Richard Cloutier: Would You Trade Nail Yakupov?
- Maxbone
I might trade Yaks at the right time for the right piece (right now that "right piece" is Mark Messier, or as close to him as exists, which I guess is Ryan Getzlaf... for some reason that makes me sad), but I would argue against trading him right now for the following reasons:
1)It seems faithless to take a player #1 overall and trade him before he ever gets to play for your team. What are you telling future draft picks? What are you telling your fans who just bought Yaks jerseys? Bad PR move.
2)His value is not very high right now. Buy low, sell high. Well, buying low is no longer an option, so let's at least try to get a good return. This is supposed to be Bure 2.0... wouldn't you think you could have swapped Bure straight up for a large #2C? Adding Gagner seems overpayment.
3)As soon as you mention Gagner in a trade scenario my lawn gets cluttered with damn punk kids hating on Gagner. Get off my lawn! *shakes fist* And pull up your pants!
4)Lots of scouts got paid lots of money, and 80% of them agreed that Yaks was the obvious choice. Concensus #1 overalls don't fail to pan out very often...
5)Depth-for-quality moves should IMO be made to push your team up from being a playoff team to being a Cup contender. We are not yet a playoff team (though we really should be by next year). Plus, waiting a year means we are less likely to accidentally trade off the guy who surprises everyone to become the best player out of our prospect group. The cream will rise to the top, but it needs time to do so.