DESPITE Patrick Dangerfield's insistence he would not re-sign before the final year of his contract, Adelaide did not entertain trading the prospective 2015 free agent last year.

But will clubs be more prepared this year to trade players who are one year away from becoming free agents?

Will Carlton, for instance, consider a pre-emptive trade of Chris Yarran?

Yarran is among a host of stars set to become free agents at the end of 2016, with others including Scott Pendlebury, Todd Goldstein, Jack Riewoldt, Cale Hooker, Hamish Hartlett and Dan Hannebery.

Yarran has just entered the first season of a two-year contract that he signed in June last year and, at 24, is one of the players that Carlton can structure its upcoming list rebuild around.

However, Carlton president Mark LoGiudice intimated last month that any trade in "the best interests" of the club would be considered as it prepared to regenerate a list that lacked "depth".

Adelaide football manager David Noble summarily dismissed any talk of a Dangerfield trade on the first day of last year's player exchange period, even though Melbourne had indicated to clubs it was prepared to trade pick No.2 in the NAB AFL Draft for the right player.

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With the exception of the Western Bulldogs with Brian Lake in 2012, clubs have taken the Crows' Dangerfield stance in free agency's first three years - happy to hang on to prospective free agents for the final year of their contracts even when, like Dangerfield, they have continually baulked at re-signing.

AFL.com.au asked several list managers why clubs have been reluctant to trade contracted stars before they enter free agency.

All agreed free agency compensation picks had emboldened clubs not to blink at the trade table.

When the Crows refused to consider trading Dangerfield, they knew that if the worst happened and the former Geelong Falcon left via free agency in 2015, the rival offer would be so lucrative – $800,000 a season at the very least – that they would receive a first-round compensation pick tied to their ladder finish this year.

The Crows could almost certainly have brokered a better trade for Dangerfield – whether the midfielder would have agreed to that trade is another matter – but they were prepared to risk a lesser return a year later in the hope they could convince him to stay by the end of 2015.

Deciding whether to trade Yarran might not be as simple for the Blues.

For starters, an AFL working party is considering, among other things, whether free agency compensation should be scrapped next year.

Although most believe compensation is likely to stay – especially for restricted free agents, as Yarran is almost certain to be – Carlton at least has to factor in the possibility it could be left empty-handed if Yarran leaves via free agency.

On the flipside, the Blues know if free agency compensation survives the current review, Yarran could net them a James Frawley-type windfall.

Melbourne received a first-round pick after Frawley accepted a four-year offer to join Hawthorn as a free agent last year, a pick that became No.3 given Melbourne's 17th-place finish.

It's a safer a bet than the Harlem Globetrotters beating the Washington Generals that Frawley would not have attracted as high a price on the trade market. Depending on who you ask, his trade value would have fallen anywhere between a mid-to-late-first-round pick and pick No.30.

If the Blues put Yarran up for trade at the end of this season – looking simply at what draft pick the speedster would attract as opposed to any player swap – the general consensus is he would attract offers ranging from a mid-to-late-first-round pick to a second-round selection.

Alternatively, if Carlton keeps Yarran and he decides to explore free agency next year, the Blues could conceivably be compensated with an earlier pick.

Under the AFL's vague formula for determining compensation selections, Yarran's relative youth – he will be 25 when the 2016 free agency period rolls around – would bump up his compensation value.

And if a rival offer was sufficiently lengthy and lucrative, the Blues could receive a first-round pick.

If they did – and if as widely expected they finish down near the bottom of the ladder next season – they could bank an extremely early pick as Melbourne did with Frawley.

However, the majority view is the Blues would only receive an end-of-first-round or second-round pick given Yarran is unlikely to attract as big an offer as a key-position player like Frawley.

Even in that event, it seems the Blues would risk little, if anything, by holding on to Yarran for another year.

But one recruiter stressed that Carlton's decision this trade period would largely be shaped by what other clubs were prepared to offer for Yarran.

"Other clubs determine who you trade," he said.

"They come to you with an offer and if they want Yarran, it is up to them to make a reasonable offer."

Or in LoGiudice's words, any club wanting Yarran will have to convince the Blues that it's in their "best interests" to trade him before he enters free agency.