Demers to Dallas for Dillon

There have been a flurry of trades over the last couple of days, but finally on Friday, we've finally seen something that is hockey pool related and thus, worth putting up on the blog.

		2015 Season				Cap Hit
To Dallas	POS	GP	G	A	P	2015	2016
Jason Demers	D	20	0	3	3	$2.21 million	1 year, $2.21 million
2016 3rd Round Draft Pick
To San Jose	POS	GP	G	A	P	2015	2016
Brenden Dillon	D	20	0	1	1	$1.25 million	RFA
Retained cap hit						$1.19 million	1 year, $1.19 million

Ex-divisional rivals, the San Jose Sharks and Dallas Stars, completed a deal before the weekend games, which saw a couple of defensemen go either way, as well as a pick heading to Texas.  The Stars acquired defenseman Jason Demers and a 2016 3rd round pick in exchange for young blueliner Brenden Dillon.

The Sharks have also agreed to keep 35% of Demers' cap hit over the current season and the last year remaining on his deal.  All of the cap numbers are pretty rough for this season, because the Sharks will have paid 20 games worth of his 2015 portion of his deal, but it will give you an idea.

Both defenders in the deal haven't exactly gotten off to the best of starts through 20 games, having only 4 assists between of the two of them.  Demers, more of a veteran presence, should help the Dallas blueline with a little bit more poise, while Dillon, an RFA holdout in the off-season, hasn't really found his stride in Dallas and could probably use the change of scenery.

Only one of the two traded players are in the hockey pool, although the way Dillon was playing last year, it is somewhat surprising he wasn't picked. For our purposes though, Troy has Demers this season, and with him, has one of the top-ranked bluelines in the pool to date.  If Demers is to improve in Dallas, that could mean some good things for Troy, who sits in 8th place, 13 points out of the money, on Friday afternoon.