What would you do with Raphael Diaz?
By Ari Yanover
9 years agoLooking at Taylor’s piece on Byron inspired a quick look at the Flames’ contracts. After all, pending UFAs to get looked at when the trade deadline rolls around, and Curtis Glencross and Paul Byron are two of those guys. (Alright, so Byron is an RFA, but considering how he wasn’t even qualified last time around, he’s essentially being treated as unrestricted.)
As far as skaters go, there isn’t really anyone else who fits the bill… except for one guy. Raphael Diaz.
Notable defence targets like Cody Franson and Andrej Sekera are now off the market, so teams with playoff aspirations but in dire need of defensive depth (uh… that aren’t the Flames) are going to have to start looking elsewhere. And Diaz is extremely cheap, both in terms of cap hit, and in what it would probably take to acquire him.
Diaz has only played 39 of the Flames’ 61 games this season, but that’s more Bob Hartley’s fault in thinking that Ladislav Smid and Deryk Engelland made a viable defence pairing than anything else. Smid’s last game came back on Jan. 19, and he’s still on the injured reserve without any word for his return, so you’ve gotta think Diaz isn’t going to lose his place in the lineup any time soon. That, and the fact that he’s joined the powerplay unit, now playing alongside Mark Giordano on the top unit up there.
So you can’t think he’s going anywhere.
… Unless he is.
Trade comparables
Last season, in the time leading up to the trade deadline, a number of bottom pairing NHL defencemen and AHLer tweeners were traded, including:
- Mark Fraser
- Raphael Diaz
- Brian Connelly
- Mike Weaver
- David Rundblad
- Rostislav Klesla
- Raphael Diaz
- Brayden McNabb
- Nick Schultz
- Andrej Meszaros
- Raphael Diaz
… Okay, no, Diaz was only traded twice. Once from the Montreal Canadiens to the Vancouver Canucks for Dale Weise (fourth liner), and then from the Canucks to the New York Rangers for a fifth round pick. It would so happen that two other guys on that list – Mike Weaver and Nick Schultz – were also traded for fifth round picks. Andrej Meszaros was apparently worth a third rounder, David Rundblad was traded with another prospect for a second, and everyone else was in a prospect/minor leaguer swap for one another, or a throw-in in a bigger trade.
Diaz’s value seems pretty cemented for us, though. Should the Flames trade him, he’s probably worth a depth forward or a fifth rounder. Maybe a higher pick or a low-level prospect if they’re lucky.
Is that worth it?
That’s what you’ve got to ask yourself in a trade involving an NHLer as low-impact as Diaz. Nowadays, he averages 11:47 for the Flames a game, including some powerplay time. Is that worth more than a fifth rounder to you?
What if he’s re-signed? Should he be? At 29 years old, Diaz is no longer a prospect, but he’s certainly an NHL defenceman. Not a top four guy, but a guy who can play. Is another season or two of Diaz worth more than a mid-round pick? Consider that mid-round picks are extremely far from being a sure bet, but also, as a rebuilding team, you can never have too many picks.
Also consider that before he went down with injury, Adirondack’s highest scoring defenceman was Ryan Culkin, a fifth round pick from the 2012 draft.
Would you take a chance on getting another Culkin, or keep Diaz for another 20 games (with the possibility of an extension)?
Mind that should Diaz be traded with Smid still injured, his replacement would probably be Tyler Wotherspoon. (Probably not Corey Potter. His designated role all season long has been “provide leadership in the AHL, and if one of our main seven guys get hurt, you come up and sit in the pressbox, just in case”. He’s played it perfectly.) Would trading Diaz be addition by subtraction if it got Wotherspoon into the lineup?
The way I see it, it comes down to two main options as far as just Diaz is concerned:
- Trade him, get an extra pick, play Wotherspoon.
- Keep him as a regular in the lineup. (This could result in the Flames’ six defencemen staying the same; or maybe another guy – like Dennis Wideman and his contract – has a suitor instead, in which case he probably stays on the bottom pairing, but helps the defence core remain stabilized.)
How do you see it? What’s the best move for the Flames?
Recent articles from Ari Yanover
