Well, it was only a matter of time before I would write my first blog. Unfortunately, I would have preferred to write a much more upbeat blog than the one that I am about to write. But, I cannot as I am left to defend myself, once again, for my actions. It seems as if one of our esteemed colleagues, our recent critic and know-it-all has once again decided to voice his opinions regarding my recent transactions, especially my trade with the Blackhawks involving the Sedin twins. I believe he described the deal as "bad, very bad." Well, my initial response to this is that my esteemed, know-it-all colleague is exibiting a case of "sour grapes" as, despite his constant phonecalls and pm's, this little engine just couldn't get the deal done and what was once looking as a top three finish to the season is quickly deteriorating to his typical mediocre season as he is quickly falling down the standings - at last check, he was in 6th - and losing sight of the contenders.
To recap, in trading away Jason Spezza and the Sedin twins along with Brent Burns and Zbynek Michalek, I was able to acquiring the defensive help that I so desperately needed in Jay Bouwmeester and Niklas Kronwall as well as the young forwards and prospects that I desired in P.M. Bouchard, Stephen Weiss, Robert Nilsson, Gilbert Brule, Juri Hudler, and Tyler Arnason - all, with the exception of Nilsson - are contributing in the NHL this season. If my esteemed colleague would have read my post carefully, instead of rushing to call me a mere two minutes after the post, he would have read that I was looking for young forwards and prospects who are contributing in the NHL, a roster increase of at least three players, and at least one top notch elite D-man. Well guess what, I got exactly what I was looking for.
I think there is no arguing that I made out fairly well in the Spezza deal. Jay Bouwmeester was the central piece to this deal. At the age of 22, Bouwmeester his hitting his stride and will be a 60pt D-man for several years to come. Teaming Bouwmeester with Dion Phaneuf, Brent Seabrook, Niklas Kronwall, and Marc Staal gives me one of the best looking young defensive corps for possibly the next 10 years. I am very excited about the three forwards that I received in return as Bouchard will soon become a point per game; Weiss will be a consistant 60-70pt player for several years to come; and Nilsson is a top 50 prospect according to hockeysfuture.com and, according to dobberhockey.com has an 85pt upside.
Our esteemed colleague seems to have taken issue with my trading of the Sedins and Brent Burns to the Blackhawks for Brule, Hudler, Arnason, and Kronwall. It seems that he did not take to kindly that I rebuffed his many offers which, at different times included Luc Bourdon, Niklas Backstrom, Alex Steen, and Michael Frolik. Only after much prodding on my behalf was I able to convince him to trade the likes of Jeff Carter, Saku Koivu, and Milan Hejduk. What our esteemed colleague refused to do was include Matt Carle or John-Michael Liles in any trade discussions. It was at this point that I decided no trades could be completed with him. The reason Spezza is on the Islanders and the Sedins are on the Blackhawks is because these two individuals were willing to trade away Bouwmeester and Kronwall while all my esteemed colleague could muster up was Luc Bourdon. Let's look at this closely, we all know about Bouwmeester, so we'll leave him alone. But when it came to making the Sedin deal, I had to ask myself, Kronwall or Bourdon. According to dobberhockey.com, Kronwall has 60pt upside and will very soon be the quaterback of Detroit's PP for years to come. As for Bourdon, well he failed to crack dobberhockey.com's top 50 prospect list although I will admit that both mckeen's hockey and the sportsforecaster predict a bright future for him, they do state that it will be a while before he can fully contribute at the NHL level as evidenceb by his 0pts in 9 games and return to junior hockey. In my opinion, by the time Bourdon makes a significant contribution, Kronwall would probably have had two or three 60pt seasons. As such the choice was obvious, Kronwall over Bourdon.
My esteemed colleague also took issue with the fact that I would choose Brule over Backstrom. Well let's see. dobberhockey.com predicts a 110pt upside for Brule and a 90pt upside for Backstrom; hockeysfuture.com has Brule ranked as the #6 prospect and Backstrom at #10; and mckeen's hockey has Backstrom ranked at #4 and Brule at #5. You see, my esteemed colleague would have you believe that because Backstrom is tearing apart the Swedish Elite League (SEL), he is next coming of Wayne Gretzky. Well the SEL is not the NHL and, in case my esteemed colleague has not noticed, there is no guarantee that Backstrom will be Ovechkin's center next year due to the amazing chemistry between Ovechkin and his current center, Danius Zubrus. Although Brule is struggling at the NHL level early this year, from all accounts that I have read from our "Bibles", Brule is and will be the better player.
As for Juri Hudler, he projects as a top six forward and dobberhockey.com has his upside at 90pts. So it was easy to pick him over Steen, Frolik (90pt upside), or Carter. And Tyler Arnason, well he is having a very nice rebound season and his point totals to date are comparable to Koivu and Hejduk and he is a few years younger than Koivu and Hejduk.
Our esteemed colleague tried many combinations of the above mentioned players, but we could not come together on a deal for the simple fact that he refused to part with Carle or Liles. I give credit to the Islanders and Blackhawks for giving up to tier D-men to make their respective deals happen. My esteemed colleague will tell you that I "shot for the moon". Well I did when dealing with him because of his insistance that I take Bourdon, Frolik, or Steen despite my stance that I was not interested in those players. This along with his refusal to part with Carle or Liles caused me to ask for guys like Savard and Esposito (who is currently falling down the 2007 top prospects list - he stands at 6th) in order to make a deal happen. When he didn't want to include those guys, well then, it was over and I made my deals with two guys are "get it" are were willing to give me what I needed.
Thank you and goodnight.