My Thoughts on the VAN and TOR Trade

[Da_Berr 219]

As some may know, a massive trade rocked the VHL last week. VAN and TOR made a blockbuster trade where stars Micah Adrienne and SS Hornet were shipped off for Kate Upton, Wolf Weiss and Ziarie Anigbogu. In this trade VAN also gave up an S78 2nd round pick from WAR to acquire an S79 2nd and 1st round pick from TOR. I'm going to examine this trade for each team, and then my player, Andrew Su.

 

First off, for VAN, I'd say this is a definite win. SS Hornet already stated that he wanted to test this upcoming season's free agency, so shipping him off for some picks is fine. Micah Adrienne, on the other hand, was unhappy with some of the management decisions and as a result, wanted out of VAN. Purely based on the situation that VAN found themselves in, they came out of this trade all smiles. But, based on the pure value, I think VAN lost out on quite a bit. VAN came into this season with one of the strongest offences but had weak goalie and defence depth. At the time of the trade, they were 4th in the NA conference. VAN's roster also has a decent prospect/young pool for the future. From this, one would assume that VAN would either trade for another D on Adrienne's level and a good goaltender or focus on the future, gathering picks and younger players. In the trade that did happen, VAN decided on a blend between the two and I would say lost out on a lot as a result. They got a second line RW in Ziarie Anigbogu who is retiring in 2 seasons, and 2 players who are only average at best, even though they're in their prime years. Now VAN has an even worse defence and weakened one of their biggest strengths, their center depth. The 1st round pick is nice, but it doesn't seem to line up with VAN's timeline for contention, and TOR should still be a pretty strong team during S79. Still, VAN did a pretty good job considering what situation they were going through.

 

For TOR, I think this is a trade with almost no downsides. Essentially they flipped an average D-man, 2 average/good forwards for an elite D-man and center. They didn't weaken their team much and improved it to a great extent. The first-round pick they gave up isn't much as their roster looks like they'll hit their peak in 1 or 2 seasons, making the pick a much lower one. I don't know any of the situations or thinking process of TOR, so I can only say this much.

 

Now for my player Su, this trade is a disaster. Su is nearing his retirement and I would really prefer to be on a more competitive team. I think VAN currently is more built to be good in 2 or more seasons, which is past my deadline. Honestly, VAN is still good in terms of offence but our gaps on goalie and d-men are too large for us to realistically win in playoffs.