Serious Thoughts: The Lars Eller Trade

Blades | June 18th, 2010 - 11:31 am | Posted in: Serious Thoughts | Comments: 11

I know I have not been posting many any humor posts lately but bear with me. I never want to force those things so for now you’ll be getting a big dose of these “Serious Thoughts” pieces.

"I'd rather be in Montreal"

–Being a hockey geek, I did know who Lars Eller was prior to yesterday. Still, my initial reaction to the Halak trade was: “that’s it?” But the more I thought about it, the more I laughed the traded started to grow on me.

There is a surplus of middle-of-the-pack goaltending in the league right now and as good as Halak was for a stretch in the playoffs, he’s far from anything other than a middle-of-the-pack goalie right now. Besides saving $2-$3m in cap space by going with Price, getting a 1st rounder who is ready to step in next season isn’t a bad trade-off.

Only time can show us the true colors of this trade. For instance, if Eller turns out to be a first-liner and Carey plays up to his potential, then Habs fans will no longer want to lynch Gauthier (even if Halak wins a Vezina). The latter is a big “if” though. However…

From Dryden to this...

–Everyone (myself included) makes fun of Carey Price, and if you didn’t know better, judging by the jokes you’d think he’s the equivalent of Toskala. That’s far from the truth. He’s only 22 and when he matures, he’ll do fine, in my opinion. Let’s also take into account the added confidence he should get from not having to look over his shoulder all the time. I would have chosen Price over Halak too.

–That said, initially I was surprised that the trade wasn’t something like Eller/Backes for Halak/2nd rounder. But like I mentioned earlier,  the goalie availability right now around the league probably would have made the addition of Backes unrealistic.

–Lars Eller, PK Subban and Carey Price. Not a bad young forward/defenseman/goalie combination. Habs fans shouldn’t be on suicide watch (at least not until next year depending on how Carey plays).

–I read about a Jason Spezza to the Oilers rumor. I think he’d be a nice fit in Edmonton but Ottawa would be crazy to deal another “star” for a mix of middle-of-the-pack NHLers. If they do, the Sens are like that bad fantasy GM who always trades his best player for depth. That guy never wins anything.

–Say what you want about Spezza’s contract or his defensive play but point-a-game players don’t grow on trees. If you trade him, then you’d better get something other than a couple of guys who max out at 50 points a year.

–I’m still highly curious about what Kaberle will fetch in a trade. I can’t believe some of the rumors (like Jeff Carter) are realistic. If Burke pulls that off then my jaw will hit the floor.

Mr. Smooth

–Dion Phaneuf came off as cool and confident during his captain speech as I did during an 8th grade dance. Only difference was that I couldn’t pounded the living s**t out of those that made fun of me.

–Kessel, Kadri, Dion, Schenn. Pretty good young core if they all play to their potential.  Certainly, the Leafs are much better off right now than when Brian took over.

–Early predictions for next year from yours truly:

Top 3 seeds  in the West: Blackhawks, Kings, Canucks

Top 3 seeds in the East: Capitals, Penguins, Bruins

Team to take the biggest fall in West: Coyotes

Team to take the biggest fall in East: Devils

Back to the playoffs in West: Blues

Back to the playoffs in East: Toronto? It’s hard to be confident about any of the 7 teams that didn’t make the post-season in the East, no?

I’ll do another one of these in September based on the movement in the next 3 months.

–Did any of you catch the NBA Finals? Pretty good series. I loved Ron Artest thanking his psychiatrist in the post-game interview. I really like the guy. Sure, he’s a little crazy but Ron comes off very genuine. I hated Rodman because he came off like a marketing gimmick. Ron just seems like a good guy.

–My World Cup team Argentina is 2-0 now with two impressive showings. My wife’s Brazil team looked shaky vs. North Korea but, sadly, still won. I haven’t watched every game (hard to wake up early for Honduras/Chilie), but the Spain-Switzerland game was probably my favorite one not involving Maradona’s squad.

–Even if you don’t like baseball, take the time to watch Stephen Strasburg pitch (he has a start tonight). It’s sick how well he can throw. Since words can’t do it justice, watch this (the break on the pitch at the 0:50 mark is insane):

[Edit: Looks like the YouTube video got deleted.]

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11 Responses to “Serious Thoughts: The Lars Eller Trade”

  1. rouven says:
    June 18, 2010 at 5:29 pm

    hey bof,

    thanx again for another great read!
    i wish i could get that on a daily basis …
    you’re the best funny blog together with dgb, at least in my book.

    didya read my other comments on the last blog entry? yea, they were a bit wc-dominated ;)

    wc continues to be fun, even though some teams should be penalized for boring, uninspired play. france, england and italy come to mind …

    here’s hoping spezza will be traded to columbus. but since the jackets should address their lack of offensive, transition-game-capable d first, it’s probably not gonna happen. sigh. but i’d just love to see nash perform with a true #1 center.

    spezza is a point-per-game guy, but you also have to take notice that he played more that sub-par of that in the last two seasons.

    oh, and prepare your jaw for moves from burkie. he’ll not get carter for kaberle, but i’m pretty sure he’s gonna pull of one or two trades that’ll make us like “what the eff just happened?” it’s burkie, man! ;)

    don’t agree with your early predictions – but we’ll see in some months who was right, eh?
    your forgot the (my!) wings in the top 3 in the west. they’ll be back there for sure, now having a hopefully healthy team. they get jiri hudler back. they have filppula’s older brother now, who just won the mvp of the playoffs award in finland and has some real sick moves. count ‘em out on your own peril!

    but like your opinion that the kings will be the front of the pack in the pacific. they’ll hopefully add either kovalchuk or marleau and should make some serious noise in the west.

    in the east, i agree with your predictions, though i don’t think the devils will fall that far. maclean is a good choice as coach, and if they manage to get some offensive d and maybe some more offense, they should be fine. no, i don’t really like em! ;)
    and back in the playoffs i’m hoping for my beloved isles to finally make it again. or, another option: seeing stevie y guide the lightning back into the playoffs. that’d be sweet!

    hey, i even watched baseball since you said i should do that – that strasburg kid is eerily good!

    cheers from germany,
    rouven

  2. admin says:
    June 18, 2010 at 6:04 pm

    Hey Rouven,

    Yeah I read your comments on the last post, forgot to reply though! sorry.

    Totally agree with you on that any sport has its boring games. It’s funny how Americans say that soccer is boring but they have no problem watching baseball. Don’t get me wrong, I love baseball too, but more times than not it consists of boring games. One thing about baseball that I love are the announcers. Best announcers in sports in my opinion are those that call baseball games because they constantly have to fill time.

    Another sport that I found ultra-boring from the live games I’ve attended is the NFL. Great sport to watch on TV but in person, it doesn’t do it for me.

    Re: World Cup. I missed the Germany game this morning and I hope they replay it in the evening here. Tough loss.

    England has been pretty brutal so far too. But they always come in with too much hype and never live up to it. Rooney looked frustrated all game.

    Re: Hockey

    I’m not sure the Wings can unseed the Hawks for the top spot in the Central. Their top 2 dmen are getting old. And though I like Howard, he’s not a proven commodity yet. Don’t get me wrong, I think they’ll make the playoffs but I just don’t see them being better than the other 3 teams I mentioned. But we’ll see :-)

    Re: Columbus and Spezza

    The rumor I read about that was Spezza for Brassard and the 4th overall pick. If that’s the case, I would do that if I was Ottawa. I like Brassard; He had a tough year after coming back from injury the previous season, but so did most of the Jackets. Adding the 4th overall pick, which would be one of the top 3 defensemen in this draft (Fowler, Gudbranson, Gormley), I think you get pretty fair value for Spezza.

    I’d hate the Sens to do something like in the Heatley trade and get two guys like Cogliano. At least with the 4th overall, they have a chance to get a potential stud.

    Re: Islanders

    One of my good friends is a diehard Islanders fan so I understand your struggle. When they moved up last year into the 12th spot, I was telling him that they must be trying to get Kulikov. When they drafted de Haan, I was quite shocked. Right now I think that was a mistake. Although the “Russia KHL” factor probably came into play with Kulikov ’cause I think he should have been a top 10 pick.

  3. Monday Morning Reading | The Rat Trick | A Florida Panthers Blog says:
    June 21, 2010 at 6:59 am

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  4. rouven says:
    June 23, 2010 at 5:58 pm

    hiya bof,
    this time it’s been me forgetting the answer ;)

    hope you enjoyed watching the world cup as much as refreshing kukla’s korner for trade news!

    world cup:

    argentinia keeps on giving me the creeps. just how good and how deep is that team? messi still didn’t score, but still they managed to get seven (!) goals in the qualification round. i was hoping for uruguay vs argentinia cause i really, really liked the mexicans so far, but well …
    what’s your prediction for germany vs england on the weekend? no, it’s not gonna be penalties – that’d be too easy, y’know *g*
    here’s hoping for an english humiliation. they played a poor wc so far.

    hockey:

    you’re right with that top 3 in hindsight – i didn’t think far enough that the top 3 in the conference are, of course, the division leaders. yea, it’s gonna be hard to beat the blackhawks that won the cup there … but let’s see how hard it’s gonna be to beat the ‘hawks that have to adjust to the cap next season, hehehe!

    and the problem with the spezza-columbus deal is EXACTLY the fourth pick – i think the jackets need a good, offensive, puck-moving d-man even more than a #1 center. sigh. well, gotta be happy that i like/love the wings/isles/caps even more than columbus, eh?

    oh, and you’re dead right with kulikov. saw him at the world cup in germany and watched his development in florida, and that guy has a huuuge potential! hope de haan turns out good as well, but the isles sure missed that one. but then, one can’t even be happy about good isles-drafting since you can be sure they’ll trade away their best players anyway ;)

    cheerio!

    ps: c’mon, waiting for another article! :P

  5. admin says:
    June 23, 2010 at 7:17 pm

    Rouven,

    The Buff trade the Hawks pulled off is a pretty good one, imo. Saved $4 mil and got a 1st rounder + a second. Not bad at all. Wonder what else they’ll do.

    Soccer:

    Argentina has been great but they do freak me out here and there with their defensive lapses. Just hope that those don’t cost them going forward.

    Messi should have had at least 2-3 goals by now with the chances he’s been getting. Hopefully those chances will start turning into goals during the knockout stage.

    England vs. Germany? Penalties! :-)

    I wonder if England will be able to build on today’s victory and maybe gain some momentum from that. If they play like they did in their previous two games, then I would think Germany should be able to pull it out.

    Sunday should be a good day with those two matches.

  6. rouven says:
    June 23, 2010 at 7:32 pm

    wow, that was fast :)

    just read about the buff trade, too. stunning.
    but the thrashers now end up with oduya, bergfors, cormier, byfuglien, sopel, eager and aliu for kovalchuk – not too shabby. and all they had to give up besides big k was a verteran and a seemingly pretty good prospect. we’ll see who got the better side of that one.

    hmm, the only problem in agrentinia’s defense is demichelis (no, not because he’s playing in germany *g*) so far – hope he gets his act together now, maybe his fulminant goal against the greek will help him there.

    i’m hoping for a german team playing like it did against australia and an english team playing like it did against the u.s. or algeria, so there’s really no need for penalties. even if they’d go to penalties: the english could just as well play without a goalkeeper :D

  7. admin says:
    June 23, 2010 at 9:54 pm

    I think it was a good trade for the Thrasher as well. It’s really a win-win for both teams, imo.

    Also, I read a report today that the Hawks are still looking to move Versteeg. Should be interesting.

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