Guenther is exactly what this team is going to need in couple years and going forward.
[Insert Drafted Positional Player] if he reaches his potential and projections is what most team needs.
I think there's a lot more nuance to evaluating this trade than simply 9th overall for Garland. The value of the 9th overall pick is largely in the potential player you can acquire with it. That player, for all intents and purposes, may not be a player you value highly. While we were debating whether we even want McTavish at 9, on draft day, he went 3rd overall. Another player that we heavily debated, Kent Johnson, went 5th overall. So for one thing, the Canucks might not have drafted Guenther had they kept the pick. Ottawa, for example, picked Tyler Boucher with the 10th overall pick. I for one would picked Sillinger. The other thing, and it keeps getting lost in the discussion, is that the Canucks was confident that their draft targets were gone at the time the trade was made. Imagine if we traded Schneider for a pick we used to draft Nichushkin. Some say results don't matter but only the process.
I don't believe that the deal would have been Garland for the 9th overall pick alone in a vacuum. Given the trades Arizona has made, I don't believe that they would have traded OEL for a bunch of bad contracts that expires in a year and a 7th round pick (given that the 2nd was to retain some salary). Garland was a part of a bigger deal.
Furthermore, it's not like Garland is a 2 year rental. 2 years from now, he'll be 27 and signed for 3 more years at what should still be a reasonable cap hit. Of course it remains to be seen just how good Guenther will be. Maybe he steps into the NHL over the next 2 years and is quickly a 25+ goal 55+ point guy or maybe he's the next Mikkel Boedker for the Coyotes (who was a good player at his best but might have been rushed and underachieved).
