Quoting: sporkknife
OK, but I base my opinion on what teams do, not how I as a fan think I know what is going on behind closed doors, which you seem to be doing.
Can you name an example? I've provided one to you (Arvidsson). Maybe Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson? Which was widely panned at the time and is still looked upon questionably? I think you could point to Barclay Goodrow too. I would agree Goodrow was a severely underrated two way play driver. Maybe you're right with the value. But it's a rare occurrence. Not to mention Goodrow's insane low cap hit and the term on his deal.
I stand by my assessment that offense is valued much more than defense in the trade market (Mantha, Toffoli, Duchene, Palmieri, etc). Most NHL guys need to be good both ways these days. Being able to put the puck in the net is a rarer talent. Personally though, I'd take Blake Coleman over Taylor Hall every day of the week, for example, as per your description of a team that drives play.
And what's with the off base comment? I essentially agree with you, but point out that the logic isn't usually applied in practice.
Arvidsson is a completely different situation: 28, one year left on his contract, 2 seasons of steep decline following a multitude of injuries, and Nashville wanted to protect 8 skaters instead of 7-3.
Examples of play-drivers/defensive forwards who have fetched a solid return over the last several seasons:
-Goodrow
-Vesey
-Coleman
I very much like Carl Hagelin as a comparable.
Examples of defensive defensemen who have fetched a "premium" in recent years:
-Brenden Dillon
-Justin Braun
-Ben Lovejoy
-Andy Greene
-Brady Skjei
Hell, look at what Tampa gave up to acquire David Savard at the deadline. And this might be a few seasons back, but Douglas Murray fetched two 2nd round picks.
I'm not going to sit here and argue that defense>offense because that was not the point of this. I'm merely stating that teams do place a high value on top-4 defensemen regardless of if they provide offense or not. Chiarot has one year remaining at a reasonable cap hit of $3.5M, played the most minutes on the Stanley Cup runner up team this past season and is highly-regarded in Winnipeg. There's little argument to be made that he's not worth a 2nd and 3rd round pick.