NHL trade deadline candidate: Maple Leafs D Cody Franson
Cody Franson is one of the most productive defensemen in the NHL. If the Toronto Maple Leafs move him, pretty much every contender could use him.
The NHL trade deadline is fast approaching, and whether your team is competing for the Stanley Cup or competing for right to draft Connor McDavid there is a good chance they will be in the market for some sort of move before then.
In the days and weeks leading up to the March 2 deadline, Eye On Hockey will take a look at select players from around the league that could be on the move with an everything you need to know primer.
Today we look at Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Cody Franson, one of the more productive defenseman in the NHL and a player that could be on the move over the next month.
Why he might be available
For the most common reason that any veteran player is available this time of year. The Maple Leafs are closer to the top of the draft lottery than they are a playoff spot, and Franson is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and the two sides don't seem to be close on a contract extension. It's been reported that the team is willing to give Franson something in the neighborhood of $4.5 million per year over three years, which seems like it's not even close to what a player like him will be able command on the open market.
Right-handed defenseman that can provide the type of offense Franson can are rare commodities in the league and they get paid quite well on the open market. Somebody is going to be willing to give him a contract similar to the one Matt Niskanen received in Washington this past summer ($5 million to $7 million over six or seven years), and he is going to take it.
What will make Franson so attractive, whether it be at the trade deadline or in free agency (assuming he doesn't re-sign with Toronto or whatever unknown team he gets traded to) is that, for whatever flaws and shortcomings he might have defensively, he still scores and moves the puck like a top-pairing defender. And there is a huge value in that. Since he entered the NHL during the 2009-10 season with the Nashville Predators, he is 51st in the league in terms of all situations points per game among defenseman the 251 defenders with a minimum of 100 games played.
When you look at just even-strength production, he is ninth in the league over that stretch when it comes to points per 60 minutes (minimum 2,000 minutes played). That is about as good as you can get and puts him in some pretty exclusive company, both in terms of production and financial compensation. The average salary cap hit of the seven still active players ahead of him (Brian Rafalski one of the players ahead of him over that stretch, but retired a couple of years ago): $5.6 million.
Chances he gets moved: Pretty high
If the reported numbers the Maple Leafs are willing to talk about when it comes to a new contract are accurate, he's simply not going to re-sign there at the moment and is going to be one of the most coveted players on the free agent market given his production, age, and right-handed shot. If the Leafs keep him and are unable to re-sign him and let him walk for nothing, well, that is just poor roster management.
Should your team acquire him?
You bet it should.
Unless the Coyotes do something they shouldn't do and decide to trade Keith Yandle or Oliver Ekman-Larsson, there probably isn't going to be a better, more productive defenseman avaialble before the trade deadline, and there should be no shortage of teams lining up to try and get him from the Maple Leafs.
At the top of that list should be the Los Angeles Kings, a team currently on the outside of the playoff picture in the Western Conference that could use more depth on its blue line beyond Drew Doughty and Jake Muzzin.
It would be out of character for them to do it based on their history of never making a big move, in-season or otherwise, but a contender like Detroit could probably become even more dangerous with a player like Franson on their blue line to go with their impressive group of forwards.
Franson will have his issues from time-to-time defensively, but not to the point where he is a liability on the ice. Plus, the bonus with a player like him is that he is probably not only going to help make up for whatever mistakes happen in his own zone offensively, but also minimize those defensive zone issues by helping the team not have to defend as much.
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