The trade deadline is less than a week away. Injuries have arisen in the Panther ranks. There was a healthy amount of speculation before, but you can bet it will ramp up even more now. So what is out there for the Panthers?
Andrew Ladd
The Winnipeg Jets captain is probably the most prominent name tied to the Panthers. Its not hard to see why either. He’s a four time 20 goal scorer, and well on his way to a fifth 20 goal season (He also had 18 goals in 48 games in 2012-13). He is also a four time 50 point scorer, with two close calls in 2008-09 (49 points) and 2012-13 (46 points). He’s been captain of the Atlanta/Winnipeg franchise since 2010-11. His overall possession numbers have been strong, with only one sub 50 CF% season, and 3 minus relative seasons out of 11 in his career. Here is an illustration of his last three seasons:
There is also history between Ladd and Dale Tallon. The Panthers GM previously traded for Ladd in a deal that sent the gritty forward to the Blackhawks in exchange for Tuomo Ruutu on February 26, 2008. Ladd would go on to play a key role in the Blackhawks first Stanley Cup victory in 49 years, scoring 99 points in 184 games with Chicago. There’s also a connection in the front office: Kevin Cheveldayoff, Winnipeg’s GM, was the assistant GM in Chicago during the 2009-10 season, following Tallon’s demotion “promotion” to Senior Advisor in the summer of 2009.
Sounds great, right? Let’s pour a little cold water on this and bring up a very important point: Andrew Ladd is 30, and has made his name playing a very physical brand of hockey. He has acumulated 1,092 hits over since 2007-08 per hockey-reference.com, and has collected well over 100 hits in each of his last two seasons, plus the current one. If the idea is to use Ladd as a pure rental, then this is not as much of a problem. However, if re-signing him is the goal, that could pose a problem. He would likely be looking for a long-term contract. He is rumored to have turned down a six year deal worth $6 million a season. That’s hefty.
There are only a handful of players who are able to maintain a high degree of play into their 30s playing a physical brand of hockey. Perhaps Ladd ends up being one of those players, who knows. Yet, with the Panthers haivng 23 expiring contracts across the entire organization, extending Ladd long-term is not a question with an obvious answer. Tread carefully.
Teddy Purcell
Should the Panthers miss or otherwise not prefer Andrew Ladd, a good alternative might be Teddy Purcell. The Edmonton Oilers forward is not as well renown in the league as Andrew Ladd, but he stacks up well:
Purcell is not as good of a goal scorer as Ladd, so that hurts, but they, otherwise, are very close when it comes to production and shot metrics. One place Purcell gives away to Ladd is physicality. Where Ladd has over a thousand hits in 9 seasons, Purcell has just 167. This is not necesarily a knock on Purcell, depending on play style it may just mean he does not run around as much, and stays in position. So if its a physical presence you are looking for, Purcell probably is not your guy.
However, with an iCF/60 of 14.0, his shot rate would be a welcome feature on a team that does not shoot enough.
Mikkel Boedker
Last week, I took a look at Justin Schultz, a young player with bad overall shot metrics. However, upon a deeper inspection, I found the answer was not as simple as he is a bad player. I was curious if I would not come to the same conclusion about Mikkel Boedker. The 25 year old Arizona Coyotes forward has not been north of 50 CF%, nor had a positive RelCF% in five seasons on a team that has had some lean years. However, he’s currently scoring points at the highest pace of his career (0.66 points/game).
Boedker, unfortunately for him, does not get the Justin Schultz surprise treatment. His details are as bad as his overall numbers indicate:
He is a player getting 1st line minutes, giving mostly 3rd line output. Eight of ten players who have 100+ TOI with Boedker this season have a better CF% away from him. If the Panthers were to acquire Boedker, I would imagine he’d be slotted at either 2nd or 3rd line right wing, based solely on reputation (see the first line minutes). Reilly Smith currently sits in that role on the right side for the Panthers. How does Boedker stack up by comparison? In a couple words, not well:
And he wants $5+ million a year on his next contract. No thanks.
In my opinion, you have to pass on Boedker, and pass on him hard, regardless of the trading price.
Sami Vatanen/Hampus Lindholm
If a defenseman is what your heart desires for the Panthers, the discussion should start with one of these Anaheim defensemen.
Excuse me while I drop these charts here:
When you can legitimately stack a guy up against Aaron Ekblad, you know he’s good. Vatanen is good in his own right too, as can be seen above.
Again, there is also a significant connection here. Ducks GM Bob Murray is a long-time colleague of Dale Tallon. The two defensemen were teammates on the Chicago Black Hawks (as it was spelled in those days) for three seasons from 1975 to 1978. Tallon would move on to the Pittsburgh Penguins for two seasons, but Murray would continue on with Chicago until 1990. Tallon would later return to Chicago as the color analyst on radio and TV broadcasts from 1981 to 1998. Murray would join the Blackhawks front office a season after retiring in 1991, and serve in various front office positions, eventually becoming GM in 1997. He would give Tallon his first front office job, as Director of Player Personnel with the Blackhawks in 1998. Murray would eventually be fired as GM in 1999. In all, these two men spent 20 collective seasons together in the same organization.
I believe it would be safe to assume these men know each other, and connections are important when it comes to trades. Its human nature, one would rather deal with someone they know.
However, I’m not sure we see either of these players moved at the deadline. Anaheim wants to sign one of these young guns, and trade the other. That’s out there already. The Ducks may as well wait and see who signs first, then trade the other in the summer. Both players remain under team control as RFAs, so this may be something best explored down the road.
There is no shortage of intrigue out there. There are certainly more options out there beyond these players, so the next six days are sure to be full of speculation. Regardless of who it is, I do think we will see someone new in Panther red soon.
