NHL Trade Deadline Primer: Lack of trade assets is not an excuse, it is a buyer's market

Also some more some quick random thoughts on the Department Of Player Safety

Every year in the NHL, right around December or January, we start to see a line in the sand get drawn between the teams that will be buyers at the NHL trade deadline and the teams that be sellers.

By that point we have a pretty good sense of who is good, who is bad, and which players on expiring contracts will be traded. We also start to see some teams that really want to start tearing things down and trade off players that still have term remaining.

When those teams and players get identified we then go through the cycle.

The cycle begins with a report that the selling team is asking for an outrageous price for its player. Multiple first-round picks. All of your top prospects. A good young NHL player. Probably more.

This then leads to two separate reactions from fans and local media covering the team.

The fan of the selling team will begin to set unrealistic expectations for what the trade is going to look like. You start dreaming of a multi-player and pick return that is going to rebuild your organization on the fly and rapidly turn things around.

The fans of the buyers will begin to fret the asking prices and not want to part with any of their best prospects or first-round picks.

“I like that player, but no way am I giving up THAT!”

Then it turns into an additional concern of if your team even has enough assets to make that trade, and when combined with the salary cap concern it can lead to pre-trade deadline angst where you think your team has no choice but to sit it all out on the sidelines.

Then trades actually start getting made, and everybody quickly realizes those reported asking prices turned out to not be anything close to what you thought, and you wonder how your rival stole a key piece for next to nothing.

It is all playing out this week as we close in on the NHL trade deadline where the players getting traded are all going for completely reasonable prices.

If your general manager is telling you they can not make a trade because of the salary cap, it means your team is poorly run.

Likewise, if your general manager is telling you they do not have the assets to make a trade, they are not trying hard enough or are probably overvaluing their prospects and draft picks.

Just look at some of the trades that have already been completed involving some pretty prominent players at the deadline. Who has really overpaid for anybody here?