One Year Later: The Logan Shaw Trade
By Thomas Harrington
One year ago today, the Anaheim Ducks traded Michael Sgarbossa to the Florida Panthers for Logan Shaw. One year later, it’s safe to say that Anaheim won this trade. While it was a relatively minor move, Shaw has become a staple on Anaheim’s bottom six while Sgarbossa left Florida over the summer and signed with the Jets.
The Ducks originally acquired Sgarbossa from Colorado when they traded Mat Clark to the Avalanche in March of 2015. With the Ducks, Sgarbossa spent most of his time in the AHL, playing for both Norfolk and San Diego. Overall, he scored 24 goals and 60 points in 84 minor league games. He also got into 10 games with the Ducks and recorded two assists. While he was never viewed as one of Anaheim’s top prospects, he was a veteran presence in the AHL who was one of San Diego’s better players in their first season as Anaheim’s affiliate.
The Panthers drafted Shaw in the third round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. He spent the next few seasons playing in juniors and made his pro debut in the 2013-2014 season, splitting time between the AHL and ECHL. He spent the next year entirely in the AHL and finally made his NHL debut in the 2015-2016 season, playing in 53 games and scoring five goals and seven points for Florida. He also appeared in 19 AHL games that season. Last year, he played in 13 AHL games for the Springfield Falcons before being acquired by Anaheim.
With the Panthers, Sgarbossa split time between the NHL and AHL. With Springfield, he played in 14 games and scored 12 points. In the NHL, Sgarbossa played in a career-high 29 games, scored his first two NHL goals, and had seven points overall. He was going to be a restricted free agent over the summer, but he wasn’t tendered a qualifying offer and he left Florida as a free agent. He chose to sign in Winnipeg over the summer and has been playing with their AHL affiliate this season.
After being acquired by Anaheim, Shaw played in two games with San Diego before being called up to Anaheim and has been with the Ducks ever since. While not an elite goal scorer, he’s a good defensive checker who fits in well on the team’s bottom six and penalty kill units. Last season, he appeared in 55 games and scored three goals and 10 points, while going scoreless in nine playoff games. The Ducks were happy enough with his play to give him a one-year extension in March. This season, he’s played in 18 games, while scoring one goal and four points. With the injury issues that Anaheim has been going through, he will almost assuredly set a new career high in games played, and have a good shot at setting career highs in goals and points too. While he isn’t an integral part of Anaheim’s roster, he’s a useful player and has stepped up into a larger role this season, especially on the penalty kill. Last season, he averaged 1:27 minutes of shorthanded ice time per game. This year, that has been bumped up to 2:28 minutes of shorthanded ice time per game. While he won’t ever be a Selke candidate, Shaw has helped Anaheim’s penalty kill unit be the fourth best pk unit in the league.
One year later, Anaheim has won this trade. Shaw won’t ever be one of Anaheim’s top players, but he’s become a good role player for them. It was great that Sgarbossa finally scored his first NHL goal with the Panthers, but the fact that he wasn’t qualified shows that he wasn’t in Florida’s long-term plans. While this was a smaller deal, it’s clear that one year later, Anaheim came out on top of this one.
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November 16th, 2017
Filed under: Ducks News Tagged: Anaheim Ducks, Ducks, ducksnpucks, florida panthers, logan shaw, michael sgarbossa, one year later