Now, if you can’t tell, I’m a little bit of a hockey nut. Yes, I know its hard to figure out, but sometimes the subtleties slip through the cracks of obviousness. When the trading deadline gets about a week away, you start to scan the teams’ news sites, curious as to who is going to move, and where. It basically can take a challenger and make them a favorite. The problem always occurs though, at what price. Do you leverage the future for a chance to win today? Today is Tuesday, and the deadline is at 3 pm ET. My buddy Darrell (equally insane hockey fan) and I will be burning up the instant messaging pipeline today as trades are pulled off.
It’s the usual course of business – teams that can’t or might not make the playoffs have superstars for sale. This is the one part I don’t like about free agency. Take a team like Atlanta. They have a player – Marian Hossa. He’s good. He’s making a nice pile of change ($7 mil) and is a free agent at the end of the year. Wells, rather than play out the rest of the year with him and try to win the sucky Southeast division, they realize that he won’t re-sign with them and thus begins the process of trading him away. GM’s logic, rather get something for him in return. Understandable, but couldn’t you take whatever money you were going to give him and spend that on some other quality free-agents when the season is over? Every GM is looking for the magic bullet to propel them into serious cup contention. I also don’t like the whole “rent-a-player” aspect that comes with someone like Hossa. You essentially have him on your team for a couple months and he could bolt to the highest bidder come summertime. You end up trading away players and picks for maybe nothing more than a Stanley Cup run. Atlanta traded for Tkachuk last year and got swept in the first round. Big payoff (sarcasm alert).
So, back to it – there’s some serious rumors that he’s going to Ottawa or Montreal. I’m not a big fan of that because that will catapult those guys to the top of the heap in the eastern conference (same place my Pens reside). The other big player in the trade winds is Brad Richards. He’s a big player from Tampa and will fit in nicely on someone’s roster. Tampa Bay is probably going to have a yard sale today.
Now, I believe my Pens are going to either stay put with their team or make a minor splash with a defensemen. They need someone who can knock the shit out of someone and not play the puck like Helen Keller. Rob Blake comes to mind. I also like this kid in Colorado, John-Michael Liles. We’ll see. The Pens GM, Shero, is preaching this whole leverage the future; we got a strong nucleus mantra, which I like. But maybe the time is now to make a bold move. Who knows. I don’t get paid to do this (shocker, I know) and probably never will.
Updates:
11 AM. Very Slow. Glacial almost. New Jersey and St Louis swap bouncers.
12 PM. Finally. Campbell (D, Buffalo) heads off to San Jose. I would have like to see the Pens pick him up, but that’s over now. Richards (C, Tampa) is going to Dallas to play with Mike Madano. Dallas is looking a lot better all of a sudden. And Montreal traded Cristobal Huet (G) to DC? WTF? This bewilders me. Montreal has a super young goalie in Carey Price, who is good, but unless he channels the spirit of Ken Dryden, this squad might be one and done.
1:30 PM. We’re getting the band back together! Seriously, what’s going on in Colorado? First, they sign Peter Forsberg, who’s been in Sweden making Volvos or whatever Swedish people do, and now they trade for Adam Foote (D, Columbus). These guys were part of the glory years in Avalanche-land winning the Cup like 10 years ago. All they need now is to talk Ray Borque and Patrick Roy out of retirement. Maybe they can get a group AARP discount. Speaking of geriatrics, the Capitals traded for Sergei Federov (C, Columbus). He’s like 90, and probably still trying to sleep with 15 year old Russian girls – he was like 30 and dating a teen-aged Anna Kournakova. Pens still haven’t done anything. Might be a silent day.
2:30 PM. Pretty silent out there. A couple calzones got traded for some turkey legs, but nothing crazy. Maybe Shero is going to pull a kamikaze attack.
3 PM. What do you know. Pens picked up Hal Gill at the deadline. This guy was playing in Boston when I lived there. He’s a big dude. He also used to do these commercials for some sports bar and was shoving buffalo wings in his mouth. Maybe they’ll get him to do a spot for Primanti Bros sandwiches – YUMMY! I’m sure a bunch of other trades that happened at the dealine will trickle in, but doesn’t look like that heavy of an action day.
3:15 PM. HMFS! (fill in your own expletives) Pens just traded for Hossa! Instant reaction says I like. Two breathes and a class of water later, wonders if we gave away too much future if we can’t sign him to an extension. Yikes – Armstong, Christensen, Espisito and a #1 pick in 2008. That is a lot. Part of me says I like those guys, hate to see them go, but in essence, we traded for an all-star and a 3rd line winger and gave 2 grinders, a potentially never-gonna-make it prospect and a draft pick. You know what, I like it.
Time to push for the cup. I guess I won’t be buying playoff tickets this year in Atlanta.
Toys and technology. Its amazing how some things, when you finally break down and get them, how much easier stupid things can get, and it leaves you wondering “how did I get along without it?”. As you roll back in time in your head, think about mobile phones – you used to have to be somewhere when you said you were going to be there. Directions or “I’m lost” used to mean you were calling from the gas station around the corner (or driving in circles). Mobile phones have progressed to the PDA and iPhone. No longer are you out of touch – people live with these things on their hip and feel disconnected without them. GPS, wireless, the internet, digital cameras…I could go on.