The Value of: Sheldon Souray
NHL Hot Stove presents it’s “The Value Of” series which will look at some of the names discussed around the NHL who likely will be moved at the March 3rd trade deadline.
At this point the entire city of Edmonton knows their star defenseman and powerplay trigger man would waive his no trade clause if the deal “makes sense.” So lets sit in our armchair and play general manager, trying to find out exactly what we can get for our All Star.
Sheldon Souray claims the deal needs to make sense meaning both he and the team need to be happy. His happiness wages on playing on the West Coast, close to his family house. The team’s happiness would be fair value for a player they believed would backbone their blue line when they signed him over two years ago.
Similar to the writeup we conducted on Dion Phaneuf, no other player quite compares to Souray. An immediate comparable trade simply does not exist. The closest defenseman traded would be Brian Campbell who the Sharks acquired as a rental.
Back in 2000, the New Jersey Devils traded him, a second-round pick and a prospect to the Montreal Canadiens for Vladamir Malakhov. This trade came well before Souray became the prolific scorer or powerplay presence he currently is so of course the deal appears lopsided in hindsight.
In present day Souray commands much more. His production last season warranted consideration as a top 10 defender although this year we saw a substantial drop, understandable considering the Oilers’ place in the standings. I would place his value somewhere in between.
Since the team most likely will sell and rebuild for the future Souray should be on his way out. The best idea would be to acquire a stopgap to replace him on the blue line as well as a high draft pick. The player coming back would need to carry a cap hit at least half of Souray’s 5.4 million.
Again the team would need to make sense, meaning West Coast. By my calculations only the Phoenix Coyotes play out west and can afford his cap hit without sending salary back, therefore moving Souray proves both difficult and most likely not reasonable.
Even though the Oilers would love an edge in the Taylor Hall sweepstakes they most likely will not retain it through trading this player. Rightfully so, when they build their next dynasty they will be thankful for his shot still manning the point.
Alexander Monaghan
NHLHS Editor
amonaghan@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @NHLHotStove
