Confirmed Trade: [NYR/OTT] Rangers trade Vlad Namestnikov ($750k retained) to Senators for Nick Ebert, '21 4th

Samsquanch

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Im waiting to see the bad in this guy, but I havent yet. Seems like a really humble ands nice dude off the ice too.

Weve seen this story so many times before; a promising young player gets traded for the first time, and for whatever reason they dont fit in with their new team, and end up losing all of their confidence. Its ruined and/or stalled many once promising players and their development. But sometimes after the next time they get traded we see a resurgence, and they get back on track and start trending the right way again.

Namestnikov is definitely capable of regaining his form, hes still young enough, and could end up being a real hidden gem. Hes a former 1st round pick that was doing absolutely everything right, was always trending upwards, and he eventually worked his way up through the minors and onto the 1st line of a very deep team. And then he was traded, and everything went off of the rails for him.

Time will tell if his career trajectory in Tampa was a mirage or not, but through 2 games Im seeing a high quality NHL player that seems to have found a new lease on life, and a great fit with the Sens.
 
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bernmeister

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Jun 11, 2010
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Im waiting to see the bad in this guy, but I havent yet. Seems like a really humble ands nice dude off the ice too.

Weve seen this story so many times before; a promising young player gets traded for the first time, and for whatever reason they dont fit in with their new team, and end up losing all of their confidence. Its ruined and/or stalled many once promising players and their development. But sometimes after the next time they get traded we see a resurgence, and they get back on track and start trending the right way again.

Namestnikov is definitely capable of regaining his form, hes still young enough, and could end up being a real hidden gem. Hes a former 1st round pick that was doing absolutely everything right, was always trending upwards, and he eventually worked his way up through the minors and onto the 1st line of a very deep team. And then he was traded, and everything went off of the rails for him.

Time will tell if his career trajectory in Tampa was a mirage or not, but through 2 games Im seeing a high quality NHL player that seems to have found a new lease on life, and a great fit with the Sens.

not sorry to see him go, cap space is mo valuable.
That said, wish him well.
In some cases maturity is a factor but usually, IMO, it is chemistry, which is often unique to each situation.

He obviously had chem w/top guys in Tampa, but not in NY.
Inexplicably, he may be okay w/lesser Fs elsewhere.
 

Do Make Say Think

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not sorry to see him go, cap space is mo valuable.
That said, wish him well.
In some cases maturity is a factor but usually, IMO, it is chemistry, which is often unique to each situation.

He obviously had chem w/top guys in Tampa, but not in NY.
Inexplicably, he may be okay w/lesser Fs elsewhere.

Getting traded from Tampa to a rebuilding New York probably felt like a kick in the balls and he never recovered.

He gets a real chance to earn his next contract in Ottawa and Russians thrive when they aren't isolated: we have four of them so it probably helps elevate them. That being said, he isn't your typical Russian in that he grew up in the US.

A classic win-win trade. Interestingly, our GM said he had been trying to make the trade for a while and had expected to get it done before the season started.
 

TGWL

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Good for him. He wasnt going to get big opportunities here in NY. Maybe he can impress them and get better opportunities there.
 

swiftwin

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Even if he turns it around in Ottawa, that doesn't mean it was a bad trade for NYR because he wasn't going to turn it around there. So it could be a win-win-win where Names gets his game in order, Ottawa gets a decent player and NYR get cap savings on a guy who wasn't working there.

If you make that argument about Names, then the Sens can say the same about Zibanejad.
 

AndreRoy

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Jan 3, 2018
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Im waiting to see the bad in this guy, but I havent yet. Seems like a really humble ands nice dude off the ice too.

He is a good guy, and was very popular both in the locker room and among the Lightning fanbase. Wasn’t fun watching him tear the Bolts up the other day but I think most of us wish Russian Bieber well in Ottawa.
 

AndreRoy

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Im waiting to see the bad in this guy, but I havent yet.

Dudes a smart player, not sure why people say he has low hockey iq? He was all over the ice, has sweet hands and vision.

A couple things that you’ll notice with time:

First, he’s not great at split-second decision making with the puck on his stick. A typical offensive contribution from him in Tampa was to possess the puck, bring it into the offensive zone, send a quick pass to somebody like Kucherov on the perimeter, and then find an open spot from which to receive a pass if the goalie and the defense overcommit to the threat posed by Kuch. That stuff he does quite well; what he’s not so good at is Kucherov’s role in this scenario, which is to attack the net and to make the decision whether to shoot the puck himself or pass it to somebody in a better position to make a shot. Which is why I said Vladdy makes a good complementary player on a scoring line but is not a guy to drive the offense himself.

Second, while he certainly doesn’t lack for heart, he’s a scrawny player and light on his skates, and against a physical team (and especially in the playoffs) you’ll see him get pushed around and knocked off the puck a lot. Most of the shorter players that you see excel in the NHL have ridiculous leg strength for their size, and even if they won’t be laying very many hits themselves they have the ability to absorb them without getting blown up all the time. Well Vladdy’s not short, but he’s weak and easier to push around than a lot of guys shorter than him. He’s got guts and doesn’t shy away from a physical game - he just doesn’t have the capacity for it.

So like I said, there’s a lot of good to Vlad’s game, but if you’re wondering what keeps him from becoming more than he is those are a couple examples of his weaknesses.
 

Shootertooter

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Feb 20, 2016
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Even if he turns it around in Ottawa, that doesn't mean it was a bad trade for NYR because he wasn't going to turn it around there. So it could be a win-win-win where Names gets his game in order, Ottawa gets a decent player and NYR get cap savings on a guy who wasn't working there.

I agree. He had no future in NY and wasn't going to get important minutes.
Every dog has his day. He'll score a few points and then frustrate you when he doesn't.....he should have more of an impact in his play and be a more consistent player than he is.
 

Shootertooter

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If you make that argument about Names, then the Sens can say the same about Zibanejad.

I think the caliber of player is the major difference here.
Names is not close to being a budding star or player who can carry the offense like Zib.
Ott. gave up on Zibanejad way too early. It was a bad trade for them.
 
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swiftwin

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Are you really comparing what Zibanejad did in his last year in Ottawa to what Names did last season? LOLOL

Are you saying Zibanejad would have been as good as he is today had he stayed in Ottawa? No need to get all defensive.
 

swiftwin

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I think the caliber of player is the major difference here.
Names is not close to being a budding star or player who can carry the offense like Zib.
Ott. gave up on Zibanejad way too early. It was a bad trade for them.

Both were players with potential who got unloaded for not living up to their potential, and salary/cap considerations. Yeah, Zibanejad is obviously a different caliber, but the return the Sens got was also much much bigger than Namestnikov.
 

Barnaby

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I wouldn’t call this at all reminiscent of the Zibby deal. Top 6 center who performed well in the playoffs, and a 2nd for Zibanejad who was more risk/reward.

This is a lot more like the Rangers trade for McQuaid with Boston. Rangers took on some money bringing in a capable pro in return for mid picks. The intention seemed to be to flip him at the deadline for a better pick or picks. It didn’t really work out that way, but I think this deal easily could for both parties.

Namestnikov was a good pro. He just wasn’t a good fit on this Ranger team. I hope he can recoup his game with you guys. I think he could be a useful 3rd liner.
 

BurgoShark

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I think the caliber of player is the major difference here.
Names is not close to being a budding star or player who can carry the offense like Zib.
Ott. gave up on Zibanejad way too early. It was a bad trade for them.
Ottawa didn’t give up in Zibanejad. They traded away a player who had a bad attitude. His on ice performance/development was fine.
 

ICanMotteBelieveIt

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We lost this trade in terms of value. But I'm not even mad at it, I'm just happy he gets a fresh new start with another team. I hope he does well, even if it means we made a "bad" trade.

Who knows what happened behind closed doors, maybe he wanted out and Rangers promised him that they'd send him somewhere he'll get more ice-time.

Similar with Toronto trading Leivo.

Either way I hope he does well. He seems like a nice guy!

We owed Ottawa a win. I mean we got Zibanejad for Brassard.
 

Shootertooter

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Feb 20, 2016
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We lost this trade in terms of value. But I'm not even mad at it, I'm just happy he gets a fresh new start with another team. I hope he does well, even if it means we made a "bad" trade.

Who knows what happened behind closed doors, maybe he wanted out and Rangers promised him that they'd send him somewhere he'll get more ice-time.

Similar with Toronto trading Leivo.

Either way I hope he does well. He seems like a nice guy!

We owed Ottawa a win. I mean we got Zibanejad for Brassard.

I guess it is all how one values the "return"
3.25M in cap relief is a pretty decent return for a
guy who had no real future in their organization,
especially when you consider NY was close to the cap.
They gain flexibility, which could turn out to be invaluable moving forward
They also got a marginal AHL player and a mid pick.
That seems like gravy. I think both teams are happy with the outcome.
I think for NY, this is addition by subtraction.
 

Shootertooter

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Feb 20, 2016
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Ottawa didn’t give up in Zibanejad. They traded away a player who had a bad attitude. His on ice performance/development was fine.

I haven't heard anything regarding his bad attitude. I heard Ott. took issue with his DJ'ing and questioned his dedication to hockey.........when he was 19. At the time, with the emergence of Pageau, that pushed Zib to 3C and they opted to send him to Binghampton instead......... it might be easy to assume a player could become disenfranchised with that.

There are plenty of people and beat writers in NY pushing for him to become the next captain. I'm not necessarily doubting an attitude issue way back when, but that obviously hasn't been the case as he has matured. Again the quality of players involved make the Names trade very different from the Ziba one.
 

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