League News: 2023 NHL Trade Deadline Thread

[Corby78]

There is also the question, does Wilson want to stay for a rebuild?

After Ovie? I wouldn’t keep him for that, I would get what I could for him because he may not be a part of the next good team once Ovie is done. Thinking around 3-4 years from now

 

[RandyHolt]

Sing it: Don't want no short stick PK man.

 

[DWGie26]

I think Wilson loves this team. And i think the Caps want him to be there next Captain and face of the franchise. You are going to need one So why not Wilson.

Rebuilds are painful and take a long time. I hope we can buck that trend with a process retool. It’s already happening pretty significantly. We have some good young talent but no great talent. We are going to have to figure out a way to close that gap.

I feel good about the young retooled defense and with Chelsey coming up in 2 years, we’ll be solid and young. Forward situation is going to take a couple of years with Oshie, Backstrom, and OV there.

 

[kicksavedave]

What if Wilson himself doesn't want to spend the rest of his career on forever rebuilding Caps team?

if a player doesn't want to stay, you move him. I see no evidence if this yet so its pure speculation and something that can be dealt with when and only if, it happens.

Besides, Wilson is married now so it's entirely up to his wife anyway

 

[The Consiglieri]

Can't believe I have to explain this, but I'll try. Most everyone we traded has a future value to this team of almost nothing - because they were a UFA who was not in the plans (Eller) or who was not willing to re-sign for what we offered (Orlov). With the exception of Orlov, everyone we traded was essentially, easily replaceable with similar impact, at lower cap hits. We can find another Hathaway and another Eller (Strome?) For swapping out Orlov for Sandin, we got a player back at a cheaper rate who has similar overall upside/impact, but who is younger and cheaper. So all those trades were made with the idea that, this isn't a total rebuild, its a retool on the fly sort of thing. For better or worse, this is the hand that BMac is forced to play - largely because Ted made a commitment to Ovi not to blow it completely up while he's still competitive for 895. So the idea was generally to keep players who have long term value that would exceed their short term return. Lets say we traded Kuzy (everyone wants that), the return would likely NOT be a player who makes a better impact today, it would likely have been picks/prospects who would take several years to make any impact, leaving a massive hole to fill, thus the team gets significantly worse now. Trading out the core players who have term signals that we just don't care about next year, we are "rebuilding" and it will be several years before we see any benefit from the trades. That simply wasn't going to happen, yet.

With regards to Wilson, he's simply irreplaceable in terms of his impact vs age and term and cost. Sure, he might fetch 2 1sts and a prospect... but no one who wants WIlson will send us back a player who fills the hole he leaves behind. So sending Wilson out for a haul is a clear sign that we are fully rebuilding and everyone is going. The simple fact is that even during a full rebuild, a small chunk of core players stay around because they are so valuable that its nearly impossible to replace them with picks or prospects. Wilson is the only guy not named Ovi for who that applies.

I'd be sad to see Oshie go, but I know his runway to help this team is essentially finished so I'd be OK if he was dealt. I'd be fine with moving on from Backstrom, or Carlson, because they are overpriced for what they deliver. Whatever they fetch will provide more value tomorrow one way or another (immediate help, high picks, or contributing prospects at greatly reduced salary. Those players leaving would not create a hole that is unfillable. Tom Wilson is not in that category. He should be here, wearing the C, when the rebuild starts in earnest.

Lets all face it, as long as Ovi is here we're not blowing it all up, we're just going to tinker and try to balance his chase with being competitive. We may not like it, but we have to face it, that's where we are. Ovi and WIlson are the only players who are untouchable because they are irreplaceable.

So the long answer is, no I don't think we can contend like this, but we can be entertaining and give Ovi a shot at 895. We haven't been a contender since 2018 and that was, apparently, just a f***ing fluke anyway.

Thanks, appreciate your thoughts on the topic.

Not that you need it, but the reasoning is sound, I just don't see the point in keeping our most valuable pieces in house when this iteration of the team is never going to win anything. But I can understand your pov on it, I just feel differently about what should be done when the door closes (I keep glue guys that won't fetch much but are good teachers for kiddos, I don't keep assets that can garner a strong haul in return that can double or triple our bullets available to hit in prospects to build with via the draft or via the other teams farm system).

I get that you're exasperated by the question, it's basically on point with my level of exasperation w/people that are fine with irrelevancy in terms of the cup. I prefer to contend, or rebuild, I don't like the topside and underside of .500 w/no hope. I get that you don't agree w/my philosophy and that's fine. You're winning this argument, at least in the short term anyway, they aren't making any major moves until likely the '24-'25 season after Ovy presumably takes the goal record so you can rest easy.

For me, I've seen this story with the redskins and boulez, and I'd prefer not to endure it w/every DC team save the Nats, but that's the reality, a hopeless middle ground.

Because you still need winners and tone setters. Wilson can do anything on the ice and play whatever game and lead by example, same way Oshie did/has.

Caps don’t do themselves favors when they clear all those guys, they become Anaheim. Or the Redskins, as you’ve put it, letting guys like Chase Young start counting their chickens before putting the real work in.

Every single veteran player isn’t that but you should isolate and keep some, and Wilson has been one for the Caps for some time now. They aren’t cooked enough to go that scorched earth yet

There are vets that can do this to me who carry less trade value. I'd rather keep them and trade away the pieces w/the most value on the market.

I will say at this point: #1 they are highly unlikely to make any of these deals until spring '24 (and more likely spring '25) anyway and #2 to be legit effective these moves needed to have happened years ago when the assets carried far more trade value. At this point all of them carry far less value than they had 2, 3, 4 years ago so i's mostly a moot point. The rebuild will be a very difficult one as a result and probably take twice as long, and may not work either due to the lack of assets coming back that could have.

 

[Ovi895]

What can Blues fans expect from Vrana if he’s playing at 100% ??

I’ve seen him play some obviously but not a ton.

diet Gaborik

 

[Ovi895]

There is also the question, does Wilson want to stay for a rebuild?

He's the type of player that generally falls off a cliff in his 30s but teams still overpay for them. Look at both the Lucic trade to LA and his signing with Edmonton, not even looking at Ladd or Clarkson. Wilson knows it too so he's gonna hold out for the biggest contract he can get

Hopefully they capitalize on his value around the league and get a Tanner Jeannot ++ return while signing some Brooks Orpik type to keep the lights on instead.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Locking this. We can move the conversations to the appropriate threads.