Wednesday 4 March 2009

Trade Deadline Musing - 2008-09 - Final Thoughts


So, Tambellini or Lowe? This was some solid team building and asset management work so, as rare as it may be coming from me, for what it is worth, well done.

Getting right to it.

WINNERS (in order - most winnerest listed first)

Phoenix

Upshall is one of those under-rated leader types while Carcillo is one of those 'almost-more-trouble-than-he-is-worth' types; to get a 2nd rounder thrown in on the deal? Wow. If they can sign Upshall to a decently affordable contract... WOW.

Morris has been over-rated almost forever. Dawes alone would have been an adequate return so if Prucha or Kalinin turn out then this is a clear win. I don't have much faith in Kalinin but Prucha is an interesting roll of the dice.

Lombardi is, argueably, not far off Jokinen in terms of performance so the 1st round pick will help make up the difference. Prust, and the 4th for Tellqvist, are just the icing on the cake for the Coyotes.

Great work by Maloney.

Calgary

Sutter, despite being a dick, completed some nice trades here. He had to. Leopold will fit in wherever they need him and it's put up or shut up time for Jokinen.

Boston

Boston gave up three, borderline at best, NHL'ers (so I'm not a big Lashoff fan - big whoop) and got back two Cup run veterans; fair enough I say. The kicker for me is the 2nd rounder from Tampa - that will be just like a late 1st rounder given how screwed up that franchise is. Well done Boston.

Edmonton

Two new options to try out on LW and, more importantly, they are both legit options (none of that "let's try Cole at LW" bullshiite this time). Kotalik is an enigma, so I can't put too much faith in him just yet, but O'Sullivan is a real 'upside' piece and for the Oilers to get that much for an UFA bound Cole... well... great, great trade imo.

Columbus

Vermette can play center and Leclaire was making too much money so that alone makes this trade a win, however, even I will sometimes put immediate results in front of good player asset management and so the 2nd round pick is a small price to pay for ensuring a play-off run.

Howson and Hitchcock are proving a formidable team and they will get a lot out of Vermette.

San Jose and Chicago

A Cup contender just got better. That is one scary team.

Carolina

Cole plays well on that team. For their sake I hope he sees that and, in remembering his excellent Edmonton adventure, notices that the grass is plenty green in Carolina. With any luck the economy drives his asking price down and they get him on a, relatively, cheap contract.

Pittsburgh

Guerin is a nice pick-up but all the heavy lifting was done for this team on the 26th of February. Wozwho?

Toronto

Also a 'loser' at the deadline (see below), Toronto's last trade of the day shows that Burke 'gets' it. Toronto spent $600k to get a, very low, 4th round pick. There are far worse ways for a 'money' team to spend its money (see also: Redden).

LOSERS (in order - biggest loser listed first)

Tampa Bay

These guys are a joke. One of St. Louis or Lecavalier is gone at the draft, I swear it. Rebuilding teams do not give up draft picks. Barrie and Co. don't deserve a franchise. Not that it means anything but, and I say this with feeling, I am sorry Tampa Bay. I'm so sorry.

NY Rangers

Sather is far too arrogant a man. Morris and Antropov won't do much to fix the various mistakes made and losing Dawes will only aggravate the wounds. Avery will help but this team needed Antropov to fill time at the center spot like it needed a hole in the head.

Philadelphia

Yeah. This team needed a guy like Carcillo on the team. A lack of discipline will kill this team come play-off time. Carcillo is the last thing they needed. AND they threw in a 2nd rounder? Holmgren? Is that you? WTH?

Montreal

On a day when players like Pahlsson, Moore and even Christensen are being traded for some low rent assets (well, O'Dell hurts a bit I guess) it is borderline unexcusable for a team like Montreal to stand pat when their need for a center is so obvious and so great.

Lang isn't coming back in time Mr. Gainey. He just isn't.

Toronto

Also a 'winner' at the deadline (see above), Toronto just didn't get much for a team that is looking to crash hard and fast. Good thing they have money.

Colorado

That is it? All they do is unload Leopold for a 2nd rounder and meh? If you are going to rebuild then do so and to be brutally truthful the Avalanche had a lot of non-core assets they could have traded but didn't. Yeesh.

SIDEWAYS (in order - most horizontal listed first)

Anaheim

A lot of movement and while I would normally give them more credit than not for trying to have a rebuild without a crash I look at the trade of O'Dell and I think that IF you are going to try such a rebuild, you get a piece better than Christensen when you are unloading your younger assets.

Atlanta

O'Dell was a nice little pick-up but the Havelid trade needs to work out, big time, before I give Atlanta credit for doing anything more than tread water.

Los Angeles

Justin Williams has to get healthy just for this trade to remain 'sideways'. Unlike Buffalo and Florida - two teams who could 'win' their trades - this trade has the potential to be a loser.

NY Islanders

Did what they could. Good for them. Who cares? That pick better be ripped.

Buffalo

If the two draft picks are a wash then they traded Moore for Kotalik and picked up a back-up goaltender for a 4th rounder. If Moore finds a role in Buffalo then this can be upgraded to a win. No harm and no foul in that.

Florida

Much like with Buffalo this trade could become a win for the Panthers. Thing is, Eminger had several bad years before this 'rebound' year with Tampa so forgive me for not holding my breath.

FORGETTABLE (in order)

St. Louis

Richmond. wheeeeeee.

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Have a great evening everyone.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I couldn't agree more regarding Phoenix... they quietly made a number of great moves. What the Rangers were thinking in the Derek Morris deal is beyond me.

Quick question - I am throwing together a bunch of links to Oilers blogs I enjoy, and I was hoping to add yours. Let me know if this is fine by you?

http://scotttougas.blogspot.com

Please and thanks.

YKOil said...

Hi Scott, thanks for comin'round.

Checked out your site, lots of nice stuff there so please - Link Away!

Sweet stab at Sather btw. The Redden deal is where he finally lost me.

Scott Reynolds said...

This is more in response to your last post I suppose, but I thought that it was excellent.

The only problem that I can see is an environment where the cap is moving downward, which should admittedly be quite rare. I'm of the opinion that 20% of the cap should go to your bottom 11 players (or 10 if you go with a 22 man roster), so I'd probably try to limit the money on the long term deals to a milliion or less going forward.

Also, to Scott, whenever you post in the LT thread I'm constantly afraid that I'll completely disagree. As such, I appreciate your thoughtful commentary there.

Unknown said...

LT = Lowetide?

I will try not to write anything too scandalous... I think I've only posted once or twice there (I'm relatively new to the Oilers blogosphere... I think mostly because I'm fed up with the mainstream sports media... I can only hear so much about Dominic Moore).

Re: YKOil...

Redden was the breaking point. But he compounded it with the Roszival signing... and really screwed up his cap space by overpaying Gomez and Drury... I really think they're like the Oilers - older veterans making too much money - except worse...

What was the next best offer for Redden? Was anyone going to offer him $5 mil?

I've never been so frustrated with the Oilers, and yet, somehow, they cling on to eighth spot (or at least did at one point tonight).

Jonathan Willis said...

Nice summary. Don Maloney looks to be a great GM hiring by Phoenix (I've liked pretty much every move he's made since being hired). Kurt Sauer's contract was probably the first indicator.

YKOil said...

The Redden offer was just plain nuts. Players with a history of declining play, without justification mind, just do NOT get big contracts.

Even Stoll could point to as season of a) not playing on the powerplay and b) soaking up tough competition every game.

Crazy. A 'saw him good' contract if there ever was one.

In regards to lower echelon payrolls, my opinion is that a guy like Brodziak will get a $1 million to play 2nd line for some team - ergo, his value, regardless of line, is in that ballpark.

Yet he is worth far more to me being put in an outscoring role on my 3rd and 4th lines.

When I add up all the factors I am, simply put, better off paying early and trying to avoid the inflation to come.