Trade: Thomas Vanek to Florida

[TheHockeytown]

Thomas Vanek has been traded to the Florida Panthers in exchange for a 2017 3rd round pick and defenseman Dylan McIlrath.

 

I hate this deal. I think it is just more proof that Ken Holland is not meant to be in management any longer.

 

"We did the best we could." No Ken, you didn't. Your time to prove you can change something is up, and so is the patience of your club's fans.

 

Tampa, please fire Stevie Y so we can bring him back to Hockeytown.

[yave1964]

Surprised that there was no market for wingers today, not attempting to give Holland credit but look at the other wingers moved or rumored to be moving.

Vrbata stayed put, so did Landeskog and Duchene.

 

Parenteau only netted a sixth rounder.Drew Stafford also only drew a sixth round pick. Iginla netted the Avalanche a 4th rounder.

 

  Lots of teams still sitting on their assets at the end of the day at least he managed a third and a former top ten pick for Vanek. Would I have liked more? Sure, absolutely but at least we added something for him.

 

[TheHockeytown]

@yave1964

 

We won't know for (probably) several years if that 3rd round pick is really worth it or if it's someone that will just sit in Grand Rapids and be called up every now and then to sub.

 

As for McIlrath, what a horrible return for a player like Vanek. Even though he's only 24 and still has plenty of time to improve his play, he's only put up a whopping 5 points total in his NHL career with TWO teams. Not a very impressive record for a 10th overall pick. And now he's playing in Grand Rapids since that's where he was assigned as soon as he was traded (what was the point of the trade then?)

 

If Steve Ott's aggressiveness didn't solve problems, neither will McIlrath's.

 

On top of that, it was a division trade, and we retained a rather high amount of money from Vanek's contract. Vanek being a rental or not, this was an awful deal - sorry - steal.

 

This was a steal for Florida. I, along with many other fans, want Ken fired as soon as possible. Preferably tomorrow.

[yave1964]

@Hockeytown

 

Ask anyone in here, for five years i have stated that Holland needs to be given a copy of the home game and a gold watch and put out to pasture. We have lost Yzerman and Nill among others who could have navigated the ship and kept us relevant and now retooling is not an option, a full fledge rebuild is the only way to fix this mess and I do not believe for one moment that Holland can do the job.

  When we received a 3rd for Jurco I was giddy, same thing when we received a 2nd and 3rd for Smith, if I could I woulda done handflips, Ott netted a 6th I went meh but was licking my chops thinking of the return for Vanek.

  Like you I was stunned at the return and thought Kenny caved too early but then after watching the lack of teams stepping up to the plate for a forward it blew my mind, none of the big names changed hands today, Hell Vanek netted the biggest return of any player today so I kind of give Holland a bit of a pass on that and am more curious about what the other GM's were doing today.

  Now we could have kept him and even listed him as one of our keepers to keep the Knights from taking him in the draft but then he would still be an UFA and then what? Does he resign or move on? He is chasing one last payday, do we give him four years at 4.5 million or so?

  We got what we got, we got what we could, I would have liked more but it is what it is. Between the four former Wings we netted a second, three thirds and a sixth and a non prospect who we can expose in the draft which from what I read was the reason we added Mclrath in the first place. Like you said time will tell and third round picks have a history of being a crapshoot but at least we have three more of them now to role the dice with. I agree with you about Holland, he has overstayed his welcome by a decade and needs to retire it should have happened long ago but there is nothing we can do about the past, just move forward, clear him out and get a new regime with fresh minds in place to right this damn ship.

[Haliax]

You don't think that if Holland could have gotten more that he would have? I really don't get why anyone would be pissed off about this trade. Yeah, Florida got a good deal on this trade, but it isn't as if someone offered more and Holland just said, "naw, I'd rather take less from the Panthers". It isn't like I'm thrilled with the job that he's done the last few years, but he did pretty well this deadline.

 

Would you rather he just kept Vanek and not got any assets at all? 

[SpikeDDS]

21 minutes ago, Haliax said:

You don't think that if Holland could have gotten more that he would have? I really don't get why anyone would be pissed off about this trade. Yeah, Florida got a good deal on this trade, but it isn't as if someone offered more and Holland just said, "naw, I'd rather take less from the Panthers". It isn't like I'm thrilled with the job that he's done the last few years, but he did pretty well this deadline.

 

Would you rather he just kept Vanek and not got any assets at all? 

 

BE QUIET, YOU! WE ARE VENTING! 

 

My take: I'm disappointed and don't really understand why the market was down for today. It just seems like the mindset across the league is "go big, or go home." You got a Shattenkirk, offers galore. But not much lower than that, you got "meh." As if a player like Vanek couldn't make much difference. Hard to believe, but seems like that's the way it is.

 

I can't blame Holland all the way here, because there just wasn't much demand. He can't MAKE other GM's want to pay a price. He either has to get nothing, or take what he is being offered. He KNOWS he's gotta get SOMETHING for him. To not get anything for Vanek would be hangin' time for Holland! He got what he got. I don't blame him for that.

 

I blame him for all the moves he made and didn't make that got us to where we are. This didn't happen overnight. This has been happening since the exit of Lidstrom. He just hasn't made good moves. He is resigning players for too much and too long who are not worth the salary, the term, or both. He has done it repeatedly. He has avoided the trade market...until he had no other choice, beginning with Datsyuk's deal. In the process, his lack of trades made us give away several lower-level talent players which could have got us picks. I just think he's been too afraid of making the wrong trade that will end up biting him in the butt later and make him look bad. He should have been making trades when he could have been making them. Now he is doing it out of desperate necessity, and it's not exactly a secret. Other GMs in better negotiating positions know it. Why should they make a big offer. They let him sweat. If he's desperate enough, he'll take a low offer. Just gotta time it right. Welcome to the Vanek deal.

 

So in the immediate, it's not really his fault, but in the long scheme of things, he's really the one who put himself in this position, and I don't think he knows how to get out of it. And if he DOES know how to get out of it, I'm still doubtful that he can actually pull it off.

[TheHockeytown]

37 minutes ago, Haliax said:

Would you rather he just kept Vanek and not got any assets at all? 

 

1 hour ago, yave1964 said:

Now we could have kept him and even listed him as one of our keepers to keep the Knights from taking him in the draft but then he would still be an UFA and then what? Does he resign or move on? He is chasing one last payday, do we give him four years at 4.5 million or so?

 

Maybe. I would have preferred Vanek stay for the final push to the playoffs, but I think that ship sailed today. Of course, as I've said before, I'm content with not making the playoffs this year if it means being able to initiate a rebuild and get on our way to fixing the team sooner. Just really wish there was more light at the end of the tunnel, but it seems like the further we walk, the dimmer the light gets.

 

20 minutes ago, SpikeDDS said:

He is resigning players for too much and too long who are not worth the salary, the term, or both.

 

This is quite possibly my biggest problem with Ken. Cleary, Bertuzzi, Weiss... a few examples - veterans - who didn't produce much if at all prior to offering them contracts, or they had injuries limit their abilities. I will never understand why Ken is so stuck on always going for veterans who just don't have it in them anymore. Zidlicky and Cole, even though they were acquired by trades, did little work when we brought them on. Granted, they didn't play many games with us, but it didn't make a difference I don't think.

 

Understandably, I think a lot of my anger comes from this lackluster season in general. I'm tired of hearing about Ken Holland, tired of seeing the RW in the same place in the standings, tired of our players not performing as expected, tired of being tired.

 

But I digress. Always respect your input, guys.