Shoeless is one of the toughest guys to trade with cause you know he always has something up his sleeve. I feel extremely lucky to have gotten Halak from him last year and the only reason I did, was roster limitations.
The biggest factor in making my decision was that this is weekly starts, not daily starts. Had it been daily, I most likely would have gone with Brown over Roy. But with St.Louis, Doan, Voracek and Bergfors, I feel I'm more than ok on the right side and can confidently starts any 3 of those guys every week.
At centre, Arnott will not be a keeper, and most likely, neither will Bailey (even though I like him). So that would leave me with Crosby, Krejci and Berglund. Berglund is not proven at all yet and I don't have that confidence in starting him every week while Krejci is extremely streaky. Roy had a really bad start last year and I believe finished with something like 70pts and that's with a really cold Vanek.
I really wanted to get a LW most of all but nobody was willing to budge and when I draft Hall with my 1st pick in the prospect round, that should shore it up a bit.
It wasn't an easy decision as I told, Shoeless, that I have a feeling that the first pick will be a goalie who takes over the goaltending duties in SJ or Philly (like an Ellis or something) but it ain't no fun w/out risks and I know there would be no forward in our waiver draft that comes close to Roy's production.
I think the golden rule is if your team is better after the trade, you did the right thing and I think my team is better now.
This was fun, Shoeless, and thanks to all of you for your insights, saw some things that I didn't see before. And HPG, you truly broke this down in amazing fashion. Made me question taking a C over a RW and you might be right, but I'm stickin' to my guns.
We get one of these - Don't waste it.