Alright, hockey nerds around the world can take a breath. People who were glued to Versus and the NHL Network on Friday and Saturday can return to the normal lives and pretend they’re normal people. They can go back to interacting with human beings, go outside, breathe fresh air and stop searching the internet for stats on their latest 5th round draft pick. They can even attempt to mend marriages that were strained due to countless hours dedicated to 17 year old Canadian kids that could bring us temporary joy.
After those countless hours that dominated our weekend, here are some of the biggest storylines and things to keep in mind as we continue this offseason.
At least the Flames took matters into their own hands...
Bouwmeester’s Rights Traded to Calgary
I loved the aggressive move by the Calgary Flames to make a trade for the rights to Jay Bouwmeester. After a year of trying to re-sign him, it was obvious that the Panthers weren’t going to be able to resign him. By giving up 4 days in the offseason of J-Bo, they were able to pick up the rights to Jordan Leopold (a defenseman that would fit their team and is much closer to someone that they can afford), as well as picking up a 3rd round pick in this year’s draft. From the Panthers perspective, it’s a nice return for a player they were going to lose anyway.
For the Flames, it was a bold act that showed that Darryl Sutter was going to be proactive in his pursuit for Bouwmeester. Even if the Flames fail to sign the talented defenseman, a 3rd round pick is certainly worth the opportunity. To use a terribly overused cliché, this was a win-win trade.
Top 5 Picks Go As Planned; Islanders Take Tavares
Even though there were all kinds of rumors flying around on Friday afternoon, the 1st five picks went exactly as expected. Not only were they expected—they were the right picks for each and every one of the teams. We heard threw the grapevine that the Islanders were going to go with Matt Duchene instead of John Tavares with the #1 overall pick; but thankfully for the sanity of Long Island, common sense prevailed.
Can you imagine the draft party at the Nassau Coliseum if they went with anyone OTHER than Tavares? They would have gone “Laker Fan” on suburbia! As we said before, the pick has nothing to do with their talent/productivity next year, 5 years from now or even a decade from now. No, what the Islanders needed was a marquee name that would help the organization sell hope. Judging by the early financial returns, it already looks like they made the right choice. Here’s what Islanders president Chris Dey told Newsday:
“…more than $79,000 in ticket plans (not including renewals) were sold in the first hour after the pick, along with $15,000 worth of Tavares merchandise.”
Do you think they would have sold the same amount if the pick was Duchene? No. They didn’t call it “Tank for Duchene, did they?”
Stop Comparing these Kids to Mike Richards
People (read: experts, pundits, Pierre McGuire) need to stop comparing every single player that has “leadership qualities” to Mike Richards. Yeah, I get it—Mike Richards was drafted a little lower than he should have been in 2003 because his leadership qualities were vastly underrated. But that doesn’t mean that EVERY SINGLE PLAYER that has the potential to be a captain like Mike Richards. It’s kind of like comparing every single power forward that can score and fight to Jerome Iginla. There’s only one Jerome Iginla and there’s only one Mike Richards. Thanks. Which leads us to…
Brian Burke: Unhappy Human
Brayden Schenn is more than a Bag of Intangibles, right?
I wonder what kind of player Brayden Schenn will become in the NHL. The consensus is that he was easily the best player available when the Kings selected at #5—but I have a small hint of hesitation before I’ll anoint him as a bonafide Top 5 guy.
Part of me wonders if the scouting world is all over him because of his brother’s success in Toronto. Part of me wonders if Dean Lombardi selected him because he knew Brian Burke wanted him so badly, yet didn’t have the necessary assets to land him. At the end of the day, he scored 32 goals in 70 games last season. No doubt he was a very good, well-rounded player in juniors—it’s just the non-stop talk about his intangibles that worry me. Top 5 picks are supposed to have supreme TALENT, later picks are supposed to have the intangibles. Hopefully he has both.
Islanders Aggressiveness
I loved the Islanders aggressiveness on the first day of the NHL draft. Not only did they make the RIGHT pick with the #1 overall pick, but they moved all the way up to #12 go pick up a defenseman to go with their new savior. Of course there will be people that think that Simon Despres, John Moore, Dmitry Kulikov or some other defenseman would have been a better fit than Calvin de Haan—but that’s completely besides the point. They traded away some of their later draft picks to pick up some QUALITY.
They knew that de Haan was the player they wanted and moved all the way up to #16 to get him. When it because apparent that the Buffalo Sabres had their eye on the guy they wanted, the swung another deal to move up the 12th pick so they could draft de Haan. They were extremely AGGRESSIVE in their pursuit of a defenseman that they think can help their franchise for years to come. I don’t care who it is, that’s the kind of front office that I’d like working for my team.
Proger for Lupul and some picks? That's soooo 2006!
Neidermayer is returning; Pronger sent packing
The draft weekend wasn’t kicked off with Tavares coronation as expected; it was christened about 10 minutes before the draft when Chris Pronger was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for the majority of their future. Actually, you could make the argument that the weekend began when Scott Neidermayer informed the Anaheim Ducks of his intentions to play next season. That in-turn lead to the Ducks dealing the former Hart and Norris Trophy winner to the Flyers; even though Anaheim GM Bob Murray said he was going to deal Pronger anyway (I call bullshit).
The price tag to land Pronger proved to be hefty. No, make that extreme. Joffrey Lupul was probably leaving Philadelphia anyway because of his contract, so that came as no surprise. However, the Flyers also included talented rookie defenseman Luca Sbisa along with their 2009 and 2010 1st round draft picks. Take a step back and look at the big picture: that’s a 30 goal scorer and 3 consecutive 1st rounders (Sbisa was Philly’s 1st rounder in ’08) for a single season of Chris Pronger and his flying elbows. There’s only one way to truly rate this trade: if the Flyers win the Stanley Cup next year then it was a good trade. If they DON’T, they’re going to be upset that they gave up so much of their future for one year of one player.
By the way, don’t remind any Flyer fans of the Peter Forsberg/Eric Lindros trade. More importantly, don’t draw any parallels. Apparently, it’s still too soon.
We’ll have to look at the Draft and Free Agency Together
With the draft and the free agency period scheduled so closely together this year (free agency opens on Wednesday, July 1), it’s really hard to grade any of the GM for their work at the draft alone. Instead, we should all come back and revisit the teams in about a week and take the draft and free agency as a package deal. If the Flames are able to sign Bouwmeester to a long-term contract, then their draft-day trade is a wild success. If they are unable to, it’s a little less successful (still applaud the move though).
Teams like the Kings, who were linked to almost every high-priced player that’s on the trading block decided to avoid the big-time trades and instead chose to pick the best player available, as well as making 10 overall picks. I was one of the outspoken people that thought they should avoid the big draft day trade because the #5 pick was more valuable than an asset in a package deal for a big name player. But the continuation to that argument was the assumption that Lombardi and Co. have their eyes on a sniper/playmaker that can play a legitimate role as Top 6 forward on the Kings NEXT SEASON. Without the addition of a goal-scorer, the week was a complete failure. I don’t care how priceless Brian Burke’s face was; they will have completed the most important part of the offseason without addressing their most glaring weakness. Only time will tell.
Free agency starts on Wednesday, so hockey nerds still have something to look forward to. Then there are the prospect camps, the occasional Sean Avery quote (and subsequent suspension) and the inevitable countdown towards next season. But with the draft, the same feeling is starting to sprout up everywhere: “This could be our season.” Of course, that’s really only true for one team. The problem is we don’t know which team that will be…
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