Sherman's Got Trading Problems

I think he is just making this more into his team. Plus, more people get to go bye bye when the team sucks.

It does make some sense to me that trades would be up during a rebuild phase. I mean, if you’re a solid team, you wouldn’t likely want to shake up the team too much.

I wouldn’t call our team solid, in particular last season. Most of his trades are for people he thinks can jump out and I really don’t think the majority were that bad. Are we all of a sudden forgetting the Peter Mueller and Tomas Fleischmann trades. While they didn’t quite pan out, both of them were looking absolutely spectacular until their injuries, which you really in reality could not have 100% predicted. Of course these trades are marred by some just ok trades (Johnson + McClem for Stewart + Shatty and some picks) and some downright bad ones (see above with Liles and Bumwick) but in the end he really is as good as he is bad. Basically he’s average.

How many of the trades were out of necessity from injuries?

RoB, Flash, EJ, Andy (sort of). The Belle trade was really for depth as were a few others. I see this year as a bit of an aberration but I think the absurd rash of injuries and possible team chemistry caused a few more.

What we lost:

• #32, #47, #63, #77 and 2012 fourth round pick (#71 and #109 were washes because they were traded after we got them)
• Two decent #3-4 defenseman on a good team that weren’t in the Av’s long term plans (Hannan and Liles), promising but small defenseman with 2 more like him still in the system (Shattenkirk), and a young defenseman with possible character issues (Cohen), and another young prospect that hasn’t cracked an NHL roster even though he’s 23 (Montgomery).
• A .883 PPG winger with both a mean streak and the ability to turn invisible (Stewart), a center prospect out of an already log-jammed middle (Bounival), and a guy who DIDN’T score 50 points this season (Hensick)
• A goalie that possibly had character/work ethic issues (Anderson)

What we gained:

• #11 (Siemens – probably future core player), #49 (Pickard – possible goalie of the future), and #95 (Silas – solid defensive prospect), 2012 second round pick
• Our cornerstone #1 blueliner (EJ), a guy that added a ton of size to our blue line and will be a #3-6 defenseman in the long run (O’Byrne), a PMD that looked somewhat maybe okay at the end of the season (Hunwick), and a veteran defenseman for LEM and injury fill in for the Avs later in the season (Belle).
• A .995 PPG winger that may or may not be re-signed because of an unforeseeable lung concussion (Fleischmann), really solid bottom 6er who can hit and score (Winnik), a defensive and experienced bottom 6 defensive center (McClement), and the second-leading scorer on the Monster’s team (Talbot, 45pts in 77 games)
• A warm body to stick in net and help us get #2 (Elliott, Landeskog)

Even though some of the trades might have been a bit fishy, overall, I think we did just fine this year. Sherman did the best he could when his team was falling apart (somewhat literally), and overall, he probably brought us 3 core players (EJ, Seimens, Pickard), added size to our future blueline (EJ, Siemens, O’Byrne, Silas), and got us a few other pretty decent players that helped fill in while our team was super concussed (Flash, EJ, O’Byrne, Winnik, McClement, Hunwick, Belle). It might have been extreme, but overall, not too shabby IMO. We’ll see what player we snag with the 2012 second. Maybe the trade for Liles won’t be so bad after all.

I thought most of the trades were pretty good last year. getting a big tough player for a prospect that might not ever make the team is a pretty good trade. Stewart for Johnson was a good trade. We had no one that was a close number 1 or 2 guy, but we had a few top 6 guys. We had the Shats and JMAC trade that was also involved, and it is too early to say one way or another (although I really think STL are coming out of that like bandits). Hanna for Flash was a great trade for us but unlucky. Cohen for Hunwick we got an NHL’er and they got a mouthy kid who might be more problematic then value. Hunwick can also bring in some trade value, for some unknown reason.

Ignoring the draft trades, you see

-Mules and Porter for WW. Would have been a clear win had Mules worn his anti-concussion bucket.
-Bournival for O’Byrne. Traded from strength to address a need. Good.
-Cohen for Hunwick. Unnecessary deal that brought in an unnecessary player who never fit in. Luckily all we lost was some asshole with a mythical “shot” and needing so bad to hit people he leaves the whole ice wide open.
-Hannan for Flesichmann. Both sides would have won this one if the concussions had just gone to bother Carolina or something.
-EJ, JMac, (Siemens) for CGDS/GDCS, Shatty, whoever Stl took in the second round. This was a size upgrade on the blueline, and while I’ll root for Shatty in the future he was ultimately replaceable. (Why we traded FOR and then re-signed a shittier version of him remains a mystery.) Veteran presence added and former #1 pick d-man. I miss CGDS, I do NOT miss GDCS.
-Liles for half a leftover sandwich. Gross deal dude. Gross gross gross. Lose a veteran D-man, but hey, the Leafs replaced Kaberle, so there’s that. If that 2nd rounder next year turns out to be a stud so be it, but I still think Styphen Barriot would have benefited from Liles’ presence.
-Anderson for Elliott. Dude, is that really the best you could do?

Unless I’m missing something, this is basically a wash IMO. Runs the gamot from “win” to “errbody win” to “wtf, hosed.”

All in all, I am fine with the trades that Sherm has done. Sure, a couple of them are mysterious, but I give the brass the benefit of the doubt. Once the decision was made, they got what they could for JML.

Oh well. Lets see how this starts to shape up next year.

Fucking prophetic.