Cult of Hockey: New York should trade McDonagh for Hall, Oil's 1st overall pick, says NY writer. Huh?!

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This just in from New York Post hockey columnist Larry Brooks, his notion that the New York Rangers should look at trading defenceman Ryan McDonagh to the Edmonton Oilers for some unspecified combination of Edmonton’s top pick in the 2016 draft, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and/or  Taylor Hall:

 “The Rangers owe it to themselves to investigate fully what they could attain in return for this 27-year-old (as of June 13) with a club-friendly annual $4.5 million cap charge through 2018-19 — but whose limited no-trade clause kicks in July 1. Specifically, it would be to determine what the club might be able to extract from Edmonton, a team likely to be excluded from consideration once the no-trade is in force. What would the defense-needy Oilers be willing to deal for McDonagh, the best defenseman at the best price they might ever be able to acquire? This year’s first-rounder — which will be overall pick Nos. 1-5 as determined by this coming Saturday’s lottery drawing — would necessarily have to be part of the conversation. So would Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Taylor Hall.”

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Cult of Hockey: New York should trade McDonagh for Hall, Oil's 1st overall pick, says NY writer. Huh?! Back to video

My take

Part of me wonders if Brooks is just trolling the Oilers and their fans here.

Let’s say he’s not. To start the evaluation of his suggested trade, I’ll give Brooks the benefit of the doubt and suggest he meant McDonagh is worth Edmonton’s 1st pick plus one of Draisaitl, Hall and Nugent-Hopkins, but not all three. Or it could also be that Brooks meant any one of those four pieces alone — the 1st, Draisaitl, Hall or RNH — for the McDonagh, but that’s not how I read it. It sounds like you start with the first pick, then add one more piece, though the wording is vague. 

McDonagh, 26, is not among the top elite NHL dmen. He’s not in the class of a Brent Burns, a Victor Hedman, an Erik Karlsson, a Drew Doughty, a Duncan Keith or a P.K. Subban.

McDonagh is arguably in that second group of really solid No. 1 d-men, players like Alex Pietrangelo, Roman Josi, John Carlson, Mark Giordano, Kris Letang. If he is in that company, he’s near the bottom of the group. He’s not much of a power play scorer, though his even strength scoring is fine, 0.91 points per 60 in the past three seasons, good for 33rd overall for regular NHL dmen, and just ahead of Edmonton’s Oscar Klefbom, .9o per 60. 

McDonagh also has a value contract that pays him $4.7 million per.

But does he work for Edmonton, given the Oil’s need at right defence? 

One issue with the Oilers is that McDonagh shoots left, and Edmonton has a glut of left shot d-men including Klefbom, Andrej Sekera, Brandon Davidson, Darnell Nurse and Griffin Reinhart. It’s unlikely that McDonagh is the right fit here, given Edmonton’s limited trade resources and with a market that may well include right shot d-men like Tyson Barrie, Sami Vatanen, P.K. Subban, Justin Faulk, Jason Demers and Travis Hamonic.

As for Brooks’ notion of McDonagh’s value, well, it’s hard to know what to say except it’s not clear to me that McDonagh is worth one Leon Draisaitl or Taylor Hall straight up in a trade. I suspect the Oilers might move Nugent-Hopkins for McDonagh, but not Draisaitl or Hall, two bigger players who are built for competition in the West. Of course, if the Oilers move RNH, they might well prefer to bring in a right shot d-man like Hamonic or Faulk, not McDonagh.

As for also throwing in Edmonton’s No. 1 pick, it’s hard to take such a suggestion seriously, if that’s what the suggestion is.  If that pick is in the top three, it alone would be an overpayment for McDonagh given the quality of the three top attackers in the draft, Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi. If it’s the fourth or fifth overall pick, it would be the main price paid by the Oilers for a player like McDonagh.

For reference, check the price that Calgary paid for Dougie Hamilton last year, the biggest piece being a mid-1st pick. McDonagh would command a bit more than Hamilton, but only a very good player or a great pick in return, not both.