Ducks Trade Newton & Pick to Avs for Cumiskey
by Jen Neale on Oct 8, 2011 8:31 PM PDT
in **This Just In**
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JEN:
As Robby reported in the Fan Shot, the Ducks have traded defenseman Jake Newton and a 7th round 2013 draft pick to the Colorado Avalanche for defenseman Kyle Cumiskey.
Let's take a look first at what we received in this trade:
What I'm reading on Cumiskey is that he's fast, but his size causes him the most trouble. He seems to have been a work-in-progress for Colorado, since he was drafted in the 7th round by the Avs in 2005. In September 2011, Cumiskey was signed to a one-year RFA deal with the Avs.
According to our friends at Mile High Hockey, Cumiskey was put on waivers a day before the season started for the Avalanche. An interesting move from Bob Murray, seeing as Cumiskey cleared waivers this morning. (There could be some convoluted CBA rule as to why he wasn't picked up then.) There is some speculation that Cumiskey is not completely healthy after suffering a groin injury on October 5th. He's seems to have a history of concussions and groin issues. He will be subject to a physical upon arriving in Anaheim. After that, he's likely headed straight to Syracuse to learn the system, unless there are other moves planned.
What we lost...
On the 7th round 2013 draft pick - no biggie. The world is supposed to end in 2012, so we're good.
There were a lot of high hopes for Jake Newton. He was yet another collegiate free agent signing (3 year deal) back in 2010. People were in love with his 6'3 205lb frame and his gorgeous shot at the point, but beyond that, his actual defensive game was lacking. Carlyle has commented that Newton has not developed the appropriate skills to be an effective defenseman in the NHL. He, like Cumiskey, was a work-in-progress.
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This deal doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
by Daniel AC on Oct 9, 2011 8:54 AM PDT via mobile reply actions
Same here. I emailed the guys at Mile High and they said he’s unbelievably fast and that’s about it. If he’s going straight to Syracuse (which we don’t know if he is) it seems rather lopsided.
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It seems a straight change of venue for large under producing kids who will top out at 6th or 7th d men. Why the trade if we could have him for free off waivers?
I think Newton had great offensive tools and maybe a switch up front might have helped. Point is, kid was healthy and playing. Cynosure has a long history of injuries and seemed to be lacing out his potential as an undersized defenseman.
I don’t know why he traded for a player that was waived, but I’m pretty sure Murray has done this before. It might have to do with moving contracts between the AHL and NHL.
by Daniel AC on Oct 9, 2011 9:45 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions
I see reading comprehension isn’t on par for me today. Did we just trade a large d men for another undersized dmen who has trouble in his own zone? I assumed we were getting a large bruiser for our large offensive dman. Don’t we have Shultz and that finish kid and fowler as our offensive dmen of the future? We need good versions of andy sutton not undersized pp specialists.
Cumiskey vs Newton
I have a hard time seeing how anyone can be upset with this trade. Newton’s chances of being an NHL defenceman are pretty darn slim whereas Cumiskey has shown that he can at least be serviceable. Newton is a big guy, but its not like it’s impossible to sign free agent defensemen who are big but have a limited skillset, which is exactly what Newton is. Actually, at this point Newton isn’t even an NHL calibre big D-man with a limited skillset. He is a third pairing AHL big man who was a disappointment in training camp. Cumiskey is one year older and does not have to clear waivers again, meaning he can sit in the AHL, and if he is needed in the NHL we can call him up without exposing him to re-entry waivers. Who knows, after a year or 6 months maybe he has the confidence to be a contributing NHL d-man who can be used as a tradeable asset if he is redundant. As for Murray not claiming him on waivers, well I think that was a great move by our GM. If we claimed him on waivers he would have to stay on our NHL roster or be exposed to waivers again when we send him down to the AHL, at which point Colorado would have priority to just claim him again. Also, we sent back an equivalent salary in Newton and kept ourselves below the contract limit with a little wiggle room (48/50). The way I see it is we just got someone who can help our AHL team and has NHL 5th/6th upside who is a great skater for someone who isn’t helping our AHL team and has the upside of a 7th dman, if he figures out how to be effective. I just don’t see how this can be called “gutting our D prospects” when there is a year difference in age and even on a purely asset value sense, Cumiskey is of more value than Newton likely will ever be.
I’m going to disagree on several points. First, Newton doesn’t have Cumiskey’s injury history. There’s a chance the guy is rarely if ever healthy. Moreover, Newton had a fantastic skill set. What he didn’t have was good puck moving skills, which is a serious problem in the NHL. However, that’s something that can improve in time. Newton’s potential is to be Foster. An oversized offensive defenseman who can play on the lower pairing.
I won’t deny he had a disappointing camp, but then again, I only got to see him once, because camp was closed after that first preseason game. Cumiskey has plenty of D ahead of him on the depth chart right now: Foster, Brookbank, Guenin, and Smaby. Cumiskey is the 10th option in the system. And even if you want an offensive defenseman he’s still behind Foster. It makes more sense to sit on Newton and see if he develops better after his first AHL year than it does to acquire an undersized, redundant player who has a history of injuries.
I agree with what Daniel is saying here. The only reason this move makes sense is if it fills a need for the Syracuse team. It seems that Murray has become more serious about our AHL affiliate winning, and maybe they realized they needed a offensive defenseman. If thats the case then I can swallow this move. It also seems that the NHL has a very short leash with prospects in general and I remember reading that coming into this season the Ducks were expecting big things from Newton. Maybe he didn’t live up to those expectations and acquiring Cumiskey filled a need with the Crunch team.
If this is a move for the Crunch, it’s not a bad mover. I still think that Newton had great offensive skills, but if he wasn’t working out there, for whatever reason, then he wasn’t working out.
From what I read, Carlyle doesn’t think Newton had the tools to become and NHL defensmen. on top of that ESPN rumors states that Cumisky would have to pass re-entry waivers to play in the NHL. This tells me that he wants him for the Crunch. Most likely he just needed to make room on that roster for Cumisky.
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