Joined: Apr. 2017
Posts: 1,120
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Having done this the other day re: Mantha and Reinhart, I’ll comment on that trade. They are both in a weird spot RFA wise. They didn’t get long term deals as youngsters, and they aren’t quite to UFA status, but both deserve higher dollar deals. They are both about the same age, have 1 year left of RFA. Reinhart has played more games (he started younger than Tony), but Tony is a much larger player (which every metric and scout will tell you takes longer to develop their skating legs).
Mantha scores at a higher rate (.66 vs .63 for Reinhart), but Reinhart plays a premier position (C vs RW). Tony is a true RW though, with may be the 2nd hardest position to fill on a team (with RHD being the first). If you look at pure RWs throughout the league, there aren’t many that would be consider as elite (Kucherov comes to mind, but most top wingers play LW).
Sam has an issue that he’ll never get a chance to be a #1 C in BUF (though, he won’t in DET either, Larkin is way ahead of Reinhart in counting and advanced stats). No one knows for sure if #2 C is his peak, or if there is more in him. DET doesn’t need Reinhart as much as they need Tony, with Veleno and Rasmussen in the farm (and who knows where Berregen will play, he’s played LW and C in the SHL). While BUF has other C options, Reinhart is actually part of the solution (the problem is in goal and on D).
The trade listed above heavily favors DET, but if you take out the picks, it would be a lot closer (Thompson is just a throw-in, he’s going to end up a AHL/NHL bounce around). But neither team wants to make that trade, because it just creates other issues for the respective teams.