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Quick Trade Deadline Analysis
by PuckStopsHere on 03/04/10 at 10:41 AM ET
Comments (12)
The NHL trade deadline has come and gone. The final day was full of trades, but most were teams exchanging spare parts and draft picks. The biggest deadline deals came before the Olympic break. Treating the trade deadline as the entire series of season end trades that began when Toronto acquired Jean-Sebastien Giguere in late January, here is a quick analysis of how teams fared in their deadline moves.
Biggest Short Term Improvement - New Jersey Devils They added Ilya Kovalchuk, who is the best player to change hands in deadline deals. It cost some depth players and young talent in Johnny Oduya, Niklas Bergfors, Patrice Cormier and a first round pick. Kovalchuk came from Atlanta with Anssi Salmela. Kovalchuk is highly unlikely to stay in New Jersey beyond this season, but he immediately becomes the top offensive talent in New Jersey history. Most of his cost is made up of players who will likely improve in the future. This is a deal intended to help New Jersey contend today. It does not make the Devils the top team in the NHL, but it does make them a more solid contender. The Devils also added Martin Skoula cheaply for a fifth round pick.
Biggest Short Team Drop - Atlanta Thrashers Atlanta is giving up the best player in team history in Kovalchuk and bringing back young players and Johnny Oduya. That cannot help the team this year. They also traded Kari Lehtonen to Dallas. Due to injury, Lehtonen had not played yet this season for Atlanta, so it doesn’t weaken the team this year, but his return of Ivan Vishnevskiy and a fourth round pick is not likely to help this year - though Vishnevskiy may have an NHL future. On deadline day itself, Atlanta added Clarke MacArthur from Buffalo for draft picks and signed veteran Chris Chelios the day before. None of this can make up for the loss of an Ilya Kovalchuk. His loss is probably enough to remove Atlanta from the playoff race.
Biggest Long Team Improvement - Toronto Maple Leafs Toronto added Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Dion Phaneuf to start the deadline deals. Both came as the best player in their deals. Giguere cost Vesa Toskala (who has since been moved onto Calgary) and Jason Blake. Phaneuf came with Fredrik Sjostrom and Keith Aulie from Calgary for Niklas Hagman, Matt Stajan, Ian White and Jamal Mayers. Toronto gave up a lot of spare parts and brought back a legitimate number one goalie and one of the top young defencemen in hockey. Toronto made many minor deals as well. Lee Stempniak went to Phoenix for draft picks and Matt Jones. Alex Ponikarovsky went to Pittsburgh for prospect Luca Caputi and Martin Skoula (who was moved to New Jersey for a draft pick). Joey MacDonald was sold to Anaheim for a draft pick and Chris Peluso was acquired from Pittsburgh for a draft pick. The biggest deal is Toronto adding Phaneuf. He has the ability to be an all star defenceman for years to come. Giguere is a solid goalie, who is making the most of his chance to be a number one goalie again. He is into his 30’s and may not last as long as Phaneuf, but should give the Leafs solid goaltending for a while.
Biggest Long Term Drop - Calgary Flames Calgary was the team to give up Dion Phaneuf and get back nobody who is a core player. They also traded Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust to the New York Rangers for Chris Higgins and Ales Kotalik. Both are deals that it will be unlikely Calgary can win. They acquired a backup goalie in Vesa Toskala from Anaheim for Curtis McElhinney. It is unlikely Toskala remains in Calgary beyond this season. They acquired Steve Staios from Edmonton for Aaron Johnson and a draft pick. They traded Dustin Boyd to Nashville for a draft pick and Riley Armstrong to Detroit for Andy Delmore. The biggest deal is of course moving Phaneuf out and getting nobody of star talent back. When Phaneuf is in the all star game in Toronto, Calgary will be regretting this deal.
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Tags: Atlanta+Thrashers, Calgary+Flames, Dion+Phaneuf, Ilya+Kovalchuk, Jean-Sebastien+Giguere, New+Jersey+Devils, Toronto+Maple+Leafs,
Comments
i don’t know if you’ve seen phaneuf play recently, but he’s in no danger of making an allstar team. he’s a worse player than when he was a rookie.
Posted by bitterguy from san francisco, ca on 03/04/10 at 01:44 PM ET
Welcome to PSH, where watching actual hockey games don’t mean as much as reading stats without context!
Posted by Garth on 03/04/10 at 02:40 PM ET
I agree with the last 2 posts… Phaneuf was a liability in Calgary ever since his rookie year. Even Bob Mackenzie said that the Flames won the trade, because they got the best player right now, who is Ian White.
Posted by Mike from Vancouver, BC on 03/04/10 at 02:58 PM ET
@Garth: I had completely forgotten about that. My mistake.
Posted by Alan from Atlanta on 03/04/10 at 03:54 PM ET
Instead of making blanket incorrect statements about how I watch hockey, debate the issue in the post. Comments that merely attack without discussing hockey will be deleted. There must be a modicum of decency and an attempt to have a legitimate discussion.
Defencemen who at age 24 have been a Norris nominee, a Calder nominee, have been on the first all star team and in two all star games are extremely rare. If somebody is willing to sell you one for spare parts, it is a no brainer. You buy if you can.
The only reason one would sell one at such a reduced price is is because of Phaneuf going through a poor spell. He has so much talent that it is a great bet that he will be an all star many years into the future. It is laughable to suggest that ian White is actually a better player over the long-term.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 03/04/10 at 06:17 PM ET
the issue in the post is that you look at numbers instead of hockey teams. I guarantee you’d kill me in a fantasy hockey league, but it’s a team sport and too often the sum of the parts does not equal the whole. Do the math on Team Russia for a clear example.
Posted by redxblack from Akron Ohio on 03/04/10 at 11:28 PM ET
Your comment (even if it were true) does not address anything whatsoever mentioned in this post.
Team Russia has nothing whatsoever to do with the trade deadline.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 03/04/10 at 11:46 PM ET
Atlanta now 4-1-2 without Kovalchuk.
The team has actually moved up the standings without him.
Posted by The Falconer from Atlanta on 03/04/10 at 11:58 PM ET
If you want to parse semantics, your post is about hockey teams, not the trade deadline. The trade deadline is not the subject of the post, but rather changes to teams that are evaluated by individual stats rather than how those parts come together.
Posted by redxblack from Akron Ohio on 03/05/10 at 08:18 AM ET
There are quite a few stats that demonstrate that Kovalchuk is one of the more over-rated players. For example, his career Corsi rates at ES, his PP points are inflated by huge amounts of PP TOI, his ESGAA is pretty awful. If you focus only on scoring stats you might miss these.
Posted by The Falconer on 03/05/10 at 02:23 PM ET
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On Atlanta: While Atlanta did give up Kovalchuk, Oduya and Bergfors have both stepped in and helped immediately. Atlanta is also playing like a team now, rather than playing to get the puck to Kovalchuk… only to watch as three players rough him up and steal the puck away.
I love Kovalchuk just as much as anyone else, but he wasn’t really helping the team. Especially after 30 November, when he started to play like he didn’t care.
The Thrashers, without Kovalchuk, are 3-1-2. This isn’t exactly an outstanding record, but consider they played Washington, Colorado, and Chicago in those three losses—and forced Colorado and Chicago to extra time.
Your view appears one-dimensional, insomuch that it appears that you haven’t watched any Atlanta games this year—particularly games involving Atlanta post-Kovalchuk.
Posted by Alan from Atlanta on 03/04/10 at 11:36 AM ET