Sensible Commentary
Joined: Jul. 2016
Posts: 910
Likes: 536
eh. both teams seemed to have soured on their respective players (I'm not really considering Clendening or Dauphin; ironic, though, that they were traded back to the teams that drafted them). Duclair had, I think, asked for a trade, and I suspect Tocchet didn't think Duclair was a fit in his system. Pánik had been healthy-scratched a few times in December, himself.
and, yeah, Duclair has more potential, but the Coyotes' system has enough of a "talented prospect" buffer. besides, Chayka has to figure out how to pay all those talented young players in his system (Domi, Rieder, Dvorak, Perlini, Chychrun), and, at the end of the day, Pánik gives him cost certainty for '18 - '19. money's a finite resource, and there's only so much of it to go around if he wants to pay his players fairly. besides, if Duclair does do something like go out and win the Rocket Richard (or even if he goes back to being a 20 G. 45 P player), Bowman's gonna have a hell of a time getting out from under the salary ceiling that he's face-planted the Blackhawks up against.