Trading up for McDavid if we end up at #2

[I am Defecting]

Tanking is about getting elite talent. We'll never know how much this particular decision to tank was about McDavid and Eichel, but tanking in general with a lottery format is simply not about a single player. No team is dumb enough to stake everything on a 20% chance at best. You want the 20% chance, of course, but you're not going to discard players acquired along the way because they aren't that one player. Does anyone think we're trading Risto, Reinhart and if we miss out, Strome? Of course not. It's not about one guy.

Do you mean elite, like best guy on team elite?  Like better than Ennis?  

 

Or do you mean elite, as in a once in a generation, such as Gretzkieux, or Crosvechkin?

[bunomatic]

Tanking is about getting elite talent. We'll never know how much this particular decision to tank was about McDavid and Eichel, but tanking in general with a lottery format is simply not about a single player. No team is dumb enough to stake everything on a 20% chance at best. You want the 20% chance, of course, but you're not going to discard players acquired along the way because they aren't that one player. Does anyone think we're trading Risto, Reinhart and if we miss out, Strome? Of course not. It's not about one guy.

This

[TrueBlueGED]

Do you mean elite, like best guy on team elite?  Like better than Ennis?  

 

Or do you mean elite, as in a once in a generation, such as Gretzkieux, or Crosvechkin?

 

I mean elite as in can play on the top line or the top defensive pairing for a Cup contender.

[SwampD]

Tanking is about getting elite talent. We'll never know how much this particular decision to tank was about McDavid and Eichel, but tanking in general with a lottery format is simply not about a single player. No team is dumb enough to stake everything on a 20% chance at best. You want the 20% chance, of course, but you're not going to discard players acquired along the way because they aren't that one player. Does anyone think we're trading Risto, Reinhart and if we miss out, Strome? Of course not. It's not about one guy.

This post is irrelevant because this year there are two guys. That 20% percent doesn't really mean anything.

[TrueBlueGED]

This post is irrelevant because this year there are two guys. That 20% percent doesn't really mean anything.

 

In my not-so-humble opinion, the tank started with the Pominville trade. Was Eichel so highly thought of back then? I'm skeptical. I'm sure he was on the radar, but I don't recall the generational talk until last season.

[SwampD]

In my not-so-humble opinion, the tank started with the Pominville trade. Was Eichel so highly thought of back then? I'm skeptical. I'm sure he was on the radar, but I don't recall the generational talk until last season.

I'm not sure. It's a fair question. I will say, though,  that the first sentence of the first post of the 2015 Draft thread that was started last year, mentioned them both.

 

EDIT: It was actually the second sentence, but the entire post was about both of them.

Edited March 29, 2015 by SumpfV

[Taro T]

In my not-so-humble opinion, the tank started with the Pominville trade. Was Eichel so highly thought of back then? I'm skeptical. I'm sure he was on the radar, but I don't recall the generational talk until last season.

I'd agree that was the official start of the tank, though it was precipitated by the Hodgson and Roy trades not quite working out as DR had expected. Hodgson and Ott were supposed to leave a stronger squad than Roy and Kassian, but Hodgson wasn't the center he was billed to be (much as Leino wasn't) and Roy's scoring was never replaced.