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BarnabasCollins · 10-16-2020, 03:59 PM

3 for McZ

Let me first preface this by saying I’m not out to disparage anyone involved with this deal. I just decided to look at some of the more shall we say bigger or most commented on trades over the history of the SHL. And this trade was certainly one of those, a shocker that saw God McZehrl going to Minnesota for 3 first round picks and more. Now McZ is a legendary SHLer with HOF players and has quite a pedigree but many people were shocked to see such a huge haul for his latest player. And also factoring in was McZ’s somewhat shall I say “eccentric” personality and this was quite a lot to give up for any player let alone a person of McZ’s caliber. So here are the particulars of the trade:

Minnesota receives:
God McZehrl

Buffalo receives:
S49 Min 1st
S49 Min 2nd
S50 Min 1st
S51 Min 1st
Caelan Fearghal

This trade occurred in the middle of S48 if I’m not mistaken which would see McZ traded away from the cup winning team mid-season. So what were the motivations of the trade? Well Buffalo’s motivation is quite obvious I would have to say with the huge haul they received for removing a high-quality player from their team mid-season. I think for Minnesota they had had a bit of success a couple seasons prior in seasons 45 and 46 and maybe were trying desperately to maximize the window for that core of players and they thought McZ could give them an opportunity to get back into the cup picture. So lets see how the teams fared in the 3 seasons prior and after the trade.

Minnesota:
S45 27-19-4 2nd rd. playoffs
S46 28-19-3 3rd rd. playoffs
S47 19-25-6
Trade 20-24-6
S49 23-24-3
S50 15-29-6
S51 19-29-2

As we can see from Minnesota’s record, they failed to accomplish the goal as they did not make the playoffs after the acquisition of McZ. Minnesota has in fact struggled ever since this deal was made and they continue to struggle to this point. You have to wonder if hanging on to those first round picks would have changed the landscape of the Minnesota seasons since this deal. Sometimes you so desperately want to maximize a window for a group of players that you’ll give up more than you should and even before analyzing the Buffalo side of this deal I think we can pretty well see this is the case here. Hindsight is always 20/20 however and if it had worked and brought playoff success to those Minnesota teams I think we would be having a more interesting conversation here.

Now taking a look at the Buffalo records:

Buffalo:
S45 20-26-4
S46 28-14-8 Cup Champs
S47 29-20-1 3rd rd. playoffs
Trade 27-19-4 Cup Champs
S49 26-19-5 2nd rd. playoffs
S50 26-18-8 2nd rd. playoffs
S51 27-21-2 2nd rd. playoffs

So as we can see from the records Buffalo deciding to trade away a key player in McZ did not have much effect on there record, winning the cup the season of the deal. And the picks they received led to players that continued to make them a very successful SHL franchise as you can see from one playoff appearance after another. Trading away one of your top players mid-season and still winning the cup in fact proved that Buffalo’s decision was in fact kind of a no brainer with such a haul, again hindsight proving 20/20, if they had failed to win in S48 would we be having a different conversation?

Again I also wanted to examine the players that ended up being involved and see if the trade payed off in that regard for the teams. Minnesota had McZ for only 3 and a half seasons before he bolted in free agency. During that time McZ played 171 games for Minnesota and scored 145 points or about 41 points a season. So McZ did pretty much hold up his end of the bargain for Minnesota here. Unfortunately, his individual success did nothing to help his team achieve any amount of team success.

Buffalo turned all those picks into the following players. Louie Garrett played 60 games for Buffalo netting 41 points. He in turn brought them star Michael Scarn who played 300 games and scored 270 points for Buffalo. Caelan Fearghal played 2 games before being shipped out in another mid-season deal for 19 games of Connor Tanner and 12 points from him in the cup winning season 48. The S49 2nd yielded Denver Wolfe who never suited up for Buffalo and is playing in Toronto I believe. Chris Cerullo is also in this trade tree and he went IA. The S50 1st led to Augustus Wang, a young mainstay on the blueline with 150 games so far and 86 points. The S51 1st led to another young blueliner who is also still producing for Buffalo with 150 games and 40 points. So far Buffalo has 681 games from this trade and 449 points or about 33 points per season.

So there you have the breakdown, hopefully my mistakes in the analysis are minor but all in all it’s quite easy to see this trade really ended up hugely in Buffalo’s favor. They have shown continued playoff success since the deal and have 2 relatively young blueliners who’ll still be producing for them for many seasons to come. Whereas Minnesota in an attempt to win a cup they desperately wanted traded away their future and have been struggling to regroup ever since. Again, not meant to disparage anyone here, I can see the motivation for thinking someone could put you over the top for success but I guess the lesson here is what price is too steep to try and grab the brass ring.

DeletedAtUserRequest · 10-16-2020, 06:51 PM

That’s allot of balls!
Nice read!
+1

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***WannabeFinn*** · 10-17-2020, 10:36 PM

what a trade

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