This decision I made before the season is eating at me.
Must vent.

I drafted Wisniewski in the last round a couple years ago, long before he was on anyone's radar. I had only seen him play 5 or 6 times, but I thought he was very solid with obvious offensive upside. I was thrilled with the decision, although his injury history bothered me.

5 months ago, I knew I could get Martin, and I thought about this transaction a lot, finally deciding to do it. Dropped Wiz to make room for Martin on my roster.

I realize today that I undervalued Wiz for a few reasons:
1) his injury history
2) the tantalizing aspect of replacing him with a powerplay D-man that would play with Crosby and Malkin
3) replacing him with an asset who would make the playoffs for sure
4) "beyond Tavares, who is a legit NHL talent to feed Wiz consistently, enabling him to get points?"
5) Parallel points illusion, or the "hedge theory" that I (admittedly) subscribe to a little too often - by this, I am referring to the idea that a player has less value to me if I already own other players that will benefit from him playing well. In this case, I already have Okposo and Tavares. So I figured, "worst case scenario... Wiz plays ridiculously well, but I benefit indirectly anyway because that will help Tavares and Okposo produce points for me."

I don't know... as I lay out all that, I think it was a reasonable decision at the time. But it sure blew up badly. Do you guys think it was dumb? Reasonable? A little of both? thanks all

It wasn't bad logic that was used. It didn't work out obviously but the Pens have 3 good offensive dmen and they like to use a forward on the first PP unit. So.... two of their good offensive dmen get to pass the puck to Pascal Dupuis and Letestu. That was a tough situation to judge.

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Twitter:@DH_EricDaoust.

Agreed.

I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. You took a decent gamble that never really paid off.

On the opposite side of things, Wiz is not a very good D man in terms of 'real' hockey (a defensive liability). His offense and shot are what teams are after, but he's always got one foot out the door...look how many times he's been traded already. Plus, the teams he's been traded to are only acquiring him to replace injured PP guys (Markov/Streit).

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I forgot to mention that unlike Martin, Wisniewski has had better offensive opportunities than he's ever had. In Chicago he was more of a depth guy and in Anaheim he was used in defensive situations because they lacked guys who could do that. Neither situation brought the best out of him. On the Isle he was given the keys to the car sort of like Byfuglien in Atlanta. He could roam around all game. In Montreal he's on the top unit of a very talented power play.

In response to the prior post, the last two trades involving Wisniewski are more contract related than anything. In Anaheim he only signed one year so they cashed in on the asset and then hit the UFA market to sign Sutton. On the Isle they figured to sell him when the buyer came knocking. To my knowledge neither one of those trades were motivated by hockey or character. I could be wrong though.

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UHL Calgary Flames
24-team H2H (roto G, A, GWG, SHP, PPP, PIM, +/, SOG, Hits, Blks, FOW, W, SV, SV%, GAA, SO)

Capped article archive

Montreal Canadiens coverage

Twitter:@DH_EricDaoust.

I get that but honestly Wizniewski looked good his first 15 or so games with the Islanders too and then it all went to shit. So yeah, he's looking good in Montreal and maybe he's a great fit there. They play a good system but I'm looking at a guy who has been dealt twice this year from teams that can use defensemen. Something's gotta be up. Wait for the honeymoon faze to end and then we'll see just how good Wizniewski really is.

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Exactly my thoughts and I hae said it before in other threads. Wisniewski's real test for his worth is in the games after the 20 game mark where he gets too comfortable. Eric was saying that he would sign Wisniewski to a contract tomorrow if he could ($4 million range) . That is just too much risk for me. The Wizard is a $3 million dollar man at best (until he proves to me and other NHL teams that he can play consistently for a full season)

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