Pharrand would be pricy, for sure; like a handful of fan bases thinking they could acquire Ride at a reasonable cost.
I think you would need to quantify that statement. The issue is that what is pricey for one person is cheap for another.
I’ve stated that if you want a solid OA at the deadline, the market is set at around a 2nd, 3rd, and 5th. If you want a super elite OA, the market is set at two 2nds, two 3rds, and two 4ths. If you want an elite 19 year old, look at the Rehkopf and Barlow deals and you get a sense of where that market is. These ones are relatively easy. No matter if the market is a buyer or seller market, these prices remain around the same.
Where is gets more sketchy is that 2nd and 3rd tier player. I pointed to Foster. GU pointed to Pharand. These are guys that hand around .75 to 1.00 points per game. They are solid players but fall into the complementary category. They don’t drive their lines but when you put them with good players, they perform very well. This is the tier of player that is heavily affected by supply and demand come the deadline.
It is my opinion that if you have 4 teams in each conference buying and two teams in each conference remaining status quo, that leaves 8 teams buying and eight teams selling. Of the eight teams selling, only four of them have players other teams want. That creates a situation where that team with second tier players start nudging the prices up more than normal.
I am not exactly sure where this market is right now but I see London, Erie, Saginaw, Windsor, Brampton, Barrie, OShawa, and Kingston as buyers. I see Kitchener and Brantford as status quo teams. Potentially SSM and Flint join those two teams in the status quo category. This is where it gets interesting. I see Sudbury and Niagara as potential buyers. If that happens, all of a sudden, the teams that are potential sellers shrinks dramatically. The Petes have nothing to buy. They aren’t in the conversation. That leaves Ottawa and North Bay in the East as the sellers. They join Guelph, OS, and Sarnia as potential sellers.
This sets up as a very tight market this year. Of course, some of those teams like Kitchener, Sudbury, and Saginaw could end up selling. Who knows? This is why the deadline may be very interesting.
