Has anyone considered the championship experience these Petes players garnered last season concerning these deals too? Beck, Mayer, Smith, a really difficult run and experience should be brought up a little I feel too, regardless of who is better and who is not!
Last season, Ottawa acquired the OHL Playoff MVP, arguably one of the top 2 or 3 centres in the league. They also added the CHL D-Man of the year, quite possibly the best player in the league. None of this is a recipe for guaranteed success. You need to address all of your gaps. Ottawa was young and needed one additional impact player up front but they stopped short. If a team like Sudbury needs multiple players but can only acquire Beck and then have a difficult time acquiring additional players because of asset depletion, he may not be a good choice. Sudbury adding Beck will only keep them in a pack of 5-6 teams. Same with a bunch of other teams.
If you are a team like Hamilton two seasons ago and you are the top team hands down, you have the luxury of picking and choosing the players you acquire to take your team over the top. I don‘t see any team in the league this year that equates to Hamilton of 21-22. Each of the top teams have gaps.
Those teams need to first address their gaps. A couple of the teams have a big gap at centre where Beck would be the first choice BUT if they have multiple gaps and not enough assets to address their multiple gaps, Beck may not be the best choice even for those teams.
That is all I am saying. In a league that does not have a clear cut top team, not even a clear cut top 3, with so much parity and not a lot of elite talent overall, the top teams mostly need multiple players if they want to separate themselves from the pack. It is hard to acquire multiple players at multiple positions with one of them arguably costing half of your disposable assets or more.
I don’t feel Beck is head and shoulders above his contemporaries like Ludwinski, at least not enough to pay the added freight (assuming the trade proposals presented are accurate).
I don’t feel we are adequately providing value for a player like Ludwinski or Guindon. It is a wasted conversation if it is all about the team that gets Beck is in the drivers seat. It simply is not true.