Hey I mean that's all great, just keep repeating "Adam Larsson is a first pairing defenceman." to help you sleep at night. I did the same for half a season with Dougie Hamilton
.
I don't even think the trade is that awful, Hall being the million dollar talent with a ten dollar brain. Doesn't change the fact that Chia just put his hopes for fixing a blueline that's been in disarray for 10 years on a 23 year old with a career high of 24 pts. Just kind of seems like half measures to me when a Weber or Subban were apparently on the market, ridiculous package or not. Now if he can get a Shattenkirk or Barrie back there as well I'll retract all criticism and applaud the bald moves.
I actually kind of respect Chia for taking a big swing at it with this and the Lucic signing, more than the last couple clowns did anyway.
Hmmm... not sure you read my post that closely. Especially where I said:
And most others (incl many cautious Oiler fans) are saying he's more of a 2nd pairing guy with an outside shot at a #2.
My point was that the expected return for Hall was a current #2D (all else, contract $$, length, etc being equal).
If you ask NJ fans, that's what we got...
More cautiously (that's where I am): What we got was a 2nd pairing D on a cheaper contract, signed for longer, still with #2 upside.
ON PAPER Chia definitely got a notch down that what was expected or fair... though those that said the desperation would pull the value down a notch expected that too.
And no... it's not half measures when:
1) there is no indication that Weber was available for anything other than a top-10 Dman in the league... we don't have one of those
2) All indications are that Subban was on the market and that Chia was trying to make it work... rumored package as ALOT... Drai or Hall + Klefbom or Nurse + #4. Are you saying that was a better option for us? To eviscerate Drai + #4OA just to upgrade from Klefbom to Subban? Yikes!
As for how I sleep at night... I'm a lot more comfortable with this:
Lucic McD Eberle
Pouliot RNH Pulju
Maroon Drai Yak
Klef xxx
Sekera Larsson
Davidson Fayne
Than I would be with:
Maroon McD Eberle
Hall RNH XXX
Pouliot XXX Yak
XXX Subban
Sekera XXX
Davidson Fayne
In the former situation we have only Larsson and Fayne playing a notch above their current abilities. In the latter we have a lot more holes to fill and limited cap space to do it... Subban would be nice, but we don't have the depth to compensate.
FINAL IMPORTANT POINT: Chia said in his presser that there was a reason the trade had to happen on the day that it did... several hours after Hall was traded, MTL for Weber happened. My take was Montreal informed him that they were going another way with Subban... maybe NSH/MTL took a little longer notifying players and making it public. If Chia waits longer, Shero can extract even more from him.