ottawa is if Zib reaches his full potential in the next year or two and becomes a 70+ point top-line center.

Agreed, that's why I was making fun of the poster. And to be honest, even if Zib becomes a 70 point C, I think Ottawa would take that gamble with Colin White and Logan Brown coming up. For the Rangers, they take a small risk with ZBad not realizing his potential, but augment that with the 2nd. Winners all around.

 

[MarkMessyay11]

Agreed, that's why I was making fun of the poster. And to be honest, even if Zib becomes a 70 point C, I think Ottawa would take that gamble with Colin White and Logan Brown coming up. For the Rangers, they take a small risk with ZBad not realizing his potential, but augment that with the 2nd. Winners all around.

Yeah I didn't mean yours was ridiculous...the one you were responding to was. And Even if Zib stays at ~50 points and plays solid defense, I'm happy. We needed to get younger and cheaper, and acquired a top 50-60 draft pick in the process. It's the exact deal the Rangers needed to make this offseason.

 

[Mckay]

I don't get this at all from the Sens POV.

It's simple. Sens pay Brassard 3.5 mill a year for the next 3 years in real dollars... since they are not a cap team, they don't care about the hit.

Zibanejad was about to get a hefty raise, so they get someone to replace him and save real dollars in the process.

 

[Sensinitis]

It's simple. Sens pay Brassard 3.5 mill a year for the next 3 years in real dollars... since they are not a cap team, they don't care about the hit.

Zibanejad was about to get a hefty raise, so they get someone to replace him and save real dollars in the process.

The Sens also acquired a left handed center (a big need)

As well as a playmaking top 6 C (a big need)

As well as a veteran (a big need)

As well as a playoff performer (a big need)