Islanders Trade Travis Hamonic To Calgary In Possible Precursor For Duchene
Full disclosure, I’m writing this on my phone in the middle of upstate New York because 1. Blog don’t sleep, 2. I love you guys, 3. I feel like the Duchene hat is going to drop any minute and want to stay up to date with what could be a huge day for this team and it’s fans.
This Hamonic deal is for real been a year in the making. Despite Hammer initially taking back his trade request from last summer it was kind of known he wouldn’t remain an Islander for much longer. With players like Pulock, Pelech, Mayfield and others in the pipeline, Hammer was not only expendable [sorry not sorry Trav] but a huge bargaining chip as a young, quality, top-4 defenseman with an extremely team-friendly contract.
It sucks to see Hammer go, regardless of some up and down years, the man gave his all for this team despite going through a world of adveristy. From the loss of his father, to the aforementioned trade request, to the then redaction of the request – Hammer never really fell back into the good graces of fans who couldn’t understand that their favorite pro-athletes can go through the weeds just like us, and have to handle it in their own way. Calgary is getting a stud of a defensemen and a hell of a guy but they’re not getting him for free.
Advertisement
Which leads me to my next point – Last year Hammer was linked to a one for one deal with Edmonton for Hall, more recently a deal for Duchene, and even a JVR plus a 1st trade. It’s clear he has value and Garth knows it. With Garth clearly in win-now mode and showing signs that he’s willing to go all in to acquire the offensive pieces this team desperatlely needs, to give up Hammer for a handful of picks tells me that this isn’t the last of it.
Maybe it’s my dumb, forever optimistic brain at work, but this deal has to allow Garth to now meet Sakic’s unreal asking price for Duchene right? Get a 1st, a 2nd, and a decent amount of money off the books so you can sweeten the pot and get the golden goose you’ve been eyeing for almost a year now? I mean it only makes sense. I’ve been saying it all damn week and it still rings true, but I just don’t feel like Garth is finished. I didn’t after Eberle, and I can’t see trading one of the team’s most valuable players for picks and picks alone satisfying Garth.
PS – Shoutout to Ryan Pulock who might actually get his shot at the NHL now. I hope.