But you don't just get a hodge podge of prospects for two very good players! Grier right now is taking a page out of Loria when he managed the Expo's, except doing it for magic beans.
That's largely my point, I don't feel like that happened in either trade. I just explained how I feel they got a very good prospect in Mukhamadullin in the Meier trade, along with a 1st. In the Karlsson trade, getting out of 10mil for the next 4 years on a player that's only had one particularly good season in the past 3 years was the most important return in the trade. Even with taking on Hoffman and Granlund, that frees up 5.5mil next season and the full 10mil for the season after that. That's far from magic beans, IMO.
Risking that Karlsson starts off next season looking like he did the two years before last and possibly making it so no one would take his contract without paying them to do so also created a bit of deadline to get the deal done this summer. With how much is left on the contract, and how inconsistent Karlsson has been the past few years, not to mention injury prone, I am honestly a bit surprised that SJ managed to get a 1st for him, even with his monster season.
I'm not saying either are amazing trades -- I simply think they are both fine trades, and I don't see a big problem with either.
But Meier was an RFA (with arbitration rights), not a impending UFA, so Grier didn't need to rush to trade him at the deadline and settle. Meier was not a rental.
That's true, he wasn't 100% a rental, so, my bad there. But with a 10mil QO to retain his RFA rights, he was pretty close to one so I tended to think of him as being one at the time. Had SJ not traded him, they would likely lose his rights anyway because they likely weren't willing to offer that QO. They could have done club elected arbitration like Ottawa did with Debrincat, but look at how much Debrincat's value declined by Ottawa doing that. For a guy that over the last 2 years averaged 4 goals fewer and 1 point more than Meier per season, Sebrango was the best prospect they got back, and he spent a good portion of last season in the ECHL. And if you don't trade him at the lesser value or sign a UFA priced extension before arbitration, he gets a 1year deal that takes him straight to UFA. While that's not the worst option, there's a good chance it still drops his value a little, and God forbid if he gets injured next season before you can trade him. Not saying they couldn't have waited past the deadline, but that it would involve taking on more risk for what would most likely be a reduced return, so all the incentive for SJ is still on getting a deal done by the deadline. But it likely wouldn't have turned out as bad as the Vanek trade, so I certainly concede that was a poor comparison on my part.
And for any team that trades for him at the deadline, they're largely in the same position as if they'd traded for a UFA, where if they want to keep him, they largely need to sign him by Jul1. If they are willing to take him to club elected arbitration, doing so would at least give them some extra time to extend him, but forcing a player to go to arbitration can easily sour what's already a brand new relationship, so it would likely hurt the chances of extending him and possibly up the asking price. They could still elect for arbitration to retain a bit of value and trade him before the arbitration date or at least get an extra year of forced play from him. So I think it likely did help his value compared to a standard rental, but my guess is that it wasn't by a particularly significant amount, at least not to the point that Muk and a 1st should be considered a bad return.
