On Tuesday’s edition of "Daily Faceoff Live," hosts Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna debated over which team had the best deadline fire sale. The St. Louis Blues turned over a new leaf by dealing their veteran stars, while the Washington Capitals paid handsomely for young defenseman Rasmus Sandin.
Frank Seravalli: Mike, I want to ask you about the teams that were definitive in selling. We’ll take a look at the St. Louis Blues, the Washington Capitals, the Nashville Predators and some other teams that made a bold stance and said, “We’re not in the mix. We’re going to sell as many pieces as we can.” Which team did the best job of reaping the rewards and bringing in as many assets as possible?
Mike McKenna: I was really impressed with the job that Brian MacLellan did with the Washington Capitals, Frank. He gave up four pending UFAs: Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, Lars Eller and Marcus Johansson. All four of them are more than 30 years old and did not have a future with the team on paper. In return, they managed to get two second-rounders, two third-rounders and a first-round pick from Boston that they flipped for Rasmus Sandin from the Maple Leafs.
Sandin is a 23-year-old defenseman coming into his own. He is under team control and is only owed $1.4 million next season. Sandin has been great so far for the Caps; he has five points in two games. He’s going to get paid down the road, but Washington had to address their blue line. They not only got picks, they got a quality player in Sandin. I thought MacLellan did a very good job of setting his team up not just with picks, but also with a defenseman that is going to help them for a very long time.
Frank Seravalli: The Sandin transaction was where they lost me, actually, because I think they overpaid. When you consider what the Leafs were building for these playoffs and the defensemen they acquired, they flipped Sandin just as they traded for Luke Schenn and Erik Gustafsson. I don’t know if Brian MacLellan had a complete picture of Toronto’s plans for their back end, but it’s pretty clear to me, Mike, that the Maple Leafs were going to scratch Sandin for the playoffs. Instead of broadcasting that to the league they traded him at the height of his value for a first-round pick. If the Caps had waited, they might have gotten him this summer for a fraction of that price.
I have to tip my cap to Doug Armstrong and the St. Louis Blues. They did a lot of the same things in terms of harvesting assets, but the reason St. Louis stands out is the quality of those assets. They ended up with two additional first-round picks from trading away [Vladimir] Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly. I love that they did it early. They set the market, and now they have those two picks in what is supposed to be a historic draft. They can make the picks if they want to, but they can also take those assets and flip them this summer to improve their team for the immediate future. I love the flexibility that Armstrong has given himself with those picks.
You can watch the full episode here:
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