Ottawa's post-draft movement

[diamond_ace 3,112]

Since the draft, the Ottawa Lynx have made 3 trades and signed two guys off waivers. In total, this has improved the team significantly while not costing them a great deal in picks or other players. Looking at the trades first and then the acquisitions, we see how far this team has come even since the draft, when they were already favorites, and now are in an even stronger position.

 

The first move was a relatively big one, and of the trades, the one that was the most lopsided in Ottawa's favor. James Lombardi, a defenseman the Lynx selected in the 9th round, went to the Las Vegas Aces for a 2nd and 3rd in the S63 VHLM draft and inactive center Sam Hynes. Lombardi has proven better than your standard 9th rounder, in fact based on post-draft activity if all teams were to redraft based on current knowledge, Lombardi would probably go in the 5th or 6th round. Nonetheless, if the next draft is anywhere near what this one is, the trade heavily favors Ottawa. Delving into hypotheticals here, I'd estimate Vegas to likely finish 4th in the upcoming season, so who were the 9th and 15th overall picks in the most recent draft? Nikita Flipachyev and BB Nat. Flipachyev alone is enough to make the trade favor Ottawa, and while BB Nat has been decent, in the hands of Ottawa the pick would have become Joseph McWolf, the guy I selected with the very next pick. With all due respect to Lombardi, a guy I think is massively underrated at the moment, he's not hardly Flipachyev AND McWolf, or next year's equivalents of the same.

 

Looking into the second trade which was between Ottawa and Yukon, it is much more balanced, and largely equal and beneficial to both - although if pressed to pick a "winner" Yukon might just edge it slightly. Ottawa picked up Roctrion King, a nearly capped scoring winger who will inevitably become capped within a few weeks, bolstering the wings which were the weakest position on the roster (not that the wings were weak, just weaker than the rest). In exchange, Yukon got Athanasios Andrianopoulos, who has been less active than King but certainly has been active and will be a good multi-season contributor to Yukon's roster. Additionally, Yukon got Ottawa's 1st and 2nd in the S63 draft as well as the worse of the 3rds between Ottawa and Vegas (which should also be Ottawa's pick barring a massive fluke in the sim). I know what you're thinking. A 1st, 2nd, AND 3rd, plus Andrianopoulos, for King? The price was expensive, but you pay what you have to in order to get the best player in the trade, which is King. Plus, with Ottawa getting Vegas' 2nd and 3rd in the other trade, which are about half a round from Ottawa's if all goes as I'm projecting it, Vegas' 2nd and 3rd should be nearly as much in combined value as Ottawa's 1st and 3rd, which basically just leaves the 2nd.

 

The third trade, and by far the smallest of the three, was Tomos Walker to Halifax for a 7th. This might be the first time in league history a 7th was traded, but it's a calculated risk. More likely than not, the pick will amount to nothing, but shipping out an inactive winger who had only 38 TPE for basically a lottery ticket isn't a bad value. Risking a little for a chance at a lot, relatively speaking - you'll never get a star from the 7th, but there's a chance to get an active, which would turn out better than Walker. This third trade is essentially a non-entity for both sides, and the entire trade could fit into the margins of either of the other two.

 

All three trades put together to this point from Ottawa's perspective:

 

Coming in - Roctrion King, Sam Hynes, Vegas 2nd, Vegas 3rd, Halifax 7th

Going out - James Lombardi, Athanasios Andrianopoulos, Tomos Walker, Ottawa 1st, Ottawa 2nd, Ottawa 3rd

 

Looking at it combined, again with all due respect to the exiting Lombardi and Andrianopoulos, both of whom I expect to be multi-season contributors to their respective teams and eventually become decent pieces in the VHL in time, there's no debating this team came out ahead in total. King is the type of player who will be competing for awards this season.

 

Additionally, the Lynx have signed two extra players to fill in wing spots on their roster, and these two guys are what made Walker completely expendable and a non-entity as even a line filler for Ottawa. Chace Trepanier, a sniper who is fast and can handle the puck well, and Dan Wilinsky, a speed demon with a decent shot of his own and a bit of an all around game, have signed with the Lynx for 1.5 million each for the year. To start off the year they'll be centered by Jerome Mitchell, whose faceoffs ought to get this line the puck so Trepanier and Wilinsky can put in their fair share of goals. After the first week or two of the season, things will have the opportunity to be evaluated again for lines and Trepanier, Wilinsky, and Mitchell will all have the opportunity to climb their way up if they've surpassed some of the second liners, Braylon James, JP Desjardin, or Rzerk. James' spot is likely safe, but if one of the new guys can slip in ahead of, say, Desjardin, it would actually balance the lines a little better as right now the second line has no dedicated scorer and the third line has no dedicated passer. These things do tend to work themselves out in the sim but surely the most active guys should be rewarded with better lines. Additionally, power play and/or penalty kill depending on builds can bump up the time of each active, and on the whole everyone will get a good chance to perform.

 

Defensively, we've lost one guy in Lombardi, and that's never ideal, but sacrificing a little defensive depth for some added firepower up front was something we were in a position to do out of the draft. The top three guys - Baxter, McWolf, and Rasputinov - will all have opportunities on top pair at different times. Whichever combo works best, for both sim performance and activity of the players, will win out. The third will be able to double shift, in the absence of Lombardi, by playing opposite both Renner on the 2nd pair and Chat on the 3rd. All this in front of Kallis Kriketers, and I see no reason why the cup should find itself anywhere else at the end of the year.

 

1121 words

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@Beaviss

[Elhandon 66]

This was a great write-up @diamond_ace

Nice to see the rational behind the moves (that I honestly didn't know about).  

Looking forward to see if Roctrion and Lando can create some magic this season!

[diamond_ace 3,112]

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