4 winners and 3 losers of the three-way Matt Duchene trade

It was honestly only a matter of time before Matt Duchene was traded by the Colorado Avalanche. After Duchene was seemingly on the trading block for nearly a calendar year, the Avalanche got their haul for their star center.

And what a haul it was. There were many moving pieces among the Avalanche, the Senators — who were the ultimate beneficiaries of nabbing Duchene’s services — and the Predators, so much so that it’s one of the biggest NHL trades in a long while. In total, nine pieces went to three different teams, with the Avalanche getting the biggest piece of the pie:

The asset swap has a lot of ramifications for all three teams involved in the deal — ones that may not be seen for seasons to come. Even still, there are some winners and losers that we can declare even as the smoke is still clearing.

See those seven pieces the Avalanche picked up for Duchene? That’s an impressive amount of capital back even for the coveted center. The asking price on Duchene may have been set improbably high by general manager Joe Sakic, but he squeezed everything he could out of the Senators and the Predators.

Nothing in the Duchene deal really gives the Avalanche an asset that will pay off today. Goaltender Andrew Hammond will help bolster the organization’s depth in goal, and he could even replace backup netminder Jonathan Bernier this season if needed.

Other than Hammond, the Avalanche got back a total of six prospects and high draft picks from the Senators and Predators. Colorado was never going to compete for a Stanley Cup this year, so adding a handful of young pieces that could fill the holes in the lineup in a few years was a smart move.

The Avalanche now also have tremendous drafting power, as they have six picks in the first three rounds of the draft next year, with two coming in the first round. If the Avalanche play their cards right in the draft, they could end up restocking their cupboards, and then some.

After nearly a year, Duchene finally got his wish to be traded out of Colorado. His unhappiness with the Avalanche may have been the league’s worst-kept secret since December, and it’s been a story that has dragged on through the last 10 months of 2017.

Now, everyone gets a clean break, with Duchene most of all. The 26-year-old center has a lot more left to give after scoring just 41 points in 77 games a season ago. In a forward corps of Mike Hoffman, Mark Stone, Derick Brassard, and Ryan Dzingel, Duchene will likely find Ottawa a better home than Colorado was the last few years.

Not to be forgotten, Nashville acquired Kyle Turris from the Senators in exchange for defenseman Girard, forward Kamenev, and a 2018 second-round pick. After slogging through the first month of the 2017-18 NHL season, the Predators may have helped alleviate one of their biggest problems in one fell swoop.

Not only did the Predators add an extremely viable middle-six center in Turris — who scored 55 points in 78 games last season — they did so without sending one of their big defensemen back in a trade. The Predators had been rumored to have been in on Duchene for awhile now, but as our Senators blog Silver Seven Sens has put it, Duchene and Turris are pretty comparable in their last few seasons.

Nabbing Turris for the cost of a few prospects and a draft pick helps the Predators re-tool on the fly for another run at a Stanley Cup. Pretty solid asset management here.

We will have front row seats to Duchene’s first two games as a Senator... which will be played in Sweden against the Avalanche.

You can’t script this type of drama, folks.

Depending on how you look at the Senators, honestly. On one hand, the Senators are a franchise that has had a modicum of success in the past few years as they made it to the Eastern Conference Final as season ago. Plus, playing with Erik Karlsson is an incredible boost compared to what Duchene was dealing with in Colorado’s back end.

On the other side, Ottawa’s attendance issues are dragged through the mud every few months or so. While the team has done fine so far with a 6-3-5 record in the Atlantic, many aren’t high on the Senators despite their stars.

Also, given that Duchene was rumored to other potential contenders in the Penguins and the Predators, the Senators aren’t among the NHL’s high-profile teams this year. Yet, it may be to Duchene’s favor when all is said and done.

No matter how cordial Duchene and the Avalanche are in exit interviews with one another, the bad feelings may honestly linger forever. Even in post-game, the Avalanche didn’t hold back after having Duchene dragged along behind them for the last year.

In these cases, it’s hard to win. Duchene wanted to leave, the Avalanche knew it, and Sakic had to do his job to balance that and find a trade that worked for the organization. Instances like Duchene losing the alternate captain’s “A” for promo pictures, then having it reappear in games, only added fuel to the fire that this was one unhappy marriage for all involved.

There are likely a lot of hard feelings on all sides that may have to be worked out behind the scenes, and some grievances may not even be settled at all.

The longer I sat on this trade, the harder it was to find a real definitive loser in all of this. While the Avalanche could have gotten a more immediate impact in the trade and the Predators gave away a few assets, the Senators may be the ones who “lose” the most in a relatively fair deal for all sides.

Ottawa gave up the most assets to get Duchene by the end of the night. Turris went to Nashville while Hammond, Bowers, and two high draft picks went to Colorado. It’s a fair price to pay, all things considered, but one that will have to be looked at in retrospect when the draft picks pan out for the Avalanche.

Even then, Hammond hasn’t played in the NHL this year. Draft picks are gambles no matter whose hands they end up in. Turris and Duchene are incredibly comparable, and the Senators got the younger of the two when all was said and done.

So sure, calling the Senators “losers” in this deal isn’t really right when all sides seemingly got fair shakes in the now. If anything, the Senators just have more question marks ahead of them thanks to this deal. Will Duchene continue his solid pace in a new environment? What will the Senators do if their goaltending depth takes a hit? The Senators, like the Predators, are in win-now mode, but what happens if it doesn’t pay off?

Ottawa in no way got robbed in this deal, but time could tell if the Avalanche got a bit more than they bargained for when those two draft picks roll around.