Quoting: rangersandislesfan
COL and NSH both win, huge loss for Ottawa.
Giving up a top 6 centre, a 1st, a 3rd, a goalie with a ton of potential (though he may never be a full-time NHLer), and a top prospect for a struggling forward is crazy IMO.
Call me biased, but I don't think Ottawa lost this trade as much as everyone thinks. Take a look at our prospect pool, and you'll see we have much better pieces than Bowers in White, Brown, Chabot, Formenton, Jaros, and Harpur (among a few others that aren't as notable). Not having to give up one of those pieces was huge. Bowers
was a first round pick, but a 'very safe' pick and not that high on our depth chart. I could easily see him turning into another Curtis Lazar from the expectations of a first-round pick that we pushed too hard too soon.
Hammond and his contract going to Colorado was actually a very good thing for us. Condon having the season he did last year didn't do any favours for Hammond returning to the NHL, and while I think Hammond's still capable of being a very solid backup (aside from his atrocious 4.08 GAA and .837 SV% in 6 GP last year). Condon's play pushed Hammond out of his roster spot at the start of the season and Condon was given a new 3-year contract, more or less solidifying Hammond's role as Belleville's starter. It's a good thing for the team as it gives our promising prospect goaltender (Marcus Hogberg) more playing time in the AHL with Daniel Taylor and Chris Driedger.
As for giving up Turris, it was well known that he was wanting more than we were willing to give him (a 7-8 year deal at 6.5 - 7.0 million, which pays him 6.5 - 7.0 million until he's 35-36) and there were
a lot of rumblings that he was going to walk at the end of the year (without continuing to negotiate a contract with Ottawa). Duchene is two years younger, has an additional year on his contract (granted at almost twice the AAV for this season), and has arguably more upside. You can argue that Turris and Duchene put up about the same amount of points and we drastically overpaid for a minor upgrade, but Duchene also has that explosiveness to his game that (outside of Karlsson) we never really had.
Finally, the first and third we gave up in addition to everything else... I don't believe we're worried about giving up the third, and our first round pick is conditional and protected if it becomes a Top 10.
*Condition: If the 2018 1st is a top 10 pick, Ottawa will retain the pick and Colorado will receive a 2019 1st instead.*
So, if Ottawa makes another miraculous push to the Conference Finals like last season, the pick will become another late first that will most likely (don't take my word for it) become another Shane Bowers. If not, Ottawa keeps their Top 10 pick (or whatever middle-of-the-road place it is).
Our offence is just as good as before, if not better, and our defence is unchanged, as is our goaltending... I think Duchene could make Hoffman, Stone, Ryan (when he's healthy), and MacArthur (here's hoping
when MacArthur returns, not if), even better than when they played with Turris (and Brassard).
TL;DR, the fact that Ottawa sent away a pending UFA that already had one foot out of the door into Matt Duchene is incredible (again, call me biased). We (hopefully) acquire a more skilled, more talented, and younger centre without having to give up any huge pieces to our core or prospect pool.