ARIZONA CALLS: Surplus First Round Picks
The Arizona Coyotes are looking for a top-four defenseman with cap space to spare. With Shane Doan questionable for the coming year, the Vancouver Canucks could fill both those gaps while looking for a big upgrade drafting-wise.
Net Draft Transaction: (#20 OP + #158 OP) – (#64 OP) = 19.2 “draft bucks”
Defenseman Luca Sbisa’s worth cannot be lower than that of a low first-round pick, which cashes in at about 17 draft bucks, a figure that holds accurate with the worst-case market that would see Sbisa worth just one half of Gudbranson.
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Alex Burrows, however, is a tough one to judge for the lack of comparisons. An aging Kevin Bieksa with one year left on his contract was worth about five “draft bucks”. With the salary not too much of a concern for Arizona, they would not mind adding to a leadership group that is very flimsy after one and only Shane Doan.
For the Canucks, it would be best for them to show respect to Burrows by trading him rather than buying him out.
I truly believe that Sbisa is worth more than just a low first-round pick, but if the Canucks see a big steal at number 20 and the Coyotes want to get a pick in the 50~100 range which is currently empty for them, this could be a trade that frees up big time salary cap for the Canucks.
At the end of the day, would it not feel good to have gotten rid of more than $7 million in cap space?
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