Jay Bouwmeester: Yay or Nay?
By Kevin N
Since there was actually some “news” regarding Jay Bouwmeester and the Wings today, I’m going to write about it instead of doing a Goal Analysis. They’ll be back soon enough.
According to this article on Mlive today by Brendan Savage, the Wings have been talking with the Calgary Flames about trading for defenseman Jay Bouwmeester. Let’s discuss this possibility, shall we? I’ll give some details then my thoughts on the trade.
Salary: Bouwmeester’s contract currently has two years remaining at a $6.68M cap hit. This would make him the highest paid defenseman on the Wings (Kronwall is second at $4.75M a year). It also would make him the second highest paid player after Pavel Datsyuk ($6.7M).
Stats: Here are his full stats from last season from nhl.com. He played in all 82 games (and hasn’t missed a game since the lockout). He played power play (2:10/game) and penalty kill (3:18/game). He also played 20:28 a game at even strength, giving him 25:58 time on ice per game.
His scoring line was 5 goals, 24 assists for 29 points and was -21. He also had 26 penalty minutes. His CORSI was -9.38, which means he was on the ice for about 9 more shots against than shots for (counting saves, goals, missed wide(Samuelsson’s), etc). The majority of Flames had a negative CORSI, which is because they are not a very good hockey team.
NHL Playoff Performance: Uhhh…he has played in numerous World Championships for Team Canada.
So…those items are how I’m going to base my “Should the Wings trade for Bouwmeester?” analysis. Here….we…go!
I think that Bouwmeester is a capable NHL defenseman on a really horrible team with a laughable contract.
I’m not going to lie, I don’t watch many Calgary games (outside of them playing the Wings) because why would I subject myself to that punishment? Going on that alone, I’d say his talent level lies somewhere in between a Kronwall and Quincey. Doesn’t necessarily hurt you, but is not good enough on his own to win or dramatically change the outcome of a game/season. In an ideal world, his cap hit would be about $3.5 to $4m a season. However, the Wings have enough cap space and he’s better than Kindl.
The Wings would be doing Calgary a favor by taking Bowmeester off their hands. After they signed Wideman (5 years, $5.25M HAHAHAHAHA) and Hudler (4 years, $4M) , they’re pretty close to the cap maximum. Unfortunately, pretty much every NHL team needs a capable defenseman, thus hurting the Wings in negotiations and making the cap hit almost a non-issue. I don’t know how the players in the room would receive him being that he’d be one of the highest paid players. I doubt the players care about that, but you never know.
Seeing that his contract is only for two more seasons, I wouldn’t be against the Wings trading for Bouwmeester, but like always, you don’t want to give up too much. Smith is a deal killer. Obviously, because it’s me writing this, Nyquist is also a deal killer (because Nyquist rules and he’s awesome and screw you if you think we should trade him). Nyqwuist owns.
I haven’t seen any rumors as to what Calgary would want in return. I’m guessing a roster player, high draft pick, and a top prospect. I would be okay with a first round pick, Abdelkader, and maybe a B-level prospect (Ferraro) at most. Or, you can always throw in Kindl and go sign any other non-Lebda defenseman to be the number 7. Naturally, I’d throw Samuelsson in but Holland gave him a no-trade clause and now I have to finish crying before I can finish the entry.
There are a lot of question marks around Bouwmeester. However, this Wings could do much worse, so as long as you don’t give up anything too valuable (very important), I say go for it. If someone else is willing to pay more to get him, no big loss. Yeah, I’m taking a big stand here…
What does everyone else think about trading for Bouwmeester? Woukd you not touch him with a 40 foot pole? Would you give up highlevel prospects for him (Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, Pulkkinen, Jarnkrok)? Id to get some thoughts on this. Yell at me on the Twitter machine (@KevinN37) and we can go from there. Until next time…
Is Kindl still a stop 6 defenseman?