Claimed: One Step Forwards, Two Steps Backward

[Gudnason 607]

I made three trades the past offseason shortly after I took the post - first with Calgary, then with Seattle, and finally with Riga. As you can tell from the title, two of the three trades I made ended up for the worse.

 

My first move was trading the first overall pick in the S55 VHL Entry Draft to the Wranglers for seventh overall (New York's first round pick) and Calgary's first round pick in S56. Everyone knew that Felix Savard was the consensus pick for first overall, but at that time, his TPE levels when compared to the rest of the field was nothing like Gabriel McAllister compared to the rest of the S56 draft class. At that time, I rated six other prospects that were comparable to Savard - Dexter Lane, Peter Quill, Rudi Ying, Jake Scheel, Niko Bogdanovic, and Nicodemus Raven. By trading down from first overall to seventh overall, my thought process was that I would still be able to draft one of these magnificent seven. Oh, and I would also pick up Calgary's first rounder in S56, which I expected would be a lottery pick. In hindsight, I totally regret this trade.

 

My second trade was a day later as I acquired Vernon Von Axelberry from Seattle while flipping two other picks with the Bears in the S55 draft. I shipped the aforementioned S55 NYA 1st and 16th overall for Von Axelberry, 21st and 22nd overall. While I had planned on keeping the seventh overall, this deal was too good to pass up when the opportunity to came up. A deal I do not regret making at all, I think this was a big win on multiple fronts. I would have ended up taking Nicodemus Raven with the pick, and the Latvian blueliner has not been seen for the better part of two months. The 21st and 22nd overall picks netted me Drahsolav Detlev and Nino Gisler, which were essential for me to reach the cap floor last season. And Vernon Von Axelberry is a goaltender I can build around for the considerable future. With Markus King looking to leave after his entry-level contract expired, the security that Von Axelberry ensured me made it easy for me to tab him as King's replacement. I get four years of Von Axelberry before he starts to depreciate, and by then, I'll hopefully have a new goaltender with the prestige of King ready to take the torch from V2A.

 

I ended up shipping Markus King to Riga for the 9th and 12th overall draft picks in the S56 VHL Entry Draft. Looking back, although it was quite well known that King wanted out, his trade price dropped quite significantly. While Calgary didn't get the best return for King either when they traded him to Cologne under Harbinson's watch, I'm not quite sure what I was thinking at that time as that it is a horrible return by any standards. It was also a case of there not being much of a market for a goaltender at that time despite King's talent and team-friendly contract. Trade talks between two contenders which I shall not name progressed to a certain point, but with how close those teams were to the cap, it was still tough for them to add King as a backup or 1B starter despite the $2 million salary cap relief exemption for teams with two human goalies.

 

I am thankful that I have Vernon Von Axelberry in Cologne, but the returns I managed to get from Felix Savard and Markus King are certainly disappointing. I will have to learn and reflect from these trades if Cologne is to have any success in the future.

 

For Rudi Ying

[NotAVHLM-GM 1,858]

Love these kind of insight articles, more GM's should post these