FN Weekend Open Thread – Build your JayBo Trade

 

 

Aside from the Flames suddenly signing a bunch of goalies, the only interesting Flames "news" recently is the Jay Bouwmeester/Detroit Red Wings rumor. This one apparently comes from a source inside the Wings organization, so we can give it a bit more heft than the typical Eklund nonsense.

Roger Millions noted on twitter yesterday that Calgary isn’t actively shopping Bouwmeester at this point, but is willing to listen to offers. If true, that suggests the Wings (or any other suitor) is going to have to convince Calgary to make the move – meaning the package is going to have to be pretty attractive.

Which makes sense, since the Flames are still clearly trying to compete next season. A draft pick and a prospect type package would make sense for the club if they decided to actively pursue a rebuild, but otherwise filling the hole left by Bouwmeester would be essentially impossible in the short term.

While there are plenty of reasons to be unimpressed with JayBo (huge pay check, lackluster offense, not an elite shut-down defender), keep in mind he played the toughest minutes in the league with Chris Butler as his partner. Calgary’s defensive depth would move from "adequate" to "scary" sans JayBo as well: Giordano, Wideman, Butler, Brodie, Sarich, Smith, Babchuk. So even with his too-big paycheck, his muffin of a point shot and bland personality, Bouwmeester remains an incredibly hard presence for the Flames to replace.

 

So your prefered package for JayBo is going to be guided by how you feel about the Flames immediate future. There is a large and growing faction of Flames fans who would like to see the Flames begin the rebuild in earnest now rather than drift into an iceberg later. If so, then it makes sense to shop Bouwmeester for some package featuring a younger player and prospect or draft pick. Of course, if that’s the tact the club takes, then shopping Iginla and Kipper immediately would be the next obvious step.

On the other hand, if you agree with management and want to see the Flames remain competitive, then a Bouwmeester trade will have to include a couple of players who addresses a significant current need on the club: a quality top-6 forward between the ages of 23-27, an elite possession forward (below the age of 35) or at least a defender who can adequately replace Bouwmeester’s minutes.

A home run deal would be to blend the two – land a quality player for now and a good prospect/pick for later. I assume that is the sort of deal Ken Holland or Paul Holmgren will have to make get Calgary to seriously consider things, but you never know.

So for the sake of this exercise, assume both Detroit and Philadelphia are in the running (there are no solid Philly rumors, but it’s an intuitive enough leap). Build your hypothetical package around your preference for team direction: rebuild now, compete now or hybrid. Keep in mind with latter, "ideal", hybrid package will be the toughest to build aand would likely feature a compromise in one direction or the other – the better the established player you demand, the worse the future asset will be and vice versa. 

Personally, I would ask about Johan Franzen, Valterri Filpulla, Tomas Tatar, Brendan Smith, Gustav Nyquist and Calle Jarnkrok out of Detroit. Philly players of interest include Sean Couturier, Braydenn Schenn, Jakub Voracek and Eric Wellwood. Mix in draft picks at will.