Thursday, June 24, 2010

In The Light of Day

So, anybody hear the news yesterday? It seems as though the internets believe the Thrashers made some kind of player swap with the Blackhawks. I know it's true because I read it on the twitter machine.

This move is quite a big trade in many ways. I really needed to sleep on it and see what I thought about it... in the Morin, if you will. Everyone seems to be all giddy with school girlish excitement over the move. Me, I'm not so sure. Clearly the key to this deal for us is Buf. Amazing what a good playoff run will do for you. I expect he will be a pretty good 2nd line player for us and hopefully he will continue to grow and be the playoff Buf we saw, and not have times where he disappeared like he did during the regular season. We also got Eager and Sopel, but those two guys are throw ins and depending on who they end up replacing on our roster are either at the same talent level, or slightly less than what we had before. Can't comment on the prospect we got in the deal as I've never seen him play.

What did we give up? A 1st, 2nd, Reasoner, Morin, Crabb, and essentially Sterling, Vernace, and a 7th. Now then, some of these guys are spare parts, for sure. I would have expected CHI to not get fair value with teams knowing they HAD to make a move. Looking at it very simply, I have a little heartburn basically giving up a 1st, 2nd, and Morin for Buf and a prospect. I think that is way too much to give when a team has it's back against the wall. Eager and Marty Party could be considered a wash, if it weren't for Marty's leadership (we will miss that the most, I say). Sopel < Kubina, so hopefully something else will happen there before it's all said and done.

We shall see, won't we. I've said many times I have strong reservations about Dudley as our GM. I really hope I'm wrong and will gladly admit it if the time comes. One thing is for sure, this is the biggest trade this franchise has ever made when we weren't actually forced to make a move (Heatley, Hossa, Kovy). Dudley has never been afraid to make silly video game type trades. Hope this one works out. I think we still have work to be done to be considered a better team for next year. While we added some pieces, don't forget about the pieces that were not a direct part of this trade but won't be back because of it.

***EDIT***

Seeing as how everyone (professional and non-professional bloggers alike) but me seems to be confused about this let me clear it up: WE DID NOT GET AN EXTRA 2ND ROUND PICK FROM NJ FOR KOVALCHUK. WE SWAPPED 2ND ROUNDERS WITH THEM THUS WE GAVE UP OUR 2ND ROUNDER (VIA NJ) IN THE CHI TRADE.

It's the little things.

15 comments:

Jay said...

I'm not sure giving up Morin was THAT big of a deal. According to HF, Morin was the Thrashers' #3 prospect while Aliu was the Blackhawks' #4 prospect. That sounds like a wash to me or at the very least not a complete fleecing like some Thrashers fans think. Reasoner, as good as he is on the PK, is a spare part, just like Eager and Sopel. As we have heard, only 19% of 2nd round picks play in the NHL, and how many out of that 19% really make a difference? Or are they just expendable journeymen? This deal boils down to Buff for a late 1st round pick. Unlike Bowman for Chicago, Dudley has seen EVERY player in this trade first hand and knows their strengths and weaknesses from both teams perspectives. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. God help us all.

the jointhead said...

Dudley is an undercover agent for the hawks, kicking back and smoking a big cigar while helping chicago give us the sticky face.

GoPuckYourself said...

So Ramsey's being made coach today, and Dudley's not done trading. Regardless of how we all feel about the deal made yesterday, at least we're making changes. Exciting times in Thrasherville.

Big Shooter said...

GPY - Kind of how I feel at the moment. At least something is happening. I'm gonna wait til the dust clears before I make a final judgement. Although, if Dudley doesn't somehow trade for Landon Donovan I will consider this offseason a failure.

j_barty_party said...

No, what deal? What are you talking about??

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Not Marty Reasoner!!!! ZOMG!!!

j_barty_party said...

Jay - where did you learn such sagaciousness??

Just checked my spreadsheet, for the ten year period preceeding the lockout, only 68 out of 320 2nd round picks amounted to anything of substance. That's actually 21.25% but when you factor in '95 and 2006 (too early to tell??), the percentage drops to 19.8%.

Also keep in mind that the 68 draft "successes" include guys like Chris Thorburn and John Erskine. I'd say 12-15% of all 2nd rounders are bona fide studs and that is probably generous.

Big Shooter said...

Sweet Lord... you have a spreadsheet for that? Think you may be on the wrong blog.

j_barty_party said...

Most of the time I only come here for the Asian Porn.

Anonymous said...

>> I've said many times I have strong reservations about Dudley as our GM. I really hope I'm wrong and will gladly admit it if the time comes.

Ditto.

Razor Catch Prey said...

I'm nervous to see what other moves Dudley has in store for us. Hopefully they will be improvements, but I don't want to see us throwing away our future (i.e. draft picks and prospects) for players that will only help us for one year (i.e. Brent Sopel).

Razor Catch Prey said...

Shooter is right about the pieces who won't be back now. Armstrong, Kubina, and Afinogenov are out the door. How is our depth chart looking now?

Mortimer Peacock said...

My two cents, now that we're in the clear humid light of day: Byfuglien is obviously a huge upgrade over the likes of Armstrong, but I'm haunted by visions of Jeremy Morin scoring lots of goals in a Blackhawks uniform.

Kubina is much better than Sopel, but he's gone and Sopel brings a different skill set. The only way to have a good scoring defenseman is if Bogosian finally becomes The Dude this season. Enstrom, etc...

Ben Eager is a good fourth-liner, but there are many good fourth-liners.

We need one more forward who is a guaranteed goal-scorer. Go after Frolov, I reckon. We're much grittier now, but I worry about our scoring. Hopefully it's an unfounded worry.

Razor Catch Prey said...

I was playing with the lineup earlier and felt a hollowness deep inside when I looked at our scoring. We look a lot like the Bruins right about now.

j_barty_party said...

Perhaps Bergeron will be on the block soon if Boston gets "stuck" with Seguin...tough luck.

Frolov may be an option but with UFA's re-upping left and right, the scarcity of supply will drive up demand...uh oh!! Mad Max will get PAID, but not by us.

Come home Poni...Nik misses you.

Actually, don't really prefer Poni, but wouldn't mind him. I think at this point I'd like to see about trades for either Bergeron or Carter before moving on in the pursuit of Lombardi, Frolov or Poni.

Mortimer Peacock said...

Yes, Carter would be swell. But who do we trade to get him?