It's hard to judge the Spezza trade right now, but when I see a trade go down, I think to myself "I wonder what percentage of NHL GMs would have hypothetically made that same trade?". I find it hard to believe that a majority wouldn't. Let's face it: we got what right now is realistically a 3rd line power-winger, two very low-level prospects and a 2nd. That's like us giving up Greening a few years ago, Buddy Robinson, David Dziurzynski and a 2nd for a player of Spezza's calibre. The only risk Dallas left on the table was his salary (which is pretty easy on the wallet) and him not signing next year. Ottawa on the other hand; lost their greatest movable asset. Right now, at this time, that trade is looking like a giveaway. Instead of 'here Nashville, have our centre depth from the 2007 NHL playoffs', it's 'here Dallas, have most of our first line from last year for peanuts.'
I gotta disagree with this. Yeah Paul and Guptill are of similar value to Dizzy and Buddy, but Chiasson's ceiling is much, much higher than that of Greenings. Chiasson produced exactly what Greening did at 22 vs when Greening was 25/26.
I'm a bit shocked by those comparisons
Alex Guptill compares to Buddy Robinson? I haven't seen anywhere that Robinson has potential top-line talent, let alone top-6 talent... Just because Guptill is just out of college and is not a very popular player doesn't mean he is crap. I don't put a lot of stock on HF grades, but Robinson is a 6.0 C and Guptill is a 7.0 C.
Last year, Guptill was #11 in HF Stars prospects rankings (Chiasson was 3rd after Nichushkin and Oleksiak). He would have been much higher in their pool this year, just because of graduations and natural progression, as well as others regressing (example Faksa). Another thing to note is that the Dallas pool is ranked 9th on HF while the Sens pool is ranked #19 actually (not that I put a lot of stock in that but in case some do)
Buddy Robinson was just voted our 22nd best prospect, who is also almost 1 year older than Guptill who took the long College route and just turned pro (only 5 AHL games). I would wait and see what he does at the pro level before comparing them
Now David Dziurzynski, who will turn 25 y/o when the season begins... How does he compare to Nick Paul who was a 2013's draftee and just turned 19 y/o? And Paul was a 4th round pick. He has upgraded his value tremendously this year, going from a 28 pts (12 goals) season to a 46 pts season (26 goals). But that's not where he made the most noise. He had an excellent playoffs run with North Bay, scoring 12 goals and 18 points in 22 games as well as leading his team to become the Eastern Conference Champions. Not only that, he did make even more noise in Team Canada's World Junior Camp. Have you ever heard of the term "late riser"? That might be the case with Paul
David Dziurzynski was voted our #26th best prospect last year, last time he was eligible to be a prospect. Paul was voted #16th on our pool not long ago, despite not many knowing him and that our pool is better and deeper that HF is making it seem.
Finally, in relation to the first quote.
Greening + Robinson + Dziurzynski + 2nd
vs
Chiasson + Guptill + Paul + 2nd
Every single of the 3 first Dallas pieces is much better than what you are saying in comparison and it's not even close. Also, Greening's actual value on this board is biased. He had a bad season and he is about to earn much more money. Before extending, he had quite some value in people's eyes (so you're right saying a few years ago). Chiasson in comparison had a solid rookie season (not playing on a 1st line with Spezza and Michalek in a career year) and has been in Dallas top-5 prospects (regarded as high as Brett Ritchie is now) for a few years, while Greening was a 7th round pick and came out of nowhere. And there's also that ability thing, which is not even close in Chiasson's favor
For anything, Spezza could score 27 pts in 36 games and be injured all year, and then sign a contract with another team on July 1st... Then stupid HF will declare the Sens clear-cut winners of this deal? We only lost 1 year of Spezza.
So what do you prefer :
Spezza plays one more year in Ottawa in a non-contending season
or
We get 1 present and 3 future assets AND the budget space to sign David Legwand to a sweetheart 2 years deal
That is the right question to ask, and forget "we could have traded Spezza at the deadline"... He could have simply been injured or the Sens too close to the playoffs to trade him
