A few thoughts:
- I never cease to be amazed that CDC acts like covid doesn’t exist and doesn’t have an unplanned for impact on things like the salary cap and player value. We are the Typhoid Mary of the NHL right now and even for other teams the value they are getting for trades is very low right now. No one is paying full value for trades. I’m amazed we were able to trade anyone at all.
From a player to player value perspective Chicago obviously won that trade, but from a team needs perspective I think the right decision was made to move on from Gaudette and I am content with what we got.
We got a solid, young and cheap 4th liner who can play PK and is a playoff performer. Exactly the kind of player everyone has been bitching we should have been playing on our 4th line instead of overpriced veterans.
Meanwhile it opens up a spot and opportunity for other young players to take Gaudette’s minutes and run with them.
It’s about the bigger picture, and that is not even factoring the potential animosity in the room that may well be there over recent events. It may not be, but the possibility certainly submarines his value to other GMs as well. I don’t think people should be staying it as fact that there is an issue, but there are some signs there may have been an issue there. The team denying it doesn’t really prove anything either way and we will probably never know.