There’s been no shortage of days over the past two decades where hockey fans have watched what’s gone on in other sports – namely basketball – and asked “Wait, why can’t the NHL get frisky with player movement like that?”The expansion draft prompted some pre-emptory positioning trades -- a la Jared McCann to the Leafs -- and the reality of that onrushing pressure point encouraged more player movement in general.
It’s not at all impossible the kid has just found it, and is the real deal. That’s not why I bring any of that up at all. But his great play this past year was going to earn him an arbitration award of something like $3-4 million. And given the myriad goaltending options out there this summer, it’s quite likely that $3-4 million or a little more could buy you someone who’s a proven NHL starter or at least an established 1B.
I’m not sure I’ll ever understand how Seattle didn’t take deals like this , given everything they’re doing seems to be aimed at being good in a couple of years., and how if win-now were the plan you don’t pass on Vladimir Tarasenko and JVR and Carey Price. If it isn’t the plan, then the Gostisbhere deal looks pretty good, and the return would be greater given Philly could’ve kept Twarynski.
When you own an NHL team and you’re debating keeping or firing a manager who’s underachieved for a number of years, you have to ask yourself: have I seen enough from them to believe that, with the pressure obviously on this person to make some big trades, are they going to make the right ones for the future of this franchise? Because honestly, this deal feels like Jim Benning recognizing “I know if we don’t make the playoffs and maybe even win a round next season I’m fired, so we have to go...
But they better, because the bill probably comes due down the line. If you’re Benning, that’s either something worth dealing with later, or someone else’s problem, so it’s clear why he’d make this move now. Whether he should’ve been in the job to make it or not, given the long-term implications of OEL’s cap hit and the draft pick capital lost, is another discussion.