Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

I'd like to trade Blogger's Autosave feature for a 4th round draft pick


So...I had this verbose trade deadline post that I erased on accident. It is now gone forever. I am going to have to drink the anger away. Anyway...

  • Overall, the Brad Richards trade is fantastic for the Stars. The West is wide open now that the Red Wings are hurting and Richards might immediately become their best forward. He'll have to move mountains to prove he's worth $7.8 million, but I don't think anyone really is expecting that from him.

Losing Mike Smith helps Tampa Bay more than it hurts Dallas. It's probably going to be a poor man's version of the Iginla for Joey N. trade.

Smith has a bright future in this league, although I'm not certain about his ceiling on a bad defensive team like the Lightning. Then again, look what a puck moving goalie did for a woeful defense in Pittsburgh.

  • Speaking of Pittsburgh, they received Mary Ann Hossa in possibly the biggest trade deadline move. At first, as a Pens devotee, I was very sad to lose the mysterious promise of Angelo Esposito and the wooden comic delivery of Colby Armstrong. But that won't be too hard to deal with once I'm using a first line of Hossa-Crosby-Roberts in NHL '08. Yeah, I'm that easy.
EDIT: I think one possibility people might be overlooking is that this deal could be a good one if they even signed Hossa to a short term contract. Honestly, him signing a one-year big salary contract could actually be feasible (since Malkin won't be on the market for another year). It'll be an interesting story to follow for sure.
  • The Sharks made a nice move by getting Brian Campbell without moving Matt Carle or Patrick Marleau. One criticism of the trade was that Campbell may not remain in the Sharks' tacky uniforms beyond this year, but I would argue that might not be that bad of a thing. I just don't think that Campbell will live up to the bloated contract he's about to receive. I have a "Brad Richards albatross contract" feeling for whomever overpays Campbell. He's good, don't get me wrong. But a $6 million defenseman has to be special.
Campbell's really only special to pun headline writers who are clamoring to use the headline "Campbell's Soup-er!" after he scores a playoff GWG.

  • The Habs are probably the biggest losers of the deadline, as they were the logical destination for Marian Hossa and foolishly moved Cristobal Huet for a meager second round pick.
  • They traded Huet to one of the winners of this deadline in Washington. Now Caps fans can be spared the undoubtedly painful sight of witnessing Godzilla die via heat rays from Father Time.
  • The Kings and Leafs should have asked John Davidson for some smart firesale advice. They both blew it.
  • The sleeper steal of the draft might have been the Hurricanes snatching oft-injured center Tuomo Ruutu. Then again he probably will be injured next week.
EDIT 2: One trade that went way below the radar involved former NCAA standout goalie Al Montoya being shipped to Phoenix in a random grab bag. Montoya and Bryzgalov? I like what the Coyotes are doing this year.

Note: perhaps Blogger has feelings, because this re-write featured numerous Autosave failures.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"But a $6 million defenseman has to be special."

You'd think so.

RudyKelly said...

Good show, Mike.

Also, didn't Ruutu get smacked in the face with a stick last night? I'm pretty sure he'll be on the first plane to the Mayo Clinic this morning.

Anonymous said...

I don't think the Kings necessarily blew it. There just wasn't a market for shitty forwards, so we were unable to move Thornton and Willsie. There was a small market for shitty goaltenders and we did move Aubin, but the market just wasn't strong enough to move Cloutier. Before the deadline, we also got in on the market for shitty defensemen when we moved Modry.