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The Jonathan Drouin resolution appears to be on the way for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
There’s been nearly 15 teams linked to the 20-year-old winger since his trade request became public, but the two teams that you would say are highly linked to the disgruntled winger have been the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues. The Blues have reportedly offered Robby Fabbri to the Lighting for Drouin, while Bolts general manager Steve Yzerman has reportedly asked Minnesota for promising defenseman Matthew Dumba in a trade for Drouin.
If these packages are in fact legitimate, the question then becomes, which one is better?
Fabbri, a high-upside forward drafted by the Blues with the 21st overall pick 2014, would represent an easy one-for-one swap that doesn’t take much away from what’s been expected from Drouin with the Bolts. Primarily utilized in a top six role for Ken Hitchcock’s Blues this year, the 19-year-old Fabbri has scored 10 goals and 15 points in 40 games. Perhaps Fabbri is more of a fit for Lightning coach Jon Cooper’s insistence on having more of a two-way presence on a line with Steven Stamkos (whether that’s been Ryan Callahan or Alex Killorn) than Drouin is or ever will be.
Then there’s Dumba, a 21-year-old right-handed defenseman with whom the Wild drafted seventh overall back in 2012. Dumba, in just his second season of what you’d consider full-time NHL experience, has emerged as a top-four option for a Wild club jostling for Central Division supremacy. His developing power-play presence would be another option for Cooper to throw out there on any given night, and would give the Bolts another young piece to build around Victor Hedman on their back end.
But is Fabbri or Dumba alone enough of a return for a player you drafted third overall less than three years ago? That’s an almost impossible question to accurately answer here today, and that’s the problem with any trade that Yzerman makes with Drouin. It will continue to be the problem for Yzerman and the Bolts even after any trade becomes finalized, too. And that’s become a major factor in all of this.
The Boston Bruins seemingly learned the hard way when they shipped Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars only to see him become a perennial league-leader in both goals and points. That trade, which you could make a case arguably cost Peter Chiarelli his job in Boston in the long run, is the first and only example GMs need to use when overanalyzing every trade they do and do not make.
That’s not a horrible idea, after all, especially with Yzerman holding all the cards when it comes to Drouin, a second-year pro under team control for the foreseeable future, and his landing spot. And as time goes on, and with desperation setting in for certain teams and executives (not named Yzerman, mind you), the Bolts could add more cards (read as: pieces) to their haul.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.