Would you have traded Pavel Buchnevich for Alex Galchenyuk?

Late last night, a big trade went down between Montreal and Arizona. The Yotes landed their #2 center in Alex Galchenyuk, giving up promising top-six winger Max Domi. The deal is another one of those lopsided deals we are all making fun of, but mostly because trading a top-six center for a top-six winger is never a good idea. Galchenyuk and Domi have similar stat lines and point-per-game stats. Domi is a passer, Galchenyuk is a shooter. That’s really it.

The cost for Galchenyuk makes you wonder if the Rangers should have been in on that. And let’s be real, it’s safe to assume Jeff Gorton made some sort of phone call and no deal could be made. To see what the Rangers needed to give up, you look at what Domi is: A young, cost controlled top-six winger with more upside. The only player on the roster that matches that description is Pavel Buchnevich.

Could there be something else that could have been done? Probably, but we need to remember two things here:

1. Quantity =/= quality.
2. This was a deal made for a need, not for futures or dumps.

So let’s look at what Domi is. He’s a 23 year old winger finishing his ELC. After his phenomenal rookie year (18-34-52), he’s put up 38 and 45 point seasons. He’s been on par with assists, but he hasn’t crossed 10 goals in a season. He’s also shooting under 9%, which should probably rise at some point. If his SH% finds its way back to normality, expect his production to stay in the 50-60 point range.

Compare him to Buchnevich. Buch is a 23 year old winger with one year left on his ELC. He was roughly 0.5 points per game over the past season and a half with the Rangers, spending a lot of time as a healthy scratch or a fourth liner. Despite that, he put up 14-29-43 last season, on par with Domi. With a coach that plays him properly, he should be a top line winger putting up 50-60 points per season.

I had a disucssion with Joe Fortunato and Brandon Cohen on Twitter just now, and Jimmy Vesey’s name came up. While I am sure that there are GMs who think Vesey could be a top-six winger, he doesn’t have the point production to be a comparable in this particular trade. For the sake of this post, finding a Max Domi comparable for a Galchenyuk trade, Vesey doesn’t fit the bill.

So for the sake of this post, Buchnevich is the only comparable on the roster today. Would you have made this trade?