Quoting: Hockey_Hippy
Parayko currently ranks 34th among defensemen for TOI/GP at 23:15. By contrast Morgan Rielly is 9th at 24:59 and leads all defensemen with 21:41 in ES TOI/GP.
Your team needs to move on from the remnants of the core. It is aging out and Robert Thomas can't do everything. The Blues are now a team that no longer is a shoe in to make the playoffs year on year. This gives them three young players who will play for them within the year. Brodie is by no means the meat of the deal but needs to be included to make the numbers work from Toronto's end. No Brodie? No young guys. And you need those young guys more than you need Parayko.
Also keep in mind that next summer is going to feature a bumper crop of UFAs. Cap space is not a bad thing to have.
Parayko is thrown out there nearly 70% of the time on d zone starts. Mind you in almost strictly matchup usage.
It’s not overly comparable. Nor should it be they’re different players and in much different circumstances.
By every account from the front office they are very happy with Paraykos play as recently as Armstrong’s presser yesterday.
I’m not entirely opposed to your argument of them needing to undergo a heavier turnover than expected. But that turnover has to start with the Krugs or Faulk, otherwise it’s not really worthwhile.
Parayko is the absolute pillar of our defense. He’s the only defenseman that can comfortably play in our own end, that’s including his partner who is completely in over his head.
Forgive me for being pessimistic in regards to those 3 prospects. But we’re currently going through the tollercosster of not overly impressive at anything defenseman who are average sized but produced at lower tiers or earlier in their careers.
Depth and more specifically, bottom end depth and youth isn’t our issue.
I don’t foresee any of those guys being short term or long term fixes for what we need.
And as much as guys like to complain about Paraykos contract. With the cap going up? What do you expect to happen to UFA contracts? 5.5-7 is going to be close to the going rate for 2nd pair defenseman.
This doesn’t even factor in adding a 2nd into the deal for no particular reason. But we move Parayko and I can assure you that 2nd is in the 30s. And it will for many more years to come.