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I love this trade.

1. People need to stop overreacting about giving up Forsberg. If you’ve ever seen him play or read the scouting reports you will know that he scores the majority of his goals on long slappers and wristers in the 2nd Division Swedish league, and most if not all of those goals dry up in the NHL unless you are a world class player (OV, Kovy, Crosby, etc) and even if Forsberg fills out all his potential he will not be nearly as good of a sniper as any of the guys I listed, so from all indications his game doesn’t translate to North America well at all and he will have growing pains to say the least, if not be totally lost and run back to Sweden. Furthermore, he is a point per game player in the 2ND DIVISION SWEDISH LEAGUE at age 18. To give you a sense of how unimpressed you should be by this fact, Backstrom was a dominant monster in the SEL (Top Swedish League) at age 18, and Johansson was a solid established player in the same league at age 19. Also, the fact that Forsberg dropped so drastically in the draft when he was a “consensus” top 3 pick has to tell you that Forsberg was overrated by some measure because can’t miss top prospects don’t just drop like that. Even further, it’s no guarentee Forsberg will be coming to North America anytime soon as his Swedish team just got promoted to the SEL, and that has given him and his club more reason and desire to make him stay in Sweden for not only now, but the forseeable future. This is all separate from the fact that he is just a plain unknown, and I’m not going to insult everyone’s intelligence by listing a bunch first rounders with the inevitably approx 50% of them not panning out or even remotely reaching top 6 winger/top 4 dman status that their “ceiling” indicates. Yes, Forsberg has been amazing in International play, but as we all know International Hockey is very different from NHL Hockey and playing with kids your age is different than playing with men who are paid to make you suffer.

2. It seems like everyone is not doing their research, or giving the proper due to Erat. HE IS THE TOP 6 WINGER EVERYONE HAS BEEN CLAMORING FOR ALL SEASON. Not only that, but he is mythical unicorn (left handed shot to play left wing in Oates’ system) that Oates has probably been begging for all those nights where he put freaking Volpatti on the first line because he had shitty options when it came to left handed wingers. He is a sure bet for 20 G – 30 A in an 82 game season, and that was when he was playing for Nashville, and if you haven’t seen Nashville play, think Hunter Hockey on steroids, more depressing, except with the best goalie in the world so it’s a slightly more favorable coin flip. It is an extremely realistic assumption to think he will be a consistent 60 point player in our more offensive system, and that kind of production out of a top 6 winger for $4.5 million a year is actually below market value and a minor bargain of about $1mil a year. On top of the consistency and production, all the advanced stats and metrics point to the fact that Erat plays pretty tough competition on a regular basis and does well against that tough competition. He is very sound defensively and is a very experienced PKiller (hmmmm other than top 6 winger scoring what else has needed shoring up on this team this season? PK!). Sounds exactly like the type of player I’d want to fill our top 6 winger need!

3. This isn’t a short-sighted move like everyone thinks. Erat isn’t a rental! He is locked up for two more full seasons after this one, and at a reasonable rate at that. If we resign Ribiero, which is what all indications are pointing towards, then GMGM will have successfully filled the two biggest holes on this roster within several months for the next three years at least. We’ve been searching for a long term 2C since Oates retired, and this offseason GMGM made a shrewd trade for Ribiero and it looks like we’ll be able to keep him at a not too ridiculous rate, especially considering he looks like he has at least 3 good years left in him, is a borderline 1C, makes average linemates look great, and has a type of game that ages very well. We lost Semin this past offseason, so the new glaring hole that opened up was getting one more top 6 winger. Lo and behold this trade deadline, GMGM trades for Erat to more than capably fill that hole, and gets a solid prospect in Latta as additional return. And don’t overlook Latta as a nice positive piece to this trade. From researching him since hearing about the trade all indications are that he is decent prospect who projects as a big burly defensive 3C with a nasty streak. The frequent comparison that comes up is Steve Ott, which as a 3C and us going into the Patrick Division starting next year, has me very intrigued and hopeful he can contribute and come in as a regular in the big leagues in the near future. Along with Wilson, I think GMGM is building towards a cheaper, younger, and more skilled bottom 6. Imagine in 2 years half of our bottom six in Latta, Wilson, and Beagle with all of them on cheap sub $1.5 mil a year contracts. With OV, Backstrom, Ribs, Erat, Laich, and Marjo/Brouwer holding down the top 6 spots for the foreseeable future I can envision GMGM thinking he will retool the bottom six with cheaper, younger, better homegrown talent, which will free up cap space to keep the big guns together, pay Holtby/Neuvy in a couple years, pay Alzner, and allow for room to acquire one more top 4 dman to go along with Green, Carlson, and Alzner. Throw in Kuz as our ace in the hole to come in two-three years down the road to make us stacked with high end talent like it’s 09-10.