Wow, that Frolik debate is running in circles... anyway,
Honestly, for me it is.
In the case of Carle, I don't believe that it makes sense to spend the assets to acquire him when I don't think his upgrade on Chariot is that high. He's an upgrade, but I just don't see enough of one to justify the costs. Plus, he's making 5.5 million, and I don't think he's worth anywhere near that, so his contract hurts us big time IMO, both now and going forward. He'd be the 3rd highest paid player on the team, and I believe the oldest. At this stage, the Bolts are using him on the 3rd pair behind Hedman and Garrison. Not the direction I personally would want the Jets to go.
And this is in regards to a hypothetical Buff trade, where I think if the Jets do move him, have to turn him into a piece, or possibly pieces that could turn into part of the "core" moving forward. I don't see a guy like Carle or Smith as a big enough upgrade on Chariot (or Morrissey) to want to justify using a big trade chip like Buff on. I certainly wouldn't view them as core pieces. Neither of their teams do.
That's my thoughts though.
I completely understand what you're saying. However, there are two different aspects of a Byfuglien trade:
- first, we want to acquire a piece or multiple pieces that could turn into part of the "core" moving forward, as you write
- second, we need to make the cap work. Forgetting for a moment that the Flyers aren't interested in him, and not considering value, a trade along the likes of "Byfuglien for 1st + Sanheim" pretty much won't work with any team. I don't know whether there is a team which is the position to acquire a one-year-rental, while at the same time being able to acquire 5.2M cap while sending 0M cap back. We will take salary back. And we should ensure that it's a useful player coming back with the cap hit. No Clarkson, no Lecavalier. The player coming back should fulfill a need for the team. Our two main needs (let's forget about goaltending for a second, as that will only derail the discussion) are middle-six forwards and LHD who are upgrades on Chiarot/Stuart. Now, let's look at the main board trade offers I've posted:
DET: Darren Helm, Teemu Pulkkinen or Tomas Jurco, Brendan Smith
Here, the part of our future core is clearly Pulkkinen/Jurco. Helm is a 28yo third liner, filling our forward depth, returning some salary. Useful player, fills a need. Brendan Smith is the player which decides whether the offer is good or not. If you think he can be a part of the core, it's a pretty good offer. If you don't think so, and he's just a band-aid for our LHD depth, the offer it bad, because Pulkkinen/Jurco are nice, but not top-end prospects. Sure, I'd rather see Ouellet offered. Will it happen? I don't know.
TBL: Matt Carle, Vladislav Namestnikov, third round pick.
Part of the future core: Namestnikov. The salary band-aid coming back is definitely on the upper end of band-aids, and can stabilize our left side for quite some time to get Morrissey ready. Because it's such a good band-aid, we only get a third round pick as an add-on.
So, the question is what we want to come back as "part of the future core". We should be realistic here: We've seen
Yandle (50% retained), Summers (fringe player), 2016 4th
for
2016 1st, 2015 2nd, Duclair (good forward prospect with some red flag), John Moore (24yo Dman, third pairing today, maybe second pairing upside)
That's a (probably late) 2016 first, a late second, a Brendan-Smith-like band-aid roster player, and a forward prospect who's supposed to be a third-round steal, but who also struggled a bit this season, doesn't seem to score a lot in the QMJHL. And that was at the deadline (-> high value), for 1 year and the rest of 14/15 (-> as opposed to 1 year of Byfuglien). And 50% salary retention. Yandle had 41 points in 63 games for the Coyotes at that point (Byfuglien: 45 points in 69 games this season).
Honestly, we should stop asking for a top-10 pick, or top-end prospects, Byfuglien won't get that. Namestnikov, Jurco, Khokhlachev, Marincin. That's the tier of prospects we can get. NHL-ready, but still raw. Plus a useful roster player, and some add-on.