Early this season, it felt like Toronto had won its goaltender swap with Los Angeles hands down. Jonathan Bernier was providing the team with exceptional goaltending, the Leafs were winning games and Bernier’s arrival seemed to have pushed James Reimer to his best work too.
Then Jonathan Quick got hurt, and Ben Scrivens stepped in, providing the Kings with everything Bernier was giving Toronto and then some. And with Scrivens providing strong play, the fact that Toronto had sent away other pieces (Matt Frattin, a second-round draft pick) and opted to pay a lot more money to make the goaltending change suddenly shifted the balance the other way.
That’s how trades work in the short term, especially when goalies are involved. A hot or cold streak can dramatically alter perception of a deal. But we want to project beyond that, to see which team is likely to have won this deal when history renders its final verdict.
To do so, we need to answer two questions:
1. How much better than Ben Scrivens is Jonathan Bernier?
2. Is that gap in ability enough to justify the other parts of th ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Jonathan Willis
Maple Leafs or Kings: Who Will Ultimately Win Bernier-Scrivens Trade?
December 5th, 2013 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
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