Sports Guy North

The NHL trade deadline is historically one of the most active of all sports, and it already looks as though this year will be no exception. For today and tomorrow, I will display and analyze in some form the deals that pass through the NHL offices. In the new NHL so many people could end up so many places for so many reasons, so speculating won’t be too useful. I think at this point we heard every goalie going to Vancouver in exchange for Bertuzzi. These aren’t going to happen. So I will leave such speculation to self-indulgence, and use this forum to display the trades that have actually been made. So here, now, and the actually 2006 NHL Trade Deadline Deals:

Edmonton Receives: Dwayne Roloson
Minnesota Receives: First Round Pick; Conditional Third Round Pick

In addition, the Oilers waived their extra goalie to make room for Dwayner. Which makes me wonder; why wasn’t he dealt to Minnesota in addition to the draft picks? Instead of the Wild calling up a minor-leaguer with no experience, and stealing him from his Houston team who is making a championship run themselves, they could have brought over the Edmonton dead weight, who is actually a decent goalie. If the Canucks don’t pick him up off waivers that will be the biggest ball drop of the deadline. Auld needs a solid backup for the playoff run. NOT a replacement, but a solid backup. This is their chance.

Edmonton wins this trade in spades. With full playing time Dwayner can be a top-5 goalie in the NHL.

Toronto Receives: Luke Richardson
Columbus Receives: Conditional Draft Pick

Why? I’m not even sure the Jackets will end up getting anything at all in return, but I still have a hunch they won this trade. What exactly were the Leafs doing in adding Richardson to the lineup? Was there a hole that needed filling on the Marlies roster? This one is a puzzler. In 44 games this year, Luke has 7 points and is a –18 in limited playing time. There are 9 defensive options I can think of off the top of my head that the Leafs have who are better than this…. Well, 8 as you’ll read in a couple of trades. Unless this guarantees Belak’s departure from the lineup forever, this was not a reasonable move for the Leafs.

Jackets win this trade.

San Jose Receives: Ville Nieminen
New York Rangers Receive: 2006 Third Round Draft Pick

Well, OK. That was one of those trades. Ville is a decent defensive forward, which doesn’t carry much weight in GM’s books. San Jose did a good job picking up a solid Gary Valk type player like every team needs and most don’t have. Leave it to the Rangers to pick up a useless future pick in exchange for picking a small whole in a team that was finally having a great season. The dam should hold, but when you’ve had as much trouble in the past as the Rangers have, you just can’t take these chances for such little return.

Sharks win this trade.

Los Angeles Receives: Mark Parrish; Brent Sopel
New York Islanders Receive: Denis Grebshkov; Jeff Tambellini

Are you kidding me? Parrish has 41 points in 57 games, and has had even better numbers in recent history. Sopel has 27 points in 57 games as a top 2 defenseman, playing a lot of the team’s key minutes. Conversely Grebshkov is a defenseman who has played 8 unnoticeable games so far this year, and Tambellini is a name that the Kings made up and just put on their roster to fill a spot. With that, the Islanders are officially phoning in the season, and have done so with a vengeance. The Kings definitely are the big winner of the trade deadline thus far with this deal.

Kings win this trade.

Colorado Receives: Jose Theodore
Montreal Receives: David Aebischer

Wow. I just don’t understand what happens with goalies sometimes. Theodore is a top-quality goalie, who apparently has some Felix-ish head case issues that caused him a month of pain. Montreal giving up on a French-Canadian Vezina-trophy winner like that is almost unfathomable. For a non-French Canadian, nonetheless. The only way this happens is if they have full confidence in Huet moving into the future. If that is the case, you’d have to think they could fill a bigger hole by trading a Vezina winner than backup goalie.

Conversely, I don’t understand why Aebischer never got the credit he deserved. He has a career .915 save percentage and 89-58-12 record. He is also 25-14-2 this year with 3 shut outs. Apparently, however, they would rather trade away Aebischer and go with 2 unproven goalies with 22 career starts between them, and a .500 record playing against easier competition than Aebischer faced with his far superior record, as they head into the playoff run. Theodore, as you know, is injured, so a lot of their playoff standing will be based on the other pairs play. They then will go into the playoffs with a goalie having the worst year of his career, and who let in 37 goals over a 3-period span a couple months ago. That may be exaggeration, but how is this situation better than sticking with Aebischer? This is a gamble that I can’t see paying off. If Theodore does, however, instantly regain his Vezina-worthy play with the new environment, then the GM of the year, and possibly the Eastern Conference Champions have already been determined. This is, however, beyond highly unlikely.

No one wins this trade.

New Jersey Receives: Ken Klee
Toronto Receives: Alexander Suglobov

If this trade makes room for some youth in Toronto, that’s great for the Leafs. If this is to make room for Luke Richardson then it’s time to fold the team and convince the Penguins to move to Toronto. Suglobov is useless, a 2nd round pick in 2000 who has never been good enough to play more than 2 games. Ken Klee gives the Devils another defensive option, who while not overly talented, doesn’t make too many mistakes. That’s good enough in front of Brodeur.

Devils probably win this trade. Toronto gave away a marginal player for nothing, and by definition marginal is better than nothing.

Other Notes Of Note

It may sound like the great Nation of Hungary’s favourite new feature, but today it’s just a name. I had nothing else to call the other points from the day. Interesting stuff? Maybe. I don’t know. But here they are:

Canada Beat USA in World Baseball Challenge Everyone is making a big deal out of this. In fact, the poll on ESPN’s website today was asking which was the biggest upset in international sports history. It should have said “in AMERICAN international sports history”, but nonetheless, the options were: Puerto Rico over USA basketball 2004, Russia over USA basketball 1972, USA beats Cuba 2000 baseball, USA over Russia 1980 hockey, each of which occurred in the Olympics. Each also an excellent choice, and I would probably pick 1980 hockey, although the Puerto Rican basketball victory was likely more of an upset. Anyway, to lump the Canadian baseball victory in with that group is absurd. The American team that ended up showing up in Arizona did look beatable. The Canadians were also definitely being mentioned as medal contenders. The fact that a medal contender beat one of the favourites in a single game by 2 points is not a big upset. In fact I actually thought the Canadians had a good chance in that game. At least the people at home knew better than all the “experts”. So far in the ESPN vote every single state, along with international vote, picked 1980 hockey as far and away number one, and Puerto Rico basketball and far and away number 2, getting 85% of the vote between them. This is all just another case of Sportscasters trying to make more of a story out of something minor. When they lose to South Africa, then you can talk about upsets.

Bonds On Steroids? What? No way. What a scoop! I had no idea. Whoever wrote this book is breaking one of the biggest secrets ever! The only thing of note in this “story” is that the list of steroids he was on is frighteningly long. It’s seriously like he was trying to set the all time record for most steroids ever taken. And for that, I congratulate him. I mean if you’re going to bother cheating, then you might as well go balls out. And no ones balls are further out than Barry’s, on and off the field apparently.

Raptors Cavs For those of you out there wondering what the pictures on my site have to do with anything I’ve written about, relax you aren’t crazy. They aren’t related. They are just shots the little lady took from the Raptors Cavs game the wife, the JF and I went to tonight. For the most part, pictures you see of Mop Girl were taken when the camera mysteriously disappeared from our watch. Must have been a mysterious stranger with a crush on sweep girl. Same with the video which you can see here – Raptors Mop Girl Damn strangers. Anyway, the game was alright, lots of missed shots and bricks. The Raptors were playing like a team with too much talent to have given up on the season to such a degree. And the finish of the game, with the spaz hitting an open three to carry the Cavs to a 1 point win with no time left, will do nothing to turn that situation around. I’m still hopeful for next season. Raps and Hawks both in the playoffs; Count on it.