News Article: Trade Rumors: Elliotte Friedman Speculates on Potential Athanasiou Trade With Hurricanes

[Heaton]

How do you not see the issue.
It's plain as day.

You need to do more than have your scouts investigate.
You call up people close to the Carolina organization (Aaron Ward, for example) and find out what is going on.
Maybe they tell you this is puck luck.
Maybe they tell you he's been playing with an injury he'll get taken care of in the offseason.
Maybe they tell you something worse.
Or tell you nothing.

But this trade isn't nearly as automatic is people make it out to be.

If you think it is, you deserve it if it blows up in your face.

What do you think AA's ceiling is? 30 goals? 40 goals? 80 points? If he's just a 45-55 point guy, who cares? You can find them every year.

 

[Frk It]

How do you not see the issue.
It's plain as day.

You need to do more than have your scouts investigate.
You call up people close to the Carolina organization (Aaron Ward, for example) and find out what is going on.
Maybe they tell you this is puck luck.
Maybe they tell you he's been playing with an injury he'll get taken care of in the offseason.
Maybe they tell you something worse.
Or tell you nothing.

But this trade isn't nearly as automatic is people make it out to be.

If you think it is, you deserve it if it blows up in your face.

That's SOP for any GM with any trade. If he wasn't having a rough season, he wouldn't be available to begin with. I'm still going to favor the 224 game sample size over the 54 game sample size.

And please don't compare him to Weiss, who was 30, and was known to be coming off of surgery. Point me to the other defenseman whose game fell off a cliff at 25.

 

[Dotter]

He's 27th in points among D since 14-15. 30th in P/GP. Where he shines is the goalscoring (8th), but he's 36th in assists and has one of the worst +/- ratings of all NHL d-men during that time.
Yeah, I'd say he has one season so far where he's really worth the hype. The timing to me is off here, again unless it's AA straight up for Faulk and we're doing it because AA has indicated he doesn't want to re-sign here.

Let's wait and see what we land in the '18 draft. What if we win the lottery and get Dahlin? Not that Faulk would be useless, but AA is a really interesting forward to keep in the mix and we have enough coming up on D that right now patience is our best course of action imo. If Faulk is available it's because Carolina makes the same conclusion I do; he's not a differencemaker.

If Wings win the lottery and get Dahlin and also have Faulk, Wings would have arguably a top 5 defense core in the league. Defense wins championships. Wings will quickly be back on the upswing. That's the best we can hope for.

To me, AA isn't a core player. Faulk is.

 

[Redder Winger]

What do you think AA's ceiling is? 30 goals? 40 goals? 80 points? If he's just a 45-55 point guy, who cares? You can find them every year.

I care.
I think it's quite obvious he's got 30 goal potential.

But this isn't only about AA.

This is also about Faulk.

My initial reaction was - do it! Easy win.

Then I looked into the numbers.What caused his statistical slip?

Is his icetime down? Slightly - as one might expect.
Is his powerplay TOI down? Nope. He's on pace for even more time.
Did Faulk and Hanifin switch roles, with Faulk taking more Dzone draws? Nope.

Then I saw the 5 on 5 production.
So what caused the awful production?
Nothing that can be explained away easily with stats.

To me that's a red flag.

If Faulk comes to Detroit and repeats this year's production, and continues to offer mediocre defense (he's never been good defensively), then what's the point?

That's the my concern.

Doesn't that concern anyone else?

 

[Redder Winger]

If Wings win the lottery and get Dahlin and also have Faulk, Wings would have arguably a top 5 defense core in the league. Defense wins championships. Wings will quickly be back on the upswing. That's the best we can hope for.

To me, AA isn't a core player. Faulk is.

Faulk isn't playing like a core player this year.

 

[RedWingzz]

I care.
I think it's quite obvious he's got 30 goal potential.

But this isn't only about AA.

This is also about Faulk.

My initial reaction was - do it! Easy win.

Then I looked into the numbers.What caused his statistical slip?

Is his icetime down? Slightly - as one might expect.
Is his powerplay TOI down? Nope. He's on pace for even more time.
Did Faulk and Hanifin switch roles, with Faulk taking more Dzone draws? Nope.

Then I saw the 5 on 5 production.
So what caused the awful production?
Nothing that can be explained away easily with stats.

To me that's a red flag.

If Faulk comes to Detroit and repeats this year's production, and continues to offer mediocre defense (he's never been good defensively), then what's the point?

That's the my concern.

Doesn't that concern anyone else?

I love AA, but I would seriously consider this deal. Faulk is a hell of a lot better than anything we have on D. It's obviously a slight risk considering Faulk's decline, but you can (somewhat) justify it with the emergence of Slavin/Hanifin/Pesce. I think Faulk is still a solid D, maybe not a true #1, but on our team he is easily a #1.

 

[Winger98]

We need literally any elite player, regardless of position. Our wingers are not very good. Our centers are not very good, and our defense blows.

harsh and funny because it's harsh and really true. We have hope for some guys like Larkin and Hronek, but a lot of it is just hope at this point.

People looked the other way when Weiss's production was abnormally low for Florida and we signed him to a 5 year contract.

weiss. was. injured. Unless you think 57 points in 80 games is abnormally low.

 

[Redder Winger]

I love AA, but I would seriously consider this deal. Faulk is a hell of a lot better than anything we have on D. It's obviously a slight risk considering Faulk's decline, but you can (somewhat) justify it with the emergence of Slavin/Hanifin/Pesce. I think Faulk is still a solid D, maybe not a true #1, but on our team he is easily a #1.

I am not suggesting we wouldn't consider it.

But I am saying that this year, he's nowhere near a number 1.
He's been awful. And this year, is not a hell of a lot better than anything we have on D.
He's worse than what we have.

Last year's guy? Better. Much better. The year before? Better much better.

You can't trade away a good player for a guy who is AWFUL unless you have a good understanding of why the guy is awful, and some good reason to believe he'll return to being very good again.

If all one can say is "Hey, he was good years before. THis is just a bad year," well, that's not a very intelligent take. That's on faith.

 

[Flowah]

"
I think that Athanasiou’s potential is enough to bring more of a return.

It has to be offset by his work ethic, which even I as a big fan/booster of his, often find lacking.

 

[Dotter]

Faulk isn't playing like a core player this year.

If he was, they would certainly be asking for Dylan Larkin and not [the rumored] Andreas Athanasiou. And they'd, without a doubt, get a Larkin equivalent return... easily.

 

[Frk It]

You can't trade away a good player for a guy who is AWFUL unless you have a good understanding of why the guy is awful, and some good reason to believe he'll return to being very good again.

If all one can say is "Hey, he was good years before. THis is just a bad year," well, that's not a very intelligent take. That's on faith.

I 100% agree, but we have no way of knowing that. Realistically though, I can't see a lot of likely scenarios someone's game drops off a cliff at 25 that is non injury-related and cannot be corrected... know what I mean?

 

[Ezekial]

He's younger than Alexei Marchenko, you didn't give up on him.

 

[Redder Winger]

If he was, they would certainly be asking for Dylan Larkin and not [the rumored] Andreas Athanasiou. And they'd, without a doubt, get a Larkin equivalent return... easily.

Not from Detroit, they don't.

And this isn't a rumored deal. This is a speculation. THere's a big difference between speculation and a rumor. A rumor implies it's being talked about or considered by people with the ability to make it happen.

Any old person can speculate.


So here's the question...
If you trade for Justin Faulk and he spends the next 8 years scoring 6-7 goals and 32 points - and keeps racking up seasons of -16 to -25...

Is that worth AA?

If so - great.
We disagree.

If you're confident he's going to return to being a 15-goal 40-point defenseman, I'd like to know why.

 

[Ezekial]

Andreas Athanasiou hasn't even proven to be a 40 point winger, not that I don't think he is.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

I would do this trade in a heartbeat, but AA isn't enough to land Faulk.

 

[Dotter]

And this isn't a rumored deal. This is a speculation. THere's a big difference between speculation and a rumor. A rumor implies it's being talked about or considered by people with the ability to make it happen.

Any old person can speculate.

You need to contact all the respectable blogs and websites that specifically use the word "rumor" instead of barking at me. I didn't start the damn rumor.

Trade Rumors: Elliotte Friedman Speculates on Potential Athanasiou Trade With Hurricanes

Trade Rumors: Elliotte Friedman Speculates on Potential Athanasiou Trade With Hurricanes

Our Sources Tell Us: Justin Faulk being shopped to Detroit?


Normally, in a column like this we would do the positives and negatives, but I’ll be honest: I’m finding absolutely nothing positive in this rumor. In fact, I can condense the good news section of this column down to one paragraph.

 

[Number1RedWingsFan52]

My initial reaction is hell yeah. But how old is Faulk now?

He's 25 years old? Going to be 26 years old next month.

 

[Number1RedWingsFan52]

AA and mrazek for Faulk?
Just so we can avoid the nightmare of negotiating new contracts with them

Seeing that AA has salary arbitration rights this summer, I don't see it being a problem plus Holland is most likely gone and hopefully the new GM does a better job at negotiating.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

So here's the question...
If you trade for Justin Faulk and he spends the next 8 years scoring 6-7 goals and 32 points - and keeps racking up seasons of -16 to -25...

Is that worth AA?

If so - great.
We disagree.

If Faulk keeps racking up minus seasons like that for 8 years, it means that the team has other players racking up minus seasons like that, which makes me wonder why the team continues to be so terrible. Which means Justin Faulk isn't the only thing at question here and you are just making hypothetical scenarios without any means to actually discuss them in good faith.

I do not think AA's ceiling is that high, and as a winger that doesn't put him in a spot where I can be too picky about getting a player for him. And a young defenseman who has had some very good seasons where he is in a place where he is affordable, I am willing to part with him. Keep in mind a guy like AA isn't going to land you that much, so the real question is what kind of player is AA worth, and do you really think you could get such a player all things considered?

 

[Hatter of the Beach]

Even in the off chance that Carolina would accept this (I like AA, but in no world do I think he is worth Faulk), wouldn’t we have to move additional salary to make it work, even after it’s pro rated

 

[Marky9er]

Even in the off chance that Carolina would accept this (I like AA, but in no world do I think he is worth Faulk), wouldn’t we have to move additional salary to make it work, even after it’s pro rated

I was just thinking it could only happen after Green is sold.

 

[Lampedampe]

I like this, I would say that trading for Faulk why his value is low makes sense, and selling high on AA also makes sense. The only reason AA has high value is potential, and there's a really good chance he never lives up to his potential. I'd rather we trade him before we find out, ofcourss there's a risk but I'd rather see Holland take a risk.

This is probably just speculation though and I doubt AA alone return Faulk.

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

It is just speculation and moreover EF states "it may just be me"

Now I can agree that the man is well connected and respected so he likely didnt didn't ust for rhe first time dream this up.

He very likely has spoken with or heard things from other soures.

That said if such a deal could be made you do it.

We need to build from the backend out and this would be a good start

 

[Flowah]

Faulk isn't playing like a core player this year.

Neither is AA.

 

[Dotter]

Neither is AA.

Nope and never has. While Faulk has/did at the same age. I believe this is the classic case of Faulk needing a change of scenery.