Quoting: turtlemountain
Lehkonen has been lights out for Colorado and is an analytics darling. The Athletic’s model has his market value as $5.7M and Mittelstadt as a $2.8M. I’m not gonna comment on the specific value of the trade, but positioning Mittelstadt as a clear upgrade over the two is a little disingenuous.
Also, Mittelstadt is 23 but he also has almost 200 NHL games. He might still have some growth in his game, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for a major breakout. Gone are the days of forwards baking in the AHL until they’re 24.
All of that is to say that there’s clearly something off in the water in Buffalo with player development, so if he has a nonlinear path then I guess I’ve seen crazier things.
Thank you for the information from the Athletic.
I highlighted your comment, please read mine and tell me where I said that!
Let me requote what I said: "Please explain why you think Buffalo would want to get an older and smaller forward, but more important give up a first and second to do this?"
Second, Casey was injured most of this season and I am certain that his play was severely impacted when he was on the ice.
While a small sample, after Krueger was finally relieved of his duties, Casey demonstrated his ceiling over the final 23 games scoring 9 goals and 17 pts.
He did this with Rasmus Asplund as his primary LW and Tage Thompson as his RW.
Up to this year no one would have thought of either of them as dynamic offensive powers.
IMO you can write off Casey's first 132 NHL as he was pushed into action too early or was handcuffed by Krueger.
While the Athletic may have their reasons for predicting Lehkonen at $5.7 you can circle back in 6 months and laugh at me, but if he tops $3,000,000 I will be shocked.
So I will repeat, where did I say Casey was an upgrade?
Clearly the difference between the two of them is not the 16th OA and a second next year.
That is exactly what I said and I used data to support my POV.
I will close, please do not accuse me of writing something I clearly did not!