I think I see at least part of Conroy's plan.
Defensemen take longer to develop than forwards. It's practically a trope at this point.
Load up on young prospect defensemen, and draft impact/high skill forwards that can play early.
It might work, too if Wolf turns out.
He's still building from the net out! Treliving 2.0!!!
I don't know if they truly valued him more than their 2024 first... that seems suspect. But at least maybe it means he's retained value as a second rounder?
Basically two seconds for Tanev which ain't bad. It's barely off the floor of expectations, didn't hit the hope for an overpay. Seems fair.
That clip I saw of him makes me hate the trade less but it still looks like Conroy is having trouble maximizing value from his assets. His returns haven't been terrible but they aren't anything to be excited over.
That being said, if Grushnikov can reach his potential he will easily become a fan favorite.
I dunno. I think you have to realize that the Stars needed double retention to fit him in. They have 2 mil cap space left but that's obviously for other moves. It was suspected and known for a while that the cap space was too tight for many contending teams. Tanev return is fair, it's not a haul.
Unless the above tweet is true and we got basically a 1st + 2nd... but nah. At this point, it's 2nd + 2nd at best IMO and initially it looked closer to a 2nd + 3rd, but with that same level of skepticism as Sharangovich for Toffoli.
Like if other teams have complex needs to get the deal to work for them AND are refusing to pay, not much we can do. Tanev is on a great contract AAV, but keep in mind, other teams needed Calgary to retain on Zadorov if the deal was going to work. I don't think it's as simple as "we will retain". There's more seemingly going on.
It's not the worse deal, but it is definitely a little underwhelming. Market sets the price though and I choose to believe this was the best they could do. Grushnikov is still a project and defenceman take a while to develop so it's alright.
I think it might not have been the best deal, but the one of the only deals close enough to completion, so Conroy pulled the trigger so he could focus on Hanifin. Similar idea to Zadorov.
With NJD's involvement, I also can't help but think they're hammering away at a concept to see if they can get it to work prior to the TDL, or if it's a concept they'd revisit in the off season. That's my guess.