Kings Trade Deadline Recap
Holy shit are Kings fans a bunch of whimpering pussies. Seriously, go check Letsgokings.com to see some hardcore, grade-A whining. Rob Blake is taking the brunt of the abuse, but Dean Lombardi is getting his fair share of licks as well. I honestly don't understand what people are so upset about. Nobody wants the shitty players on a last-place team and the the guys that might have been traded were, for the most part, injured. Here's a look at the trade bait:
Ladislav Nagy- He's apparently wearing a neck brace when he drives because of his mysterious neck injury. I mean...
Scott Thornton- According to Dean Lombardi, Thornton had a no-trade clause. (Ed. note: what the fuck?) He waived it for 4 teams and almost got sent to one of them, but they apparently made a big trade that turned them off Scott. Are they talking about the Sharks?
Brad Stuart- Traded to Detroit for a 2nd in '08 and a 4th in '09. Not bad for the 4th best defenseman on the worst defensive team in the league. Brad Stuart will always be overrated by some because he hits big occasionally and has some size, but I think he only improved halfway through the season because Jack Johnson took some of his even-strength minutes. Hopefully the Wings will pair him with Rafalski and allow him to concentrate on hurting opposing forwards. He'll probably help their 2nd line power play, although I guess they don't really have a 2nd unit because their 1st unit always scores.Brian Willsie- I doubt anyone called about him.
Derek Armstrong- I'm convinced Armstrong would have been traded if he hadn't gotten hurt on the 21st.
Tom Preissing- He hasn't played great this season but he's 1 year into a 4-year deal; I don't think it would have sent a good message to the rest of the league if they traded a free agent this early.J.S. Aubin- Traded to the Ducks for a 7th rounder. I have no idea why, unless Burke is trying to trick people into thinking the Ducks have foreigners on their team.
Mike Cammalleri- He wasn't going to get traded at the deadline. If he does get traded, it'll probably be at the draft.
Rob Blake- Reportedly, Blake said the Kings could trade him to Colorado if they could get a good deal. I honestly don't get this whole "Fuck Rob Blake" thing. This is what Matt Kredell said at Inside the Kings:
[Blake] said he would accept a trade to Colorado if they could get a good return since he had played there before and liked it there, but that he would prefer to remain a King.
Maybe I'm crazy, but that seems perfectly reasonable. He told them that he'd like to stay and help the team but he'd understand if they got an offer they couldn't refuse. The Avalanche chose to trade for Adam Foote instead for 3 reasons:1) He's a defensive defenseman
2) He is healthy
3) He might re-sign in the off-season
That makes sense to me. I'd have traded for Foote instead too.
This is going to sound crazy (especially coming from me), but aren't people taking this whole hockey thing a little too seriously? What's the point of watching a sport if you're going to get this fucking worked up about it? I mean, Kings fans are mad at Rob Blake because another team chose not to trade for him. Has it really come to this? What was Lombardi supposed to do, offer Blake for a 3rd rounder? That'll set a nice example for free agents. Put yourself in Blake's shoes for a second; would you accept leaving your wife and kids for 3 months just to help some hockey team possibly win some trophy? If someone told me the Kings would win the Stanley Cup but I would have to move to Denver and cheer for the Avalanche... well, I'd tell you what I'd say, but there isn't a font size large enough to properly express how loudly I'd tell that guy to fuck off.
Look, Rob Blake was kind of a dick in 2001. Since he's come back, though, he hasn't said or done one thing that would imply that he didn't care about the future of this team. He's the greatest defenseman in LA Kings history and now he'll retire as a King. That seems right to me.
***
With the trade of Brad Stuart, the Kings’ 2008 draft picks are as follows*:
2 1st round picks- Dallas (Norstrom)
3 2nd round picks-
3 3rd round picks- Conditional (from Avery deal),
3 4th round picks- Tampa Bay (Munce), Vancouver (Sopel), Kings and Caps switch picks in ’08 (weird trade, I don’t know)
1 5th round pick
1 6th round pick
2 7th round picks-
Holy hell. The Kings probably can’t use all those draft picks (contract limits), so they’ll package some together to trade up or trade back to 2009. Dean Lombardi’s new scout team should have a lot of fun on draft day.
*I probably messed up at least once.
15 comments:
I agree with all of what you said about Blake, but I reserve the right to bitch about the fact that the Wild got Chris Simon instead of a faceoff winning, puck moving center/defensive defenceman.
You should have traded for Derek Armstrong!
I don't know much about him, but it didn't seem like Risebrough was really willing to give up much. So tell me, what did the Wild miss out on/what do you think would have been demanded in return. He's injured right now, isn't he?
He hurt his knee on the 21st, that's why he didn't get traded in my opinion. He has another year on his deal for $1.5 million, so he wouldn't have been a rental. He's ideally a 4th line center that will win around 51% of his face-offs and will stand up for his teammates if need be. I would have been looking for a 3rd round pick or a mid-level prospect in return.
I'm glad Blake stayed, with all these young players, it's good to have a mentor. I saw that John-Michael Liles is going to be a free agent at the end of the year. I think he might be a good fit for the Kings. Rudy, Doc, what do you guys think?
I'm not really that good at evaluating defenders (that's my brother's dept.), and I don't want want to spoil my season review (coming soon!), but I'd rather we went after a guy like Mike Commodore, maybe Jason Smith, or even Kent Sauer. Our primary goal this off-season should be getting a defensive defenseman who plays on the left side to pair with Lubo.
Trade LetsgoKings.com to the Sharks for Mike Chen, Sandis Ozolinsh, and a bag of hockey pucks.
I agree with Pirate Bandana, we need a physical defensive defenseman in the offseason. Like a young Aaron Miller/Dog Murray/Volchenkov(sp?) type.
I think the BoC did a fantastic job with the trade deadline this year, and I think Rudy took the cake.
At least I filled the obvious need of Godzilla humping some confused monster.
Also, I think the Wild would have benefited from a guy like Olli Jokinen too. I don't see the point in Florida holding onto him.
Then again I don't really see the point of the Panthers remaining in the NHL anyway.
Florida still has a shot at the playoffs. They have good goaltending and their decision sucks. So why not take a shot
Decision = Division
Must be by subconscious telling me to stop trying to defend Florida.
LA traded their 2008 4th for WAS 2007 4th, so LA only has 2 fourth round picks. Unless you have a better source of draft picks...?
See, I told you I probably messed up once.
I doubt the Sharks were the team that Scott Thornton was heading to. They didn't deal for a checking forward. Ottawa makes sense, and they landed a better S. Thornton in Lapointe.
They won the Red Bull trophy, what more do they want?
Some people are never happy.
Post a Comment