First, Rati is an A tier prospect, he could have easily gone 1rst but an off season caused him to go in the 2nd round. Second, Blais is another A tier prospect which equates the value. Skinner is another prospect instead of Beaulivier and the 4rth was for Mikkola.

Obviously Tarasenko wasn't going to get Horvat's package but this is still a pretty good haul for tarasenko nonetheless. The Hagel trade was a stupid trade on Brisebois' part and shows how much better of a GM Yzerman is compared to Brisebois

WDYM????? Blais is so much better than a fourth round pick????

It feels like STL is getting a lot of flack for this trade, but even if it practically amounts to a 1st and a 3rd for VT, I think this was a smart trade. I think there was a benefit to them getting ahead of the market and making this move now, before assets started to slim out during TDL.

Blais and Mikkola cut each other out. That leaves a 1st and 4th. Skinner is an ECHL player and just even out contracts.

TOR paid 1st and two fourths for Foligno in total.

Foligno and Noesen which equated to 1 first and 1 fourth. In addition, there's no way Blais has equal value to Mikkola, The fourth and Mikkola cut each other out here

Noesen played for one game for the Leafs, he was tantamount to nothing. Blais hasn't scored a single goal in NHL for two years now, he's barely NHL level at this stage. Mikkola at least is a NHL level D-man, although a fringe one at that.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Blais is a soon to be 27 y.o. free agent
Skinner is in ECHL

Are YOU a prospect? Apparently, everybody is!

Ok fine, Blais is still young for a forward and is getting minutes in NYR whereas in STL, he'll still develop in a much larger role. Skinner is an AHL player that just got sent down whom is still 21 years old who played for the U20 US national team. According to your logic, everybody can do that

Just because Blais hasn't scored a goal, doesn't mean he isn't valuable. Also, Noesen was still an asset in that foligno trade and would have costed a 4rth, whether he played for the Leafs or not. Where exactly is Mikkola going to play in the rangers system anyways?

I gotta disagree. If Blais don't produce, he's simply put not valuable. He played for the Rags a total of 54 games, spent injured majority of the time and did not score a single goal for them. Blais is a potential rebound pickup for STL who used to be decent for them, but in this trade for the Rangers the only purpose he served was cap balancing.

Mikkola's playing 3rd pair, most likely. They created space for him by waiving Hajek.

Also, if Noesen cost them a fourth and brought them nothing, that's just terrible asset management for them in the end.

Personally speaking I think the fourth was spent to shed the remaining half of Foligno's cap, and Noesen was simply added so that Sharks would shed the 700k Noesen did cost, with Leafs getting themselves a "depth 15th forward".

Blais just spent a couple weeks in Hartford on a conditioning stint after being a healthy scratch a bunch, he just has not worked in NYR at all (I'm willing to blame the major injury for some of that). Mikkola is playing 3LD tonight and has a decent shot at staying there, he only has to beat out Harpur at this point.

Seems pretty fair, but probably the ranger won.

"It's a good trade because an ECHL player is more talented than most people" is some of the biggest mental gymnastics I have ever seen here.

Bye

I still think Carolina is the better team overall. With the goalie advantage though rangers certainly have a good chance at beating em

Blais is not a prospect and definitely not an a anything. He's a 26 year old fourth liner (a year older than beuavillier)

For me you never lose a trade when you send a -to be- UFA you're not re-signing. I feel like everyone's reacting as if this trade happened years ago, short after his back to back 33 goals season when the rumours of his change of scenery started. He's decent but its a coin toss for the Rangers, are you gonna get the 80 points guy from last year or the injury riddled guy from 3 of the last 4 years?

All in all I like it for both sides and I can't wait to see the sucker that'll throw buckets of money to him this summer.

Wangers

You can't compare this trade with the Hagel trade. Hagel was traded at the deadline, but he wasn't a rental. He had 21 goals in 55 games at the time of the trade and was signed for two more years at $1.5M, after which he'll still be a RFA. It's the contract, and to a lesser extent his age, that made him so valuable. In a league with a hard salary cap, the most valuable player is one who's playing significantly above his cap hit. Brisebois understands that.

That's why I think this is strictly a rental. I suspect they have no intention of trying to extend him, unless he likes it there so much he's willing to sign for less than market value.

His next contract will depend on how well he plays over the next few months. I don't see him getting more than 2 or 3 years term, but stranger things have happened.

Yes, but they got Vince Dunn instead so I don’t think they’re complaining

To be fair, most people agreed Tarasenko would get a 23 first from anything I saw. Only a handful of idiots didn’t think he would.

Heh. You obviously didn't see everything.

No, I’m just saying most people would have agreed Senko would get a first in a trade.

Hmm. Maybe a slim majority, but I've had numerous people berating me for being a dimwit loon for saying he'd fetch a 23 1st. Like they thought I was laughably out to lunch.