Claimed:Advantage's Trade Review - Edition #6

[Advantage 2,891]

Advantage's Trade Review - Edition #6

 

 

I am sticking with the one trade per review this week as I look at the other major trade I made during my run as General Manager.  This one will involve a trade that a lot of people do think I lost (and perhaps I did), but was needed to bring in the talented Wesley Kellinger via free agency.  This deal would lead to a Continental Cup win in season thirty-nine that had many New York jumping up and down in excitement.

 

Season 38 Off-season Trade -> NYA/COL

 

To 
LW - Riley Stevens (S33)

S39 Cologne 1st (Mikkel Boomgaarden)

S39 Riga 1st (Milos Denis)

S40 Cologne 2nd (Christoph Klose)

To 

LW - Logan Laich (S37)

RW - Jakob Linholm (S37)

S40 NYA 2nd (Wesley Matthews)

S41 NYA 2nd (Matej Nemechek)

 

I’d be lying to you if I didn’t think I absolutely destroyed Cologne in this trade at first.  In fact, it seemed that quite a few people thought that.  “Bad deal for Cologne”, was Jamie’s response.  Mike, who was a significant rival to the Americans at the time even said: “2^nd 11 year NY dynasty incoming, Cologne who knows.”  At the time, Logan Laich was coming off an awful season and things really just were not looking up for him.  Jakob Linholm had gone inactive for about a month and New York needed to shed some salary for Wesley Kellinger.  I was also thinking that getting young would be a good idea and wanted a first round pick to select a future stud defender to play with a prime Conner Low. 

 

For me, I am disappointed that the draft didn’t go as well as I hoped.  I went after season thirty-nine which seemed to be very promising at the time.  As we now know, the only really strong players to come out of the draft would be James Faraday and Jackson Miller.  Devin Sundberg and Milos Denis have been good as well, but really the draft is a bust given how much hype it had.  Agents like Boragina, Kyle and Koradek just didn’t have it in them like they had for past great players that they produced.  New York would be easily one of the hardest hit by this draft as they drafted both Boragina and Kyle.  Boragina’s player, Mikkel Boomgaarden, was the player they acquired with the fourth overall pick.  I wanted him because he could be that defender I needed down the road, and he was the second best defenseman in the draft.  Interestingly enough, he still is the second best from that draft, but that is saying very little since only two actually made it to the VHL.  Seventh overall saw me draft Milos Denis, who has been a pretty good player in the league so far.  I was happy to have Tyler on my team since he recruited me to the Victory Hockey League, but unfortunately I was hoping for a little bit more.  Tyler would end up being surpassed by two young studs I would get out of the season forty draft, and would head to the rival Quebec City Meute through free agency. 

 

Thankfully, one of these studs was acquired through the acquisition of the S40 Cologne 2^nd in this trade.  I was very happy to select Christoph Klose, who was a great young player for the Americans and was very liked by all.  He spent a couple great seasons here winning a Continental Cup in the process, before being moved to Cologne to continue on his great career.  Admittedly, I hope I cross paths with Klose again in the future as he was a real treat to have on the team.  To be honest, I think that as much as the season thirty-nine draft didn’t work out in my favour, the 2^nd I received to draft Klose made up for it immensely. 

 

There was some talent going back in the trade as well.  While Jakob Linholm would remain a depth player his entire career, the real gems in the trade were Logan Laich and the S40 NY 2^nd round pick.  Logan Laich would have an alright career as he hit his way to success, and admittedly his offense would pick up.  He would never really be an elite offensive player but was a solid piece to the puzzle that could hit the sixty point mark consistently.  Was his career necessarily great? No.  He actually ended up at the end of a lot of jokes since he was a high paid player that just didn’t match up to his contract.  At the end of the day though, he was multi-dimensional and he won cups, so Devise can live with the fact that it wasn’t all bad with Logan.  The S40 NY 2^nd should be so much better.  Wesley Matthews was a promising prospect that would get moved to Quebec and find himself in a very solid situation.  However, for whatever reason, he would retire out of nowhere leaving the Meute high and dry and in a state of confusion.  His agent recently came back but you have to wonder if some teams have learned their lesson about him.

 

All in all, I still think I did win the trade.  I could have got more for what I did get, but the pick that acquired Christoph Klose really sealed it up.  Laich being the only major part of Cologne is probably not what they were expecting, as there was some hope that the picks would net long-term Express players or players that would be helpful through trading of the picks.  There was even some hope that Linholm would return to the greatness he showed in the VHLM, and at one point that did look very possible.  This was, as I remember, the hardest negotiation I ever had.  It came down to us arguing over 2^nd round picks as I wanted one included.  Thank goodness I pushed hard for it because had I not, New York never would have drafted Christoph Klose, the player that probably puts this trade over the top in their favour.

 

 

[Kesler 1,514]

Basically Laich for Klose, not bad.

[Advantage 2,891]

Basically Laich for Klose, not bad.

Denis was a pretty big part of our cup win in thirty-nine and has a solid player.

[Kesler 1,514]

Denis was a pretty big part of our cup win in thirty-nine and has a solid player.

But then lost him for free and hasnt turned out to be amazing but still I guess a solid depth pick.

[CoachReilly 688]

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