Here are all the transactions I could find for the past three years involving top four dmen, prospects projected to be top four dmen, or guys who had flirted with top 4 or had been top 4 but were starting to fade. This list goes back to our Kesler trade. I included a few of the big blockbuster type trades that were for bona fide #1 dmen just to have them on the list for comparison's sake. Feel free to highlight all of the deals you think are young top four of comparable talent to Vatanen on good contracts bringing in a good return. I think the discrepancy I have with what you are saying, and the point I was trying to make a few posts ago, is that you think this is a sellers market, and I think this list is more indicative of there being NO market. Too many teams are stuck with cap issues and every team knows the way you win is by developing your own talent, so teams opt to make cheaper deals for lesser players rather than swing the blockbuster trade of a good young player for a good young player. When that does happen, it tends to be for top line talent or top pairing talent, not middle six F or middle pairing D type guys.
Scandella and Pominville for Foligno and Ennis
Methot for Dylan Ferguson, 2nd Round pick in 2020
Hamonic for 1st and 2nd in 2018, conditional 2nd in 2019/20
Deangelo and 7th overall in 2017 for Stepan and Raanta
Hjalmarsson for Connor Murphy and Laurent Dauphin
Sergachev and 2nd round in 2018 for Drouin
Oduya for Mark McNeill and a 4th in 2018
Brendan Smith for a 2nd and 3rd in 2017
Ron Hainsey for Danny Kristo and 2nd rounder in 2017
Michael Stone for 3rd rounder in 2017 and conditional 5th in 2018
P.K. Subban for Shea Weber
Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson
Deangelo for 2016 2nd round pick
Kulikov and 2nd round pick in 2016 for Mark Pysyk, 2nd and 3rd round pick in 2016
Keith Yandle for 6th round pick in 2016, conditional 4th round pick in 2017
Alex Goligoski for 5th round pick in 2016
Erik Gudbranson and 5th round pick in 2016 for Jared McCann, 2nd, and 4th in '16
John Michael Liles for Anthony Camara, 3rd and 5th in 2017
Kris Russell for Jokipakka, Pollock, 2nd rounder in 2016
Justin Schultz for 3rd round pick in 2016
Jakub Kindl for 6th round pick in 2016
Roman Polak and Nick Spaling for 2nd round in 2017, 2nd in 2018, Raffi Torres
Dion Phaneuf and bunch of minor leaguers for cap dumps and 2nd rounder in 2017
Ryan Johansen for Seth Jones
Kevin Bieksa for 2nd round pick in 2016
Griffin Reinhart for 1st in 2015, 2nd in 2015 (terrible trade)
Dougie Hamilton for 1st in 2015 and two 2nds in 2015
Wisniewski and 3rd rounder in 2015 for Karlsson, Bourque, 2nd in 2015
Simon Despres for Ben Lovejoy
Marek Zidlicky for conditional draft picks in 2016
Zbynek Michalek and conditional 3rd in 2015 for Maxin Letunov
Jeff Petry for 2nd rounder in 2015 and conditional 5th in 2015
Braydon Coburn for Radko Gudas, conditional 1st in 2015, 3rd in 2015
Yandle, Summers, and 4th in 2016 for Duclair, John Moore, 2015 2nd and 2016 1st
Kimmo Timonen for 2nd in 2015, conditional 4th in 2016
Andrej Sekera for Roland McKeown and conditional 1st
Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli for Olli Jokinen, Brendan Leipsic, 1st in 2016
Kane, Bogosian, Kasdorf for Myers, Stafford, Armia, Lemieux, 1st in 2015
Eric Brewer for 3rd rounder in 2015
Brendan Dillon for Jason Demers and 3rd rounder in 2016
Nick Leddy and Kent Simpson for T.J. Brennan, Ville Pokka, Anders Nilsson
Johnny Boychuck for 2nd in 2015, 2nd in 2016, conditional 3rd in 2016
Brad Stuart for 2nd in 2016, 6th in 2017
Josh Gorges for 2nd in 2016
Roman Polak for Carl Gunnarsson and 4th in 2014
Jason Garrison, Jeff Costello, 7th rounder in 2015 for 2nd rounder in 2014
Ryan Kesler and 3rd in 2015 for Bonino, Sbisa, 1st in 2014 and 3rd in 2014
P.S. sorry for the long post