Value of: Wennberg and/or Josh Anderson to Colorado

[Richard88]

What would be the trade return for:

• Wennberg alone;

• Anderson alone;

• Wennberg and Anderson as a package?

Columbus needs:

• Forwards, especially C
• 2nd and 3rd round picks, as shown below.
• If one of Murray or Savard is traded this summer (i.e. they are both UFA in 2021) then a top 4D may be needed.

The most available pieces from Colorado are:

• Zadorov
• Jost
• Kamenev
• 2020 TOR 3rd
• 2021 COL 2nd + 3rd
• Any prospects not named Byram, Newhook, Kaut, Timmins, Bowers, or Annunen.

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A bit of background:

Wennberg

Wennberg has been struggling and seeing a points reduction for a while, and many in Columbus would be happy to see him moved, as mentioned in the April 1, 2020 article below identifying him as a CBO candidate:

That said, despite his offensive shortcomings Wennberg is still excellent defensively and on the PK, and with a fresh start in a more appropriate 3C role on a good team he could rediscover his best form.

Colorado need a 3C, and are one of the few teams capable of absorbing Wennberg's $4.9m / 3 year caphit. Sakic has also shown a willingness to gamble on reclamation projects in the recent past, most notably by trading a 2nd + 3rd for Burakovsky who many at the time said was a 25-30 point forward.


Josh Anderson

Anderson is coming off an injury riddled season where he scored only 1 goal and 4 points, and is a RFA this summer. He has previously shown that he can hit 25 goals and 40 points, and if he can rediscover that form he could be a legitimate threat in anyone's top 6.

Click to read more...

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Gross. Wennberg is trash. Stay far, far away.

Anderson I would take.

 

[Merrrlin]

Jost again lol.

 

[Richard88]

Gross. Wennberg is trash. Stay far, far away.

Anderson I would take.

Wennberg is trash offensively, but he can still be a useful player in a defensive role and is elite on the PK.

What would you offer for Anderson?

 

[Patagonia]

AVs love reclamation projects and prefer Wennberg.

The need for a 3C is far greater than another RW. I do believe Anderson is currently the better player, but would carry a higher trade value. Cap hit at $4.9M for another 3 years is a steep price, but with Newhook at least 1 year away and PEB gone. Wennberg can drop to 4C.

Consider a lineup of:

Landy - Mack - Rants
Bura - Newhook - Kaut
Jost - Kadri - Nichushkin
Bowers - Wennberg - Compher

Seems really good. Maybe a 3rd or possibly 3rd.

 

[Richard88]

AVs love reclamation projects and prefer Wennberg.

The need for a 3C is far greater than another RW. I do believe Anderson is currently the better player, but would carry a higher trade value. Cap hit at $4.9M for another 3 years is a steep price, but with Newhook at least 1 year away and PEB gone. Wennberg can drop to 4C.

Consider a lineup of:

Landy - Mack - Rants
Bura - Newhook - Kaut
Jost - Kadri - Nichushkin
Bowers - Wennberg - Compher

Seems really good. Maybe a 3rd or possibly 3rd.

Where is Donskoi? Taken in the ED presumably?

The way I see it Wennberg would play 3C for 2020-21, and in 2021 when Bellemare and Calvert are replaced in the lineup by Newhook and Bowers then Wennberg could shift to being a defensively responsible winger to help the rookie(s) settle, as illustrated below.

2020/21:

Landeskog ---- Mackinnon ----- Rantanen
Donskoi ---------- Kadri -------- Burakovsky
Nichuskin ---- Wennberg ---- Compher
Calvert -------- Bellemare ------- Kaut

2021/22:

Landeskog ---- Mackinnon ----- Rantanen
Donskoi ---------- Kadri -------- Burakovsky
Wennberg --- Newhook ------ Compher
Nichuskin ------ Bowers -------- Kaut

Introducing two rookie C's (Bowers and Newhook) into the bottom 6 at the same time in 2021 would be risky for a contender to do, and in that sense Wennberg would be good insurance there to insulate the two young C's. Especially since he's crazy good defensively and can eat a lot of PK minutes.

Obviously his cap hit is a bit high for someone with limited offense, but Avs can easily absorb it, and it probably means that his price in a trade would be fairly low.

 

[Super Hans]

Wennberg is trash offensively, but he can still be a useful player in a defensive role and is elite on the PK.

So an expensive Jost with term?

 

[nbwingsfan]

Wennberg is a cap dump and would need another cap dump coming back if you want actual value. Something along the lines of Wennberg + 3rd for a 5th with a condition that if he hits ~40pts again it turns to a 3rd.

Anderson is a tough one to judge. He just had a VERY bad season after breaking out before, so probably best to hold onto him for one more season to see what you really have there. Some Columbus fans also said that they would only trade him for Pastrnak from the Bruins so they’re not going to accept reasonable offers.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

I’m really not a fan of Wennberg, or his contract. Compher is better as 3C.

Anderson is interesting, but I’m worried about the injury.

 

[Junohockeyfan]

Jost again lol.

Zadorov + Jost + 2nd is the new Ryder + Halak + 2nd.

hahahahahahha

 

[Junohockeyfan]

AVs love reclamation projects and prefer Wennberg.

The need for a 3C is far greater than another RW. I do believe Anderson is currently the better player, but would carry a higher trade value. Cap hit at $4.9M for another 3 years is a steep price, but with Newhook at least 1 year away and PEB gone. Wennberg can drop to 4C.

Consider a lineup of:

Landy - Mack - Rants
Bura - Newhook - Kaut
Jost - Kadri - Nichushkin
Bowers - Wennberg - Compher

Seems really good. Maybe a 3rd or possibly 3rd.

Why do you need a 3C? I thought the magnificent and talented Jost was your current and future 3C? What gives?

 

[Richard88]

So an expensive Jost with term?

Haha, not quite.

Jost is good defensively, but he's not as good as Wennberg.

Some stats borrowed from someone in the Columbus forum:

5 v 5 Defense:
- To start the 2019-20 season Wennberg was at close to one goal against per 60 minutes and 55% on faceoffs.
- His relative CA/60 and GA/60 are both typically in the minus, meaning he's allowing less shots and goals than his teammates. In the two years prior to this one he had a GA/60 of 2.00 and 1.99.

PK:
- Wennberg is an elite PK'er. In 94 PK minutes this season (mostly against the other club's top unit) he was on for only 6 goals against, and was on for 4 shorthanded goals for (1 G and 2 primary assists).
- PK'ers typically finish -10 or -20 on the kill, and Wennberg finished -2.
- In the last 4 years, and 190 PK minutes, the PP has only scored 17 goals with Wennberg out there. That's crazy good.

Wennberg is admittedly not very good with the puck anymore, but he's always been great without it. He has the combination of anticipation, quickness, and stick that you expect to see in a great defensive forward. All of that makes him an ideal shutdown guy.

 

[Richard88]

Wennberg is a cap dump and would need another cap dump coming back if you want actual value. Something along the lines of Wennberg + 3rd for a 5th with a condition that if he hits ~40pts again it turns to a 3rd.

Anderson is a tough one to judge. He just had a VERY bad season after breaking out before, so probably best to hold onto him for one more season to see what you really have there. Some Columbus fans also said that they would only trade him for Pastrnak from the Bruins so they’re not going to accept reasonable offers.

Do you think it would make sense for Columbus to trade Wennberg with some retention instead of attaching an asset to him?

Obviously retaining wouldn't be ideal and at a certain point they'd probably be better off just buying him out instead, but perhaps a small retention would improve their chances of moving him.

As shown below, if Columbus were to buy him out this summer then the overall cost would be $5.35m, and they'd have $441k - $891k on the books for 6 more years.

On the other hand, if Columbus would retain say £1m in a trade, then the total cost for them would be $3m (rather than $5.35), and that $1m retention would only count against the cap for the next 3 seasons rather than having a caphit of $441k - $891k spread out over 6 seasons. This could be important given that they will need to be handing out some big contracts to Werenski and Jones in 2022, so 'front-loading' Wennberg's cap hit by doing a retention instead of buying him out would make sense.

 

[Cowumbus]

Wennberg is a cap dump and would need another cap dump coming back if you want actual value. Something along the lines of Wennberg + 3rd for a 5th with a condition that if he hits ~40pts again it turns to a 3rd.

Anderson is a tough one to judge. He just had a VERY bad season after breaking out before, so probably best to hold onto him for one more season to see what you really have there. Some Columbus fans also said that they would only trade him for Pastrnak from the Bruins so they’re not going to accept reasonable offers.

Hahahahahah terrible post. Wennberg is not being traded for that garbage.

Keep him an expose him at the expansion draft.

 

[Crede777]

Wennberg is a decent 3rd line center and penalty killer. At his current AAV of $4.9 million I would say he is overpaid by about $1.5 million.

He is a serviceable player and not a cap dump but he isn't very good value either.

 

[Spilot23]

Boy those/this Habs fans love coming in our threads to laugh about proposal maybe they really want Zadorov and Jost after all Kinda those same girls that will tell ewwww you're ugly but are secretly in love with you.

 

[Junohockeyfan]

Boy those/this Habs fans love coming in our threads to laugh about proposal maybe they really want Zadorov and Jost after all Kinda those same girls that will tell ewwww you're ugly but are secretly in love with you.

I am secretly in love with you, big boy!!!

 

[Spilot23]

I am secretly in love with you, big boy!!!

Finally it wasn't that hard !!

 

[Junohockeyfan]

Finally it wasn't that hard !!

oh, it is hard!

 

[Richard88]

Wennberg is a decent 3rd line center and penalty killer. At his current AAV of $4.9 million I would say he is overpaid by about $1.5 million.

He is a serviceable player and not a cap dump but he isn't very good value either.

I agree. At ~$3.5m he'd actually not be bad value, especially if deployed in a more defensive role.

The problem is that he gets played in the top 6 on a team without decent wingers, against opponents best lines. And then gets evaluated according to his inflated cap hit.

If instead he was viewed as a $3.5m 3C with elite PKing and defense it would be a different story.

I also think confidence plays a huge part in sports, and often times a new start is all that's needed for some players to find their best again. I mean, Colorado fans should know that better than most having witnessed the resurgence of Burakovsky (a trade who the vast majority of fans were against when it happened), and even Nichuskin (who many laughed at for not scoring a single goal last season). Those two acquisitions should indicate that Sakic isn't afraid of going after players who have for one reason or another failed to live up to their potential, and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Wennberg was on his list this offseason.

 

[Richard88]

oh, it is hard!

Keep it in your pants please

 

[nbwingsfan]

Do you think it would make sense for Columbus to trade Wennberg with some retention instead of attaching an asset to him?

Obviously retaining wouldn't be ideal and at a certain point they'd probably be better off just buying him out instead, but perhaps a small retention would improve their chances of moving him.

As shown below, if Columbus were to buy him out this summer then the overall cost would be $5.35m, and they'd have $441k - $891k on the books for 6 more years.

On the other hand, if Columbus would retain say £1m in a trade, then the total cost for them would be $3m (rather than $5.35), and that $1m retention would only count against the cap for the next 3 seasons rather than having a caphit of $441k - $891k spread out over 6 seasons. This could be important given that they will need to be handing out some big contracts to Werenski and Jones in 2022, so 'front-loading' Wennberg's cap hit by doing a retention instead of buying him out would make sense.

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It would all depend on the Jackets cap situation. I’m not familiar at all with their cap structure and how much room they have so I’m not sure.

A team like Boston or Vegas who are extremely close to the Cap would probably value trading a mid pick (aka very little chance of an NHL player) over the $1M in rentention. The opposite could be said of a team like Detroit or anyone with a lot of cap space though.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Jost produces at the same rate as Wennberg from an overall points perspective with almost 3 times as many goals as Wennberg over the last 3 combined seasons. He’s much younger and makes a fraction of his salary while being a good defensive player (as is Wennberg). He would be of no use on the Avs and if Sakic wants that type of player he’ll just keep Jost who he drafted and is loved in the room.

Josh Anderson has been linked to the Avs for a while. The Columbus-Colorado connection always tends to come through as does Sakic’s history of always getting his guy. Bednar is infactuated with him too. First time he coached a game against Columbus he was interviewed about facing a lot of players he won a Calder Cup with the previous June. He was gushing over Anderson in that interview.

Anderson is probably Colorado’s most likely acquisition this summer. I have no idea what he will cost.

 

[CB Joe]

The most available pieces from Colorado are:

• Zadorov
• Jost
• Kamenev
• 2020 TOR 3rd
• 2021 COL 2nd + 3rd
• Any prospects not named Byram, Newhook, Kaut, Timmins, Bowers, or Annunen.

You could probably make Kaut and Bowers available here since Anderson will be 26 next season.

 

[57special]

Yeah, I don't see trading Jost for Wennberg making any damn sense. At least Jost has a chance to have a break through. Not every player is fully formed at 22yo. Wennberg, OTOH, seems to be following the Vic Rask path of development.