SuperMario wroteCOLONi think nick made some solid points kareem. i think youre too involved with the trade to see how much you overpaid really at a time when halak is at an all time high (how much better than this can he really play?) and miller is at an all time low. i wont disagree on the issue that halak is better than miller for your team but i will disagree on how much you overpaid. esp when i think somewhere between now and the playoffs, miller would have started playing better and you couldve moved him if you wanted to save cap for stamkos or kept him because he was playing well enough and moved him after the season.
I'm not too involved in anything...This is the same opinion I held before I traded for Halak; I went over multiple different stats, and reports as well as taking age and cap into consideration when compiling a list of my top goaltender targets. I even scouted the top 5 on that list to ensure I wasn't being rash or making a "panic" move. I am well aware that it appears that way, from the outside, but I've been looking into this since the end of week 1. Halak was #2 on that list even before he went on his run, he brings it all, age, numbers, potential, cap and the team in front of him is sound, which was the only reserve I had coming into this, if STL were the real deal or not. I am still not comfortable labeling them the "real deal", but I am comfortable knowing they won't hurt Halak either. I should also add that I never once underwent this process with my previous three goaltenders (Ward, Fleury, Miller), in each case I went with the name player, I didn't bother examining their numbers, the team in front of them or scout their play. My thought process was simple, they have a ton of hype, ergo they are the tenders to go after. I did my due diligence on this one, and am supremely comfortable with my return, both short term and long term.
It's very easy to argue I bought at a high, but if Halak builds on his torrid pace from the halfway point of last season, his price likely escalates to the point of untouchable status, and conversely with Miller, the chances of his stock raising are, IMO just as likely as they are too drop. He has a sore knee, is coming off a season in which he severely outperformed his career norms, and is playing behind a very, very poor Sabres club. It is not written in stone that Miller gets better, and Halak gets noticeably worse.