Since +/- is the NHL's worst stat, I thought it would make sense to appropriate it and make it useful as we review the best and worst of the past week in the NHL.
PLUS: You can't make this stuff up:
Steve Simmons: Trading P.K Subban for Shea Weber a Smart Deal for Canadiens.
How is it possible that perhaps the most influential hockey writer in the world, a guy who's covered the game for 30+ years, can offer such bad reasoning for his defense of what is objectively the worst trade in NHL history.
His reasoning: 1) Team Canada played / will play Weber over PK. 2) He assumes what certain GMs think about the trade.
This is crazy town. I stick up for Simmons because I think the shaming and the harassment he receives is unfair. I also think he's an entertaining guy in the entertainment business. I like him for the same reason I like Pierre McGuire - but I don't think either of them is right more than 2% of the time.
P.K Subban is a top five NHL defenseman. Shea Weber used to be. PK will earn his cap hit for at least several more years. Shea Weber won't even earn his cap hit next year. PK is four years younger, and while they are about equal - for now - offensively , P.K is so superior defensively that it isn't even close.
People try to dismiss "fancy numbers" (as Simmons does in his review of the trade) but there isn't anything "fancy" about looking at who allows the most shots when they are on the ice. The only thing weird about that stat is that it hasn't been a standard hockey stat this whole time.
We need to stop referring to "fancy stats" and just start being realistic: you either respect that measuring performance is the best way to evaluate a player, just like it's the best way to evaluate literally anything, or you admit that you just invent whatever you want to believe off the top of your head.
Debating stats vs eye-test is like debating global warming: the science is in and at a certain point, denial just makes you look like a crazy person.
MINUS: While it was a very fun-filled 45 minutes this week when Hall and Subban were traded withing minutes of each other (and Stamkos re-signed around the same time), it is a dark week for two of the NHL's biggest fanbases.
As a fan of the Leafs and Coyotes, I know first hand what it's like to sit back and watch your team go nowhere for years and years due to the whims of an incompetent general manager.
To see Taylor Hall and P.K Subban traded for pennies on the dollar just gives you a sick feeling in your stomach - and I don't even really cheer for those teams. (OK, I cheer for the Oilers, sue me). It's just stupidity.
The Oilers got a good player back, a player they desperately need. However, the opportunity cost of such a move is ridiculous. That is why they invented three-way trades. I mean, Taylor Hall is on a relatively cheap long-term deal, so if you're going to trade him, make sure every GM in the league knows it.
As for Subban, even if Weber was a better player (which he is objectively not) the trade still stinks on a contract and age basis.
Honestly, it's incredible that Bergevin still has a job.
MINUS: The Coyotes re-signed Klas Dahlbeck (with no regard to Bruce Willis' safety) and they still have Smith, Michalek and Vermette on the team.
Looks like another year to look forward to the draft lottery.
PLUS: The Leafs signed Roman Polak.
Just kidding, that's like the dumbest frigging thing I've ever heard of. Makes you really wish they'd just make Kyle Dubas the GM already.
PLUS: The Panthers were a successful team last year, but realized that a lot of that success was unsustainable. They now look like just about the best run in hockey after a series of moves that almost makes me speechless.
Moving out Campbell, Kulikov and Gudbranson in exchange for Yandle, Demers and Pysyk is brilliant. Add in locking up Ekblad and you have one of the best D corps in the NHL.
PLUS: Nashville's Defense is the best in hockey by six hundred thousand miles.
Adding P.K to a team that includes Elias, Ekholm, Subban and Josi is the best in the league and it isn't even debatable. Get yourself a goalie fine sirs and I'll call you the Cup Favorite entering next year.
PLUS: Patrick Roy/Joe Sakic are considered to be the worst GM duo in the league. Or they were until Jim Benning, Marc Bergevin and Peter Chiarelli took turns recently trying to earn that title. And now I hear they are trying desperately to get their title back.
Jacob Trouba for Gabriel Landeskog is a trade so bad I'd almost consider becoming a Jets fan if it goes down. WOW please please please get your title back Mr. Sakic.
PLUS: I am not happy a person got fired, but Hockey Night in Canada is better without Glen Healy. Too often he said things that made no sense or where so obvious it was embarrassing to hear them. I am sure Glen is a nice guy, but HNIC needs to be the best show in the NHL and it wasn't.
Also, I am a massive Ron McLean fan, so it's cool he'll be back too.
MINUS: The Blackhawks bought out David Rundblad. He's crazy underrated and now available to anyone for free. Someone ought to get him. Coyotes, I am looking at you.
MINUS: Everyone is praising Yzerman, which he deserves, but there is a problem:
His best player is not Stamkos and it's not Hedman. It's Nikita Kucherov, who is a 23. If I am another team, I would offer him a ridiculous offer-sheet and then either take Kucherov or I would then pillage the Lightning of Palat, Johnson, Namestnikov, and Killorn.
A creative thing to do if you are the Coyotes and don't really care if the Lightning can get out of their salary cap jam (since they never play and don't compete for anything but the Cup) is offer to take Ryan Callahan's contract in exchange for Johnson, or a package that includes a couple of the other guys I mentioned.
Another option is that the Coyotes could take Callahan and Bishop which would save Tampa almost $12 million and allow them to re-sign Kucherov (who I would seriously start to consider in the same league as Tarasenko, Kessel, Hall and Ovechkin). If they would also throw in Tyler Johnson then everyone wins. Especially the Coyotes, because if you take all that salary, how much do you actually have to pay in the form of picks and players?
PLUS: In a week where Peter Chiarelli makes one of the worst one-for-one trades in the history of sports, the Bruins lose the main piece they got for Tyler Seguin, for nothing - which is sort of like divine justice if you ask me. And let's give a little bit of props to whipping boy Jim Benning because signing Louis Eriksson was a genius move.
Louis Eriksson is one of the NHL's most effective and underrated players.
PLUS: I also give a positive review to the Milan Lucic deal. Yes, the Hall trade was pure garbagio, and in no way can be justified. However, the Oilers are a better team today and it is going to be a beautiful thing to watch Klefbom and Larsson play together.
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