So if you recall last week, after the second to last round of cuts were made, and Elliotte Friedman reported that the Maple Leafs were shopping Carter Ashton for a pick, rather than lose him for nothing if he didn't make the team. And given that Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren were still in camp, and Randy Carlyle was still coach, I felt that the writing was on the wall, and Ashton was as good as gone. So we had a little fun, and I asked you where you thought he was eventually going to end up.
The Carter Ashton pool was born.
However, in a mild upset, Ashton in fact made this team, which meant two things. First, the Leafs made a sensible roster decision, ignoring Carlyle's heroin-addiction level need for an enforcer in his lineup, and kept a decent young player in their lineup for at least a little longer. And second, since he made the team I don't have to go through and try to score the damn thing, because everyone who was right won, and everyone who wasn't lost.
Having said that, let's look at who exactly won, and what some of the results were from the pool.
First things first, thanks to everyone who contributed the 133 responses we received for the pool.
Out of 133, 21 people correctly predicted that Carter Ashton would make the Leafs. Congratulations to the following people;
Aki Cross, Al, BCapp, Bilal "Billy Chilly" Abowat, Burns_14, draglikepull, King of the Kessel, leafslover, Leluso, Only_Crime, ovechwin, PositiveDrinking, rikersbeard, s, Sportsock, SteelPenguin67, Stu Pidnick, The Gardiner Expressway, twocents, wallnerr, and wan ihite. SteelPenuing67 wins the unofficial and imaginary prize for being the first responder to correctly predict Ashton would make the team.
So what did everyone else pick to happen?
38 people thought that Ashton would be put on waivers, 14 people believing that Ashton would go unclaimed and stay in the Leafs organization, and the other 24 believing he'd be claimed. 15 different teams were beleived to be the one to claim Ashton on waivers, with Buffalo and Carolina (4 each) the most common destinations.
Finally, the trades. 88 different people had Carter Ashton being traded somewhere last week. Let's break down some of the details of those predicted trades.
Date - 9 people had Ashton being traded last Wednesday (Oct. 1), 14 on Oct. 2, most people (33) believed Ashton would be traded before the final preseason game (Oct. 3), and 18 people thought on the weekend (Oct. 4).
Destination - 88 different trades sent Carter Ashton to 24 different teams around the league, with Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Washington, New York Rangers, and Chicago being the only teams that people did not believe he would be traded to.
The Calgary Flames were far and away the most likely destination for Ashton according to our respondents, with 14 trades sending him to join Joe Colborne on Calgary's fourth line.
Return - Most people had him being traded for a draft pick or picks, though there were some that thought he'd be returned for a player of some description, which included "Vesa Toskala", "Jerry D'Amigo", "A no name defensive prospect", and "Mark Giordano" among others.
The most common return seemed to be either a 4th or 5th round pick in 2015, with compensation ranging from a 2015 2nd rounder from Calgary, to a 2038 5th round pick.