Ducks Trade Deadline Recap: Late Deals Reshape Defense Corps

After spending much of the trade deadline day on the sidelines, the Anaheim Ducks and general manager Bob Murray sprung in to action late with a quartet of moves that were finalized and announced after the noon Pacific deadline passed. Lets break down each of moves, with charts courtesy of Mimico Hero Domenic Galamini‘s Own The Puck site to better visualize the impact of the ‘advanced’ numbers of the players moved.

James Wisniewski + ’15 3rd Round Pick for Rene Bourque, William Karlsson + ’15 2nd Round Pick

By far the biggest move of the deadline, the Ducks bring back a defender who played 100 regular season and playoff games with the team from 2008-10 after being acquired from Chicago. In his time in Columbus the 31 year old has tallied 26 goals and 95 assists in 209 games, with eight goals and 21 assists coming in 56 games this season. Wisniewski has been an important piece of the Blue Jacket power play, scoring 16 goals and dishing 44 assists with the extra man, accounting for 49.6% of his scoring output. Diving deeper into the numbers he's been a positive SAT%rel player each of the last three seasons (1.7 in 12-13, 5.4 last year, and 1.5 this season), and has his relative scoring chance percentage numbers following a similar trend at five on five. Columbus has given his the benefit of more offensive zone starts each of the last three seasons, but he has faced opponents that account for more that 50% of on ice shot attempts three of the last four years as well. Wisniewski has two additional years remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $5.5M and will be an unrestricted free agent in 17-18.

The attempted revival of Bourque was swing and a miss, though not for lack of opportunity as he saw multiple games skating on the top line. With his waiving for the second time this season the writing was on the wall that Bourque’s time in Anaheim was short, and now he moves to his third team of the season. The more impactful part of the trade is the parting with ‘Wild Bill’ Karlsson, who after endearing himself to the fan base with a fast start on his first call up and an entertaining evening on twitter. Karlsson put up two goals and an assist in 18 games with the Ducks this season, and had come on of late in the AHL with the Admirals to the tune of eight goals and 16 assists in 37 games for the year.

Simon Despres for Ben Lovejoy

This was the first deal announced this afternoon, and sent immediate shockwaves around Twitter. While Lovejoy has been a fan favorite for his engaging personality and no nonsense interviews (not to mention captaining the Kids Club), Despres is seven years younger and already demonstrated better shot suppression in limited time with Penguins. Despres was a first round pick, 30th overall in 09 and has a larger frame at 6’4″, 225. In 144 games over the past four seasons at even strength he’s been better than 51.8 SAT% and his shots against/60 minutes have been less than 27.1, which is better than every current Ducks defenseman. As an added point, while his minutes have been largely sheltered thus far, the Penguins had been starting him in the defensive zone slightly more than the offensive zone this season. Despres is signed through next season at $0.9M and will be a restricted free agent in 16-17, and given his strong skating ability for his size could easily find himself in the top four for the Ducks next season.

Lovejoy proved a surprisingly suitable partner with Cam Fowler in his time with Anaheim, but this season in particular ran in to several rough patches of play. In each of his seasons with the Ducks he was a negative SAT%rel player, though starting the majority of his shifts in the defensive zone each year as well.

Korbinian Holzer for Eric Brewer + ’16 5th Round Pick

Brewer has played irregularly since the Ducks defense recovered from the rash of illness and injuries earlier in the season,and the acquisition of a pair of defensemen with only one going to other way necessitated moving an NHL contract. Despite recently suffering a concussion, Holzer makes comparably less and will be an unrestricted free agent in the offseason. Holzer has decent size at 6’3″, 205 and despite posting poor possession numbers (less than 43.9SAT%, negative SAT%rel) in 56 games with the Maple Leafs can be useful in Norfolk. The biggest impact of the deal is it helps lessen the logjam of legitimate NHL defenders for Anaheim.

Michael Sgarbossa for Mat Clark

A pure AHL move. With the hole opened in the Admirals lineup thanks to the dealing of Karlsson, Sgarbossa fills the need and brings a scoring touch from juniors (113G 166A in 263 GP over four seasons with Barrie, Sagniaw and Sudbury) that was highlighted by him beating out Tyler Toffoli for the OHL scoring title in his final year. He’s had a pair of cups of coffee with the Avalanche (1A in 9GP) the past two seasons, while scoring 28 goals and 59 assists in 146 GP with the Lake Erie Monsters from 12-15. Sgarbossa is undersized at 5’10”, 170, with his stature likely keeping him from carving out an NHL role and likely topping out at being a decent scoring option in the AHL. Clark played seven games with the Ducks this season during the glut of defenseman debilitations earlier this season, and has played 282 AHL games since 09-10. He’s been more of a defensive defenseman and penalty kill specialist

Tomas Fleischmann for Dany Heatley +’15 3rd Round Pick (Saturday)

The fact that the Ducks were able to get an NHL caliber player for the ghost of Dany Heatley (thanks, AC commentariat) is a feat in itself. Fleischmann has history with Bruce Boudreau, having appeared in 226 games under his leadership of the Capitals from 07-11. A two time 20-goal scorer (also had 19 in 08-09), he’s been >50 SAT% player the past two seasons with the Panthers at even strength, and >50 SAT% in all situations each of the last four years in Florida. Heatley had rightfully been relegated to “LOL Heater” status after pulling his groin in the pre-season and being wholly ineffective in his few lineup opportunities thereafter. Despite being booed early on in his tenure with the Admirals he put up a pair of goals and five assists in 25 games, so there’s that.