Rush to the Deadline

So the trade deadline has come and gone, and a lot happened the past few weeks. So much so, in fact, that I'm going to tell you straight up I'm not here to cover it all. That's why I'm providing you with the link to the NHL Trade Central page on NHL.com.

That said, I do want to go over some that I find interesting, key, important, or odd. First and foremost, Your Dallas Stars, of course.

Mattias Norstrom
Mattias Norstrom comes to us from the LA Kings, in fact he was their Captain until today. What does he bring to us? Well Armstrong says Leadership, but I'm not entirely sold. It's not that I don't think he has it, it's that I don't know that our Defense is where the leadership was needed. Our 3rd and 4th lines need leadership, not our D. Also they say he brings defensive depth ... well looking strictly at this year, he's a -20 ... for a DMan that can't be good. In fact, that's 12 points lower than any of our guys. But don't worry we have a stronger team. A MUCH stronger team - their team has 20 guys in the minus column, 6 of them are -10 or worse. With the 4th highest minutes per game average I'd expect him to be on the higher end of things. I could harp more on his performance this year, but I don't think it's worth it, the Stars brought him in (like Nagy) for potential, not current performance. Norstrom has 2 All Star games and 3 Olympics under his belt, he has a career +3, with a season high of +22. All in all, he's a welcome addition to the team and I think will help us through the playoffs, beyond that, I don't know for sure.

But the question is what'd we give up for him, and was it a smart trade? Jaroslav Modry is now a King. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. Modry was our +/- leader with +10, he had 10 points and is highly seasoned at 600+ games (600th played against San Jose on December 21st). He wasn't the star play maker, but he was definitely a strong DMan. Also give up by Dallas were the rights on Johan Fransson, a Sweed that the stars had the rights to but hadn't brought to Dallas yet, the 2008 1st-round pick and the 2007 2nd & 3rd round picks. We did walk away with young-in Konstantin Pushkarev, a right winger sent directly to Iowa, and a 3rd and 4th round pick for this coming draft. My thoughts? Even trade. Pushkarev for Fransson: neither Pros nor Cons to mention ... the draft picks worth while (we're not building for 5 years from now, we're building for next 3) ... Modry for Norstrom: could swing either way to be honest ... but I'm going to trust in our leaders choices on this one.

Now onto some other interesting trades:

Keith Tkachuk
Tkachuk was expensive, and the Thrashers are going to need him, but I think they outspent themselves on this one. He's worth it but they gave up Geln Metropolit and their 1st and 3rd round picks for 2007 and their (conditional) 1st and (definite) 2nd round picks for 2008. The biggest problem is he's a rental, as many of the trades this time of year are. If he doesn't stick around afterwards I'm gonna say that they got ripped off in the deal. St Louis - smart cookies right there. Very smart.

Philadelphia Flyers
Yes the Flyers rate as a full trade right now. In the final 10 days to trade deadline they made 4 moves. First and foremost Peter Forsberg for Scottie Upshall and a rookie Ryan Parent as well as a 1st and 3rd round pick for this coming draft. Forsberg is great, but it was time for him to move on and the team to get all they could for him, and they did. Second on the 24th they trade Alexei Zhitnik for Braydon Coburn, I'm not sure this was a fair trade however it shows the Flyers' goal: bring in the youth, start fresh, get moving again. Then on Monday they traded Kyle Calder for Lasse Kukkonen and another 3rd round pick for this years draft. Calder was not what they expected and it was looking like they were going to lose him anyway, why not get something for him; and Kukkonen is an up-and-coming DMan that brings, you guessed it, youth to the much stagnated Flyers bench. Next they took advantage of all the draft picks they've been getting and gave up their 2nd round pick to the Sabres for Martin Biron. Honestly, this was a smart move for them: the Flyers needed to shore up some long term goal tending and they see this as a trial period for Biron to see if he works out. I can't see it not working out too, as backup goalie to Ryan Miller, Biron, a former starter himself, is 12-4-1 in his 17 games, including the Sens v Sabres game last week where he squared off on Center ice against Ray Emery. I can't see Biron not becoming a full time goalie for the Flyers, if nothing else at least splitting time with Nittymaki or Esche if either of them can stay healthy enough to contend for the spot.

Bill Guerin
Mr Guerin was one of the most welcomed All-Stars this past month in Dallas receiving a very loud applause from the fans, which I think backfired for Dallas fans as we'll now be seeing much more of him. San Jose, Guerin's new home, paid a much deserved hefty price for the star too: winger Ville Nieminen a winger with nearly 1 point for every 3 NHL games, and 1 for every 2 playoff games, as well as a prospect in Jay Barriball and the teams 1st round pick this coming year. Guerin deserves to be on a contending team and in San Jose, I hate to admit, he has found it. St Louis needed to move on and start rebuilding, and Guerin was the right bait for the future. Personally I look forward to seeing Guerin in Dallas more often, I think we'll be ready for him.

Georges Laraque
Pittsburgh has been out proving the the world that they are ready to contend for the Cup, and with a set of moves this past week they have shown further their desire to bring it home (even if home moves to Kansas City!). Along with a few other key moves (Gary Robers & Joel Kwiatkowski) the Penguins are off with experience, and plenty of recent wins, to make every team think twice before planning their game-time strategies. The question on everyones mind isn't why did Pittsburgh make the trade, by what about the Coyotes? Well, here is another team struggling to find a future, and that's exactly what they went for. AHL Prospect Dan Carcillo, who seems to be little more than a loud-mouth problem child, and 3rd round pick for 2008. I'm giving the advantage to Pittsburgh on this one. On the surface I'd say that the 'yotes did what they had to in order to get what they could for the past, but the Penguins helped solidify their run for the cup for this year, and with everything else they've been doing, the next few years as well.

Ryan Smyth
No you do not need to adjust your monitor, no you are not alone. I think Smyth getting traded by the Oilers may have been one of the more shocking trades this past week. Lets get this out of the way: Smyth was traded for 2 prospects (Ryan O'Marra & Robert Nilsson) and a 1st round pick in 2007. Here's another one I'm going to say flat out, one team made out like bandits and the other one, well, we'll have to see if it works out for them. Both teams are fighting for playoff rights, though the Oilers should be just about giving up as they're now 9 points behind with no games at hand catching the 8th place team. The Islanders, on the other hand, are 1 point out of 8th, 1 point out of 10th, and only 6 points out of 4th in their division (not that I'm suggesting they can make it, but they're not far out). Smyth has the possibilities of really turning things around for this team, in desperate need of his abilities. Earlier this year the Islanders shocked the NHL with a record-breaking 15 year contract for their goalie, and now they do the same with the trade, probably the most surprising trade, of the season. I give them the edge in the trade, and if I were Atlanta, Montreal, Carolina or the Leafs, I'd pay special attention to how the Islanders use this new force.

Were there more trades? Were there other interesting trades? Am I retarded? HAH - the answer is likely yes to all three questions, but I'm done for the night. Drop me a line at the Dallas Stars Podcast blog though, and give me your opinion on my thoughts ... I'm no expert, I'm just a fan with a big mouth!

--the wall