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Trade Deadline Aftermath

Tonyz Tanti — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:00:35 +0000

Am I the only one that had a little bit of trouble adjusting to life after Olympic hockey? What an amazing tournament with such speed, skill and intensity. Then two days later, we have to watch the Canucks take on the Blue Jackets? Tough transition, but I think I’m getting back into the swing of things. The Canucks are on a nice little post-Olympic roll, beating the Blue Jackets in a comeback and laying a surprising beat down on the Red Wings.

They did this, despite not making a significant trade deadline acquisition (apologies to Andrew Alberts and Yan Stastny). The only thing tougher to do than watch Blue Jackets-Canucks hockey two days after one of the greatest moments in Canadian hockey history is watch TSN/Sportsnet/CBC hours upon hours of non-events! True, Wednesday’s trading deadline set a record for trades, but none were of the spectacular variety. TSN went on the air at 5am Pacific time on deadline day! The biggest names (Kovalchuk, Phaneuf, Jokinen) all moved before the Olympic trade freeze, which made for a challenging day for all the insiders. Including this guy:

It’s always difficult to judge a GM’s trading ability because we simply don’t know what he was offered. The only thing we can really do is to look at the other big names that moved, and judge whether or not we would have given up more to get that player. Looking at the list of players that moved, there weren’t many that would have significantly upgraded their defense or forwards. Of those who would have made a mild impact, they were given up for more than the Canucks should have been willing to give up (ie. I wouldn’t have given up a second round pick for Eric Belanger).

So what would I have done? Well, a 6th rounder for Milan Jurcina would have been smarter than getting Andrew Alberts for a 3rd rounder. Getting Scott Walker might have been well advised as well, considering that it only took a 7th rounder to get him. Other than those, I don’t see what the Canucks had to give up. They’re thin in the prospects pool, and just because you have Cory Schneider to trade doesn’t mean that you give him up for nothing.

So who is Andrew Alberts? He’s a 28 year old big defenseman that was a plus-player playing 15 minutes a night for the Hurricanes. Seems promising that he was a plus-player with such a terrible team, but averaging only 15 minutes a night worries me a little bit. I’m not certain that he’s an upgrade over any of their top 6 defensemen when they’re all healthy.

Mike Gillis also made a couple of other moves on deadline day, acquiring Yan Stastny for Pierre-Cedric Labrie (minor leaguer for another minor leaguer) and getting rid of Mathieu Schneider for Sean Zimmerman (depth defenseman for the Moose) and a conditional 6th round pick (I assume it’s conditional on Schneider clearing re-entry waivers).

All-in-all, a very underwhelming trade deadline day, but probably for good reason. Making a deal for the sake of making a deal usually doesn’t turn out well, nor does giving up draft picks and prospects for 2nd or 3rd liners. Stay patient, I say, build-up the farm and then roll the dice.

Trades… and Moustaches!

Tonyz Tanti — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:57:51 +0000

It looked pretty weird seeing Dion Phaneuf and J.S. Giguere in Leafs practice gear today. Once the faces of the Flames and Ducks respectively, both were traded to Toronto on Sunday. A day later, Calgary sent Olli Jokinen to the Rangers. For those of you that haven’t heard yet, here’s how the trades shook down:

To Toronto: Dion Phaneuf, Fredrik Sjostrom and Keith Aulie

To Calgary: Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers and Ian White

Analysis: What are the Calgary Flames thinking here? Even if they wanted to get rid of Phaneuf because of poor play and problems in their dressing room, is this really the best they could do? Stajan and Hagman wouldn’t make the Canucks top two lines, while Mayers wouldn’t be able to crack their lineup. Ian White’s not a bad defenceman and he’s still young, but he could probably develop into a number three defenceman at best. To make matters worse, Stajan and Mayers are scheduled to be UFAs at the end of the season. Someone out there must have been able to put a better offer for a 24 year old Norris trophy finalist with the kinds of tools that Phaneuf has. Getting a bunch of spare parts for Phaneuf is eerily similar to the Joe Thornton trade a few years ago. And thanks to Ian White and Niklas Hagman, it’s also the best moustache trade since 1979 when Lanny McDonald and Joel Quenneville were both traded from Toronto to Colorado.

To Toronto: J.S. Giguere

To Anaheim: Vesa Toskala and Jason Blake

Analysis: This trade makes a lot of sense for both teams. Toronto takes a gamble that Giguere can regain his Conn Smythe Trophy winning form, taking on Giguere’s $6 million salary. Even though he’s overpaid and underperforming, it works for them because they shed the salaries of Toskala and Blake (they each make $4 million). This deal makes sense for Anaheim because they’re paying less for their backup goalie and add some scoring with Blake.

To Calgary: Ales Kotalik and Chris Higgins

To NY Rangers: Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust

Analysis: Clearly Darryl Sutter felt like he had enough staches on the team with the acquisition of White and Hagman that he could let Olli Jokinen and his handlebar moustache go to the Rangers. Seriously though, what is he thinking? In this trade he gets more spare parts, overpaid spare parts at that! Higgins has 14 points and makes $2.25 million. Kotalik meanwhile makes $3 million and has 22 points. Jokinen hasn’t done what Calgary hoped, but he’s still a heck of a lot better than those guys.

David Backes Rumoured to be on his way to the West Coast

Tonyz Tanti — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:22:02 +0000

Who likes rumours? Everyone! Matthew Sekeres is reporting that the Canucks and Blues may be working on a deal that would see the Canucks acquiring David Backes with Cory Schneider heading the other way. Apparently Mike Gillis decided last minute to skip the Top Prospects Game in Windsor in favour of the Habs-Blues game in Montreal, presumably to watch Backes.

Here are some other interesting things that Sekeres is saying about this rumour:

- In July 2008, one of Gillis’ first acts as Canucks GM was to sign St. Louis centre David Backes to a three-year, $7.5-million (all currencies U.S.) offer sheet. The Blues, grudgingly, matched.

- The Blues are six points out of a playoff spot, and have 16 games remaining before the Olympic break

- Blues president John Davidson was in Winnipeg in early-January, and told a local radio station he was there to scout the American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose, Vancouver’s farm team, and the Hershey Bears, the Washington Capitals farm team. Both the Canucks and Caps are in playoff position.

- The Blues have been trying to get by with the tandem of Chris Mason and Ty Conklin, a pair of 33-year-olds who have been backups more than starters over their careers. Prospect Ben Bishop seems to have fallen out of favour, and long-range prospect Jake Allen proved that he is not nearly ready for prime time with an abysmal performance at the world junior championship in Saskatchewan earlier this month.

What would this trade mean for the Canucks:

-Acquiring a 25 year old 31 goal scorer (last season)

-Adding size and grit

-Upgrading on Kyle Wellwood as a 3rd line centre

What this would mean for the Blues:

-Securing their goaltending future

-Shedding some salary for a relatively cash poor franchise

Acquiring David Backes is very intriguing to me. Is he the 31 goal scorer we saw last year or is he the under performing player we’re seeing this year? Probably somewhere in between. He’s the right type of player they need: a young big bruising forward. My only concern is that giving up Cory Schneider might be a bit too much. If they could throw-in a draft pick, I think they may have a deal.

Lets hope this deal gets done if for no other reason than to wonder what Kesler and Burrows have to say to Backes when he walks in the room:

Mathieu Schneider on Waivers

Tonyz Tanti — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:56:16 +0000

The Canucks have announced that Mathieu Schneider has been placed on waivers. In most likely not unrelated news, the Canucks have called up Alex Bolduc.

Disappointing news concerning Schneider in my opinion. Why exactly was he brought in? He was brought-in to run the power play, yet received practically zero time with the #1 unit and was in and out of the lineup. I know that the Canucks’ power play has been very good this season, but when you analyze the stats, it’s puzzling why Schneider (two power play points in very limited action) received far fewer power play minutes than Kevin Bieksa (five power play points with lots of power play time).

Schneider was also brought-in for veteran leadership and to provide depth. Of course that would come in handy when the games get more physical/intense in the stretch run and into the playoffs. Mark my words: one or more Canucks defensemen will suffer an injury and they will wish that they had Schneider to call-on.

At the moment it’s not clear whether the Canucks told Schneider to stay away from the team so they could move him or if he just bolted, but in either case, it’s too bad.

The West Gets Tougher: Heatley Traded to San Jose

Tonyz Tanti — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:30:32 +0000

The Western Conference just got a lot tougher for Luongo & Co. Dany Heatley has finally been traded, as rumoured, to the San Jose Sharks. San Jose gave up Milan Michalek, Jonathan Cheechoo and a 2nd round pick in the deal. They didn’t just acquire Heatley, they stole him. A perennial 50 goal scorer in return for two players who have highly inflated numbers playing with Joe Thornton. Even considering that, their numbers weren’t very good last year: 57 points for Michalek and 29 points for Cheechoo. Cheechoo has to be one of the most overrated players in the NHL, due to his fluke 50 goal campaign playing alongside Thornton. He’s been on the decline ever since and isn’t so young anymore (he’s 29). Despite questionable character, it’s hard to imagine that Ottawa couldn’t have gotten more in return.

So it looks like holding out for a better team worked for Heatley. The question for Sens fans is, what was the better deal: the one with the Oilers or the one with the Sharks? It’s certainly debatable. The deal with Edmonton would have landed Andrew Cogliano, Ladislav Smid and Dustin Penner. I think I might have preferred the Edmonton deal, mainly for the upside of Cogliano. What do you think? Let us know in the comments section.