According to TSN's Darren Dreger, the Arizona Coyotes (name change official today) are willing to trade premier puck-moving defenseman Keith Yandle.
I meet this news with trepidation: Are the Coyotes trying to get better, or are they trying to shed salary?
Now, don't get me wrong, Don Maloney is not going to get worse on purpose just to save money; obviously, if they trade Yandle, they hope to do both. My concern, however, is if they were a cap team, would they consider making this move?
It really is hard to say. There are two ways to look at it:
Trade Him
You could reason that you should trade Yandle for the following reasons:
1) There is a dearth of top quality defenseman on the market. If Yandle is available, he is among the top 1 or 2 best guys out there.
2) Yandle is signed to two more seasons at a very reasonable $5.25 cap hit.
3) Yandle is one of the best offensive defenseman in hockey, posting the following total points over the last five seasons: 41,59,43,30 (lockout) and 53 this year.
4) He is 28 and in his prime.
5) Stone, Summers, OEL, Murphy, Gormely. That is five excellent young defensemen, possibly making Yandle expendable.
His salary and consistency and age, combined with the supply and demand of players similar to him, means his trade value will likely be at a peak right now, and the fact that the Coyotes have several internal replacements make a good argument for trading him.
Keep Him
The first four reasons that you would trade him are the exact same reasons you would want to keep him. On top of which, having Yandle and OEL on your top two pairs guarantees that you have one of the best puck moving teams in hockey.
It's easy to look at a team that missed the playoffs and say"well,having them both didn't provide the value you would have thought," however, this must be tempered with the knowledge that the Coyotes had some of the worst forwards in the NHL, maybe the very worst.
Antoine Vermette played much of the year as the team's top centre and though he did a commendable job, making the playoffs in the Western Conference with Vermette as your #1C would almost be a miracle.
With Yandle and OEL, the Coyotes very likely have the best offensive tandem of defenseman in the NHL, it makes their power-play insane, and the team is probably better with Yandle, as collectively, the Coyotes could very well be on the verge of having the best overall group of defenseman in hockey, depending on how the prospects develop and how fast.
Furthermore, Yandle is a fan favorite, and having him and Ekman-Larsson on the same team is treat for fans. It is one of the best things a fan of the NHL can see, game-to-game, in the whole league.The argument for keeping him almost as good as the one for trading him.
Conclusion
It all comes down to money. I don't pretend to know players as well as Maloney and his scouts and he probably has a much better idea of the realistic chances of success of the Coyotes three star defensive prospects, and, ideally, he would be more objective than I would be.
I personally am biased as a fan of Yandle, and while I try to provide analysis that is objective, I think we'd be kidding ourselves to pretend even the best of don't let our feelings cloud our judgement at time. I really like Yandle and I don't want to see him moved;I started this blog about to write that I think they should keep him. BUT, I sort of convinced myself that the argument for moving him is stronger.
Cheap, top pairing d-men who have some term left and are in their prime are a very rare commodity at this time, and it really does seem like a "prefect storm" scenario of reasons to move him.
The crux here for me is money: if the Coyotes make the Yandle trade for hockey reasons, I am 100% on board with whatever they decide. I just think, that if they would keep him otherwise, but move him to save money, then it's a bad move. Why should the fans even bother at that point?
Coyotes fans have been through enough with this team - the constant wonder on whether they will even continue to have a team, owned by the league etc. - and now that they have a new, stable owner, they can't afford to move one of their best players to save some money. The optics would look horrible. Like, New York Islanders horrible.
It's the NHL. No one made you buy a hockey team. If you are going to bail on guys because you can't afford them, then you're just taking my money and my time and neither of us should bother.
But, if you want to win. If you want to play with the big-boys in a professional league, then I am with you. So, trade Yandle, if it's a hockey move. But, if you trade him to save some money, then be honest about it so I can fold up my tent and go home.
Tonight, at the Draft, if the Coyotes use Yandle to move to the top 5, or they acquire the long sought after #1 centre, then I think I can (probably) be happy. But, if they dump off one of our favorite players for some low ceiling, long-term cheap contract guys, just to save money, then I won't be.
Thanks for reading.