No chance at taht trade. Lundell is only being traded for byram

A late first, a defenseman who is paid 5M to play on your 3rd pairing and a down the road pick for a 20 year old soon to be 2C with 2 more years on his ELC? Not a chance.

If Girard is playing on your third pairing, you need to fire your coach

When Florida dumps Hornqvist they will not take cap back. This leads them to having to get rid of yet another player. And they will not be giving up Lundell to move Hornqvist either.

Bill Zito blocks Joe Sakics number.

Anton Lundell only gets moved for Bo Byram, Nothing else.

Sorry, my message was a little convoluted.

In Colorado Girard is a 3rd pairing defenseman albeit a good one and would play higher in Florida's lineup but my point was and still is that the offer is not enough for Anton Lundell.

No, he isn't; the Avs don't play "pairs," they give minutes and he plays top-4 minutes with the Avs; he'd be top pair and PP QB on a lot of teams. The gist of the deal is that FLA's D needs a LOT of help if they're going to be contenders while the Avs don't need to trade Girard (who has 5 more years at $5M/yr). Lundell is a huge ask but the Avs would have to be offered an overpay to trade Girard. Taking Horny off the Panthers hands is the price of getting Lundell but the price of getting Girard is Lundell. If I'm MacFarland (Sakic isn't the GM any longer), I don't trade Girard for anything less than someone close to Lundell.

You make a good point about the minutes. He was 3rd in TOI among Avs defenseman at 21.38. He was also a minus player on a team that scored a lot more goals than they gave up.

It will be interesting to see how the minutes get divided up this year with how Byram developed late in the year plus playoffs and having Manson available all year. Injuries could factor in as well.

I do question how many teams he would be a top pair on. Although I don't think Girard is enough to pull Lundell in this deal I agree with you that MacFarland/Sakic should not trade Girard without getting full value for what they think he's worth. They will have to keep their cap numbers in order to ensure that.

Plus/minus can be a very misleading stat; I don't pay it much attention to it unless used in conjunction with possession numbers. In that regard, Girard is a positive possession player and drives play no matter where he starts; he's easily top 4 on most teams and top 2 on some teams. Ultimately, Lundell is an excessive ask for Girard but he's the type of player C-Mac should be asking for if someone comes asking after Sam. I wish I had the time to research all the cost-controlled C's in the league so I knew what might be available but that's what the analytics guys are for, lol.

Personally I like the cost controlled C that Colorado possesses who has one year left on his ELC. He is only going to get better whether that is a big leap this year or gradually over the next few years. He is the antithesis of those who patrol center ice for my team lol.