In a trade that pretty much everyone saw coming, the Jackets dealt veteran d-man Jordan Leopold to Minnesota in exchange for a 2015 5th rounder and 26 year old defender Justin Falk.
The part that no one really saw coming: the trade may have been facilitated by a lovely note that Jordan Leopold’s 11 year old daughter Jordyn wrote to the Wild management, imploring Minnesota to acquire her father.
https://twitter.com/jtbourne/status/572482226543185920
Letter has been confirmed by Bob McKenzie and others as legit, which makes it all the better.
Leopold was originally acquired in November from St Louis for a 2016 5th, so with this deal the Jackets gain a 2015 pick, giving them two 5ths this season.
The Jackets player return in the deal is Justin Falk, a massive 6’5″, 215 pound all-defense defender.
I say all-defense because the dude has put up a whopping 15 goals in his WHL (7), AHL (7) and NHL (1) career combined (561 games). More recently, Falk has played 70 NHL games combined for Minnesota (49) and the Rangers (21) in the past three seasons, recording five points, all assists, and 43.7%, 45.5% and 49.8% Corsi For ratings in those three seasons.
He’s been a massive drag on possession every season he’s played in the league. Those above numbers are well below the rest of his teams’ averages, with -9.5% Corsi Relative this season with Minny, and -6.9% last season with the Rangers, showing that he’s basically getting feasted on by opposition whenever he’s on the ice. His two most common defense partners this season (Nate Prosser and Christian Folin) AND last season (ex-CBJ John Moore, and Michael del Zotto) were all drastically better when playing with anyone but Falk, as well.
In the end, even with how dire the stats look, acquiring Falk is a small move that really makes no difference to the grand scheme of things, as he’s simply a warm body. He’s a sub-replacement-level player on a cheap, two-way, expiring contract, and will hopefully be gone in the off-season.
The big “get” here is that draft pick, as it brings the Jackets up to 12 for this coming draft.
And that’s that.
– Jeremy
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