I think the issue is how Jim is marketing Loui to the other GM's. Jim needs to contact Tampa and have a discussion:
Loui Erickson:
One of our more relied upon players (Top 8 in minutes played / Team : Top 5 / Forwards). Loui was Top 6 in scoring, Loui was relied upon heavily is a short-handed specialist @ number 4 in TOI of all our forwards. Tied for 5th on the team in even-strength goals, Loui showed that he can also help the team with secondary scoring.
J.T.
It is obvious that J.T. wasn’t trusted as much in his ice time being 14th in Ice time for your team (8th among forwards). Similar in scoring J.T. was Top 7 in scoring. Being 24th in TOI short-handed, it is obvious that J.T. wasn’t seen as a short-handed specialist, however, we note that J.T was given plenty of opportunity on the power play which seemed to help his overall numbers. Being 11th on your team in even-strength goals, J.T. showed that comparatively he struggled at even-strength.
While your team excelled during the regular season short-handed, the 50% shown in the play-offs suggests that a change is needed in that role. As you were so gracious to offer us J.T. for the cost of a First and a Third round pick @ a cap hit of 5.25m for the next 4 years. We would suggest that with your need, a veteran short-hand specialist would Loui would be somewhat comparable @ 6m and of benefit.
Realizing one of the reasons your team needed to trade J.T was due to being close to the CAP, so to assist, we would consider the following:
Tampa: Erickson (3 million cap hit)
Vancouver: 1st (Vancouver), 3rd (Vancouver), 1st (Tampa)
Vancouver would retain 3m of Erickson for 3 years (in exchange for the 1st).
As per the above, there is a difference in the players being that J.T was used in more of a power-play role and Loui was focused on the short-handed role. Otherwise, Loui’s player/team statistics show him to be an upgrade while helping to address your play-off deficiencies.
Of course, Loui would have to agree to this trade. With your team’s success in the regular season he may be interested, however, with your play-off showing, you may be lucky to have him return your calls. Lord knows he doesn’t return mine *cough*
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(Two things… 1) Yes, joking (While the stats are true, they are crap).... 2) Its shows the sad state of affairs when everyone is trying to get rid of our #6 in scoring (not saying it isn’t warranted - just that it says A LOT about our secondary scoring).