Offseason Trade Review

The offseason is rapidly coming to a close with the draft a little over a week away. Quiet time came and went, and when the doors opened on the trading window in early September, some significant trades took place with some rather large names changing hands ahead of the keeper deadline. While it will be the upcoming season that truly determines the winners and losers of these trades, Novarks.ca will assess each trade, it's impact and who came out on top.

GM Jamie Daly saw an oppurtunity to snag Alex Semin from a Team Hallman that was in full dismantle mode following their championship season. The efforts of GM Hallman in winning that trophy left his team dry in terms of high draft picks for the 2010-11 season. As a result he was forced to move some serious talent. However the market this September was clearly in the buyers favor, as Semin a likely ppg performer was only commanding a 2nd round pick on the open market. Nice for Hallman to get a pick in the 2nd here, but GM Daly gets full marks for picking up a solid keeper here.

WINNER: Team Daly

One of two very significant trades that occured this offseason involved what is likely the most valuable player in the 2010-11 season, Steven Stamkos. While Stamkos has just one All Star season under his belt, the talent is undeniable and he seems as sure of a lock to post a solid ppg rate this year. When you couple that with his affordable cap hit, he is solid gold for any GM with designs on winning a trophy. So it should be no shock that Team Will was able to reap the rewards of the Stamkos sweepstakes. After a complete sell-off thorughout the 09-10 season, Keeler had enough draft picks in the cupboard to make this happen. GM Hallman certainly got value in receiving the 6th and 14th overall picks in this years draft, but one has to question if his urgency to close the deal caused him to miss out on a real bidding war throughout the trade window, or at the November waiver. This deal shakes down as a 50/50 in fairness, but GM Keeler earns the nod here for getting the best player in the deal, and avoiding a crippling bidding war that might have caused him to surrender another pick.

WINNER: Team Will

Team Greg found new ownership this summer, and new GM Bob Linka began cutting his teeth this past September trying to round out a keeper roster that was only about three decent players deep. GM Linka may have overpayed slightly here, but picked up a player in Patrick Sharp who could post upward of 70 points this season playing top six minutes in Chicago. This trade served both teams needs as Hallman snagged a pick, and Linka filled keeper hole, but GM Linka needs Sharp to post career numbers to get full value here.

WINNER: Team Hallman

This trade was the completion of a slick, but now charter breaching deal that occured in November of 2009. In the end we see Dany Heatley moving for a 1st in 2011. It is a bit difficult to evaluate this deal on its own, but looking at this as a purely separate deal this shakes out well for both sides. GM Loader picks up another 1st for what is shaping up to be a nice bounty of 1st round picks in the 2011 draft, while Keeler picks up another piece to add to his plans to win now. In the end GM Keeler wins this trade, as GM Loader is waiting on potential over a year away.

Winner: Team Will

This one could be touted as the biggest blockbuster in Novarks history, as best player in the world candidate Alex Ovechkin exchanged hands for best goalie in the world candidate Roberto Luongo. Both prizes of their respective teams keeper roster, many were a bit surprised at this move. However, in a cap world $4 million is alot of money, and GM Jaques saw an oppurtunity to not only save some coin, but managed to fill in a significant hole on his team between the pipes. The points will inevitably declare the true winner here, but GM Jaques has likely picked up a player that is significantly cheaper and could put similar points on the board over the next three years, and that is not always an easy trade to pull off. On the other hand GM Loader earns full marks for making one of the bigger brash moves in Novarks history.

Winner: Team Chris

Naturally in order to accomadate a nearly $10 million cap hit, a GM must cut costs somewhere, and GM Loader with a hole in his netminding assets was forced to pull the trigger on a deal that not only saw him overpay, but bank his fortunes on less than a sure thing. Anti Niemi's manageable cap hit of $2million fills Loader's need, but for Niemi things could go either way. He is in a fantastic situation playing on a strong San Jose team that should win 50 games, however he is in a platoon situation to begin the year, and may struggle to put up much beyond 40 starts, thus severly limiting his production potential. Should Niemi win the job outright, this trade will teeter back to a 50/50 exchange. However as it stands now GM MacNaughton comes out on top getting big value here. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and MacNaughton reeped the benefits.

Winner: Team Josh

This trade was one of the more shrewd moves the Novarks have seen over the years, as GM Hallman gave GM Bob Linka small lesson here. Hallman managed to move a decent player in Ryan Kesler coming off a career year and a big raise to $5 million, and picked up a severly under-valued David Krejci and a 7th round pick in this year's draft. Kesler's production will likely not exceed his 2009-10 body of work, and at his new cap hit, his 2nd line minutes and 2nd tier PP time make him less than a value pick at that price. On the flip side, Krejci will likely be the 2nd line pivot at the very least on a Boston team that is missing its first line center, Marc Savard, for an undisclosed amount of time. Furthermore, Krejci is more than likely to leave last years injury riddled disappointment behind and a return to form should be expected. GM Linka would likely have served better here to keep Krejci and save the $1 million and pick for a rainy day. A very strong move by Hallman indeed.

Winner: Team Hallman

As the trade window wound down, Team Hallman and Team Schuts completed a deal that serves both needs. GM Hallman added another draft pick to his cupboard, and now has a presence in the first 10 rounds of the draft, something that could not be said over the summer. Team Schuts on the other hand did a solid job of obtaining picks while selling throughout the latter half of the 09-10 season, but left his keeper roster a bit bare in the 5 hole. GM Schuts finally resigned to the fact that JVR or Bailey were not viable options here and elected to spend the coin and parlay a 4th round pick for the pricey but productive Paul Stastny. Stastny will play 1st line minutes on a young Avalanche team with lots of firepower, but his health will continue to be a concern going forward. Hallman likely took less than he would have liked here, but the last days of the trade window saw the market slip further into buyers favor and Schuts managed to get some value here. Not a bad trade by any stretch for either GM though.

Winner: Team Schuts

Feel free to comment below, feedback is always enjoyable, and keep your eyes peeled over the next day or so for 2010-11 Keeper review/ Novarks season preview.