MIN EDM trades

Sweet now we have 2 2nd pair defensive defenceman who have poor possession numbers in the top 4 and it only cost us the best 3C in the NHL. Larsson is not who people think he is, the Hall for Larsson trade is far worse than most people think.

if all you look at is stupid advanced stats, instead of hockey games, that is very very true.


Kadri is not the best 3rd line center in the NHL anymore.

He's been a positive XGF/XGA player for 2 / 3 years in EDM, with pretty even CF% and oZS%/dZS%. I definitely wouldnt say he has amazing possession numbers, but they arent poor either. I think he's exactly as you describe, a 2nd pair dman, but that's not a bad thing.

Who is better?

And I will agree that advance stats don't tell the whole story, they do tell part of it. And Larsson from what I have seen when watching the Oilers, is just a better version of Zaitsev. That can't be blown out of proportion though. They are both strong positional players who are defense first 2nd pair players. That's what they are, if I could switch Larsson for Zaitsev, I'd do it for sure. But unless that is in a trade where TO sends a winger with Zaitsev to give Edmonton an upgrade on the wing, then I won't do the trade. Also that winger wouldn't be Kapanen unless Edmonton sends something else with Larsson.

The difficulty of that is the Oilers are right up against the cap as well and can't make that move unless they move one of their many terrible contracts.

Zaitsev with Muzzin was miles better than when he played with Gardiner. It will cost us nothing to have Zaitsev be a 2nd pair dman. Moving better assets like Kadri for another 2nd pair dman is wasteful. The only trade that I think makes sense (And there are hurdles to making it happen) would be the Leafs sending a winger with Zaitsev to get Larsson. Now we have a better version of Zaitsev with Muzzin and save some money while Edmonton upgrades their winger position (Which is a black hole of garbage currently) for a small downgrade at 2RHD. The problem with that is Edmonton has a plethora of bad contracts they have to move to make something like that happen.

In a perfect world if Edmonton had the space

They would trade Larsson to TO for Zaitsev and Brown and a 4th or something.

Or Larsson and a 2nd or 3rd for Zaitsev and Kapanen.

Either trade makes sense for both teams although I think TO can make better moves than this since they still will have need for more defenceman.