Take your picks...

I've read here and there on the Oil Blogshpere about trading some roster players for drafting picks at the upcoming trade deadline. The name that I hear most often that surprises me is Ryan Jones. I recall back when we lost Curtis Glencross to free agency (Calgary Flames signed him) how easy it would be to replace him and how we dodged a bullet contract wise. Then as time went by, everyone was clamouring on about how we lost Glencross and how we needed to replace him. I believe guys like Glencross and Jones are not quite as easily replaced as some people believe and that loosing them one way or another is not the way to build successful hockey clubs.

What really troubles me more is not the idea of getting rid of Jones, I can see if we moved him to fill a need such as faceoff specialist or shutdown defenseman being beneficial. But to simply trade him off to acquire picks seems fairly foolish and impractical. I know the sentiment is that you can trade him for picks and the player selected would develop in to potentially a better player but the key word is potentially. Don't get me wrong if we could swap Jones for a first rounder I would be all for that. More than likely you would be getting a better talent who would only need a couple of years to develop but as you move further into the later rounds which is where I imagine you find the pick you would get, the odds of that pick developing into an NHL player let alone one who is equal to the player you gave up goes down rather quickly. Further more if you did manage to draft a player that would eventually have the same talent level you probably wouldn't see them on the active roster for at least 5 years or more.

The follow up argument always seems to be that we can simply sign a similar player via free agency and more or less get a pick and similar player by trading a player like Jones away. This may be true but I think that constant turn over proves to have a very negative effect on most organizations and especially on organizations so dependant on teamwork such as a professional hockey team. Also if players like Jones were so readily available I find it hard to believe teams wouldn't be needing to trade for them as they would have plethora of there own. Plus you know what a player like Jones brings, he is familiar with the team and its systems and he assumedly has a good relationship with the other players on the team. Why rock the boat all for potential.

Don't get me wrong there are times when dealing players away make a lot of sense, such as when you have player going to free agency that you know you can't sign or when you trying to relieve some financial obligations and you want to move contracts without taking any back. But I think if you are not in these situations there is little advantage in making a trade that involves a quality player for the potential of a quality player. Keep the devil you know especially if he is as hard a worker as Jones is.