Quote:
Originally Posted by Hi-wayman
To Vancouver: Derek Morris
To Phoenix: Manny Malhotra, Vancouver's 2013 fourth round pick
Vancouver has an abundance of NHL ready forwards but needs a right hand shot defenseman. Morris would pencilled in to play with Edler allowing Hamhuis & Bieksa to stay together as well as a Garrison/Tanev combo.
Phoenix will be overloaded with defensemen this coming season. Clearing a 33 year old for a forward that the Coyotes have a shortage of, allows Phoenix to bring up one of their excellent & cheaper defensive prospects. Malhotra is a dominant faceoff player and a far better third line centre than any the Coyotes have currently.
Both teams trade from strength and improve upon a weakness on their club.
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What? Defense is not a weakness for this club, and replacing Ballard with Morris (especially without actually having a plan for what to do with Ballard) is completely pointless.
Heck, if you had to choose, forward is more of a weakness for Vancouver than defense is. We're more likely to trade a guy like Ballard for more forward help.
Malhotra hasn't been great, but I'd rather keep him for depth alone than make this trade.
Besides, currently, we look like
Sedin - Sedin - Burrows
Raymond - Kesler - Booth (a weaker 2nd line than we're hoping for)
Higgins - Lapierre - Hansen (a weaker 3rd line than we're hoping for)
Weise - Malhotra - Kassian (a weaker 4th line than we're hoping for)
(no-one but unproven AHLers behind these guys)
Hamhuis - Bieksa (a fantastic pairing since it's been formed)
Edler - Garrison (another potentially great pairing that we're all looking forward to see)
Ballard - Tanev (two guys who are both ideally better than #5 guys playing on the bottom pair)
Alberts
In what way do we have an abundance of NHL-ready forwards and a shortage of defensemen? In fact, defense is the ONLY position we're basically 100% done dealing with (outside of maybe a #7 guy to replace Rome)
Awful for both sides.
