NHL Trade Deadline: Tales Of The Rich And Poor
By RYAN STETSON
Just days after the heart attack finale of possibly the best hockey tournament ever at the Vancouver Olympics, you could sense a letdown was coming.
And the NHL trade deadline day – a wink-wink, nudge-nudge holiday for many puckheads – provided just that, a full day of very little action or intrigue.
The letdown was not all that surprising, considering the moves that came before the Olympic roster freeze.
The biggest of those came down when unrestricted free agent poster boy Ilya Kovalchuk ended all the rumors by turning down a huge deal from Atlanta and ended up with the Devils. Plus, Dion Phaneuf pulled on the blue and white and Olli Jokinen took his enigma of a career to Madison Square Garden all before the league went on break.
Today’s biggest deal? Maybe Alexei Ponikarovsky (a huge winger with hands but a lot of other flaws) moving from Toronto to join Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh.
So if you were looking for a bunch of big names trading places today, you were pretty much out of luck.
You never know, some of the prospects thrown into some of these deals could turn into all-stars down the road and the age of “rental player” always makes these trades difficult to evaluate on the long term.
But from a betting perspective going down the stretch, today the NHL’s rich got richer while its poor got poorer.
Here are a few teams to keep an eye on down the stretch after they shuffled the deck today.
Rich got richer
Pittsburgh Penguins
Newest Penguin Alexei Ponikarovsky is streaky and goes through stints where he forgets to get his nose dirty in the corners, but it’s hard to argue with his numbers. He’s closing in on 20 goals and had 41 points with the Maple Leafs before the deal. What’s better? He was plus-5 on one of the worst teams in the league.
Washington Capitals
Washington added skilled defenseman Joe Corvo and some grit to get ready for a long playoff run. Scott Walker and Eric Belanger are far from household names now, but that could easily change in a couple months. Washington was way too easy to play against and was nearly upset by the New York Rangers. Walker and Belanger make this team more playoff-ready.
New Jersey Devils
Aside from landing the biggest ticket in town (Kovalchuk), New Jersey added a decent depth defenseman in Martin Skoula for next to nothing. Skoula’s best years are behind him, but he plays systems well and should fit in well on the third pairing at the back of New Jersey’s defense.
Poor got poorer
Toronto Maple Leafs
Outside of Phil Kessel, Tomas Kaberle and the recent additions of Phaneuf and J.S. Giguere, the cupboard is now pretty bare in Leafland. Brian Burke shipped out Lee Stempniak, Vesa Toskala and Ponikarovsky today. The good news is they’re closing in on a lottery pick at the draft.
Carolina Hurricanes
The Hurricanes planned to cut ties with many of its veterans and pulled the trigger with Aaron Ward, Scott Walker and Andrew Alberts all hitting the road today and Matt Cullen leaving earlier. Not much for Eric Staal to work with now.