Having Trade Trouble...

[Killer67]

Hey guys, I'm normally pretty good at assessing trades right off the bat but this one has me stumped. I've been offered:

Ovechkin, Fleury & Edler

for

My E Staal, B Ryan, Niitty & E Karlsson

I really want OV but I'm struggling with the idea of giving up that much depth and leaving myself thin at C, as you can see from my sig.

Interested to hear your thoughts on this one.

Thanks!

[SeaDawg]

http://www.dobberhockey.com/index.ph...ad.php&t=87603

[GMGates]

Interesting, definitely a good trade to be stumped on. At first glance you see OV and you automatically want to click accept but there might be more than meets the eye. Let's go deeper:

This season you'll definitely lose the deal by itself (explained below). Parting with E. Staal will leave your Centers VERY bare (due to injuries). You won't be able to fill the minimum 3 starting spots without making a second deal. That said, moving forward (next season and beyond) the deal could definitely be in your favor as you gain arguably the best player (and LW) in the NHL. Mind you Ovechkin isn't so godly like in your league without the SOG category, he's now just a demi-god .

For me, the key to winning this deal is by making a second and third trade you make in order to fill up the holes on your team - which for you it would be up the middle.

So following the trade, your team would look like this :

C: Zajac, Gagner, _____
RW: Giroux, Hemsky
LW: Ovechkin, Sedin
UTIL: Voracek
D: Edler, Martin, Yandle, Subban
G: Rinne, Ward
B: Richardson, Okposo (IR), Fleury, Gionta, A Kostitsyn, Smyth
IR - J Staal, Lecavalier
Farm: Filatov, Shattenkirk, Nyquist, Tatar, Perreault, Kabanov, Schroeder, Morin, Stalock, Tokarski, Omark, Gerbe

By doing the trade you would automatically have the best LW in the league hands down. Your RW with Giroux, Hemsky, Voracek and Okposo look mighty fine too.
In net you'd have Rinne, Ward and Fleury, a mighty fine trifecta of tenders. The loss of Niitty to gain Fleury is wash and shouldn't affect the outcome of the deal.

As for your D, it all depends on how you value both defensemen in the deal. Guys like Angus are sold on Edler becoming a 50 point player, while others think Karlsson can become a 65 point D.... would I sacrifice a top young D for another D who's pretty solid but get Ovechkin out of it? Probably.

So down to the most important aspect of the trade, your centers. Like mentioned earlier, they will suck after this trade only because of your two guys on IR. If both were healthy you could slide by perfectly fine.

Now Killer67, this is where you'll need to step in. You'll need to do at least one follow up deal to fill that gap at Center. By doing so, you'll end up placing yourself in Win mode, therefore trading prospects for immediate impact and production will be key. Think of it like chess, after every move, you have to look (and stay) two steps ahead.

In this case, I'd look to move a prospect like Filatov + one of Gionta / A. Kos or Smyth for a Dubinsky / Brassard-ish type player. If you're good at trading, I'd do this deal and follow it up with one that will land you a dependable Center until Staal and Lecavalier return.

Then it might help to mix and match both trades up together, looking a little like :

C- Staal, LW- Ryan, D- Karlsson, G- Niitty, LW- Filatov (prospect)

for

LW- Ovechkin, D- Edler, G- Fleury and C- Dubinsky.

And that my friend is a deal worth making.

Good luck!

[Killer67]

Thanks!! I knew I could count on a solid response and although I'm sure you could care less about rep, it is given. Of course, as I write this, Staal has 3 points in the first period

[JagrBomb]

i would have done that trade in a heartbeat. obviously you would have to trade for a center after, but thats a pretty nice deal for you.

[Killer67]

I just grabbed Berglund off waivers, Couture is there too. They might be good fill ins until I get Vinny and Staal back.