2009 NHL Trade Deadline
A Review of Winners and Losers of Deadline Day 2009
3:00 PM EST, March 4th 2009 came and passed, as NHL general managers worked on deals, agreed to deals and fans of the league scream and cried as they watched their teams make the deals. Every year, for any league, the trade deadline is the most intense day for the team and their fans. The questions of what a team would do are endless, and the rumour mills are at full spin. But only on this day, can fans separate what were rumours and what were true. Here are the winners and losers of trade deadline day 2009.
Winner: Calgary Flames
The Flames made the biggest splash of the day, when they acquired F Olli Jokinen from the Phoenix Coyotes along with a 3rd round draft pick in exchange for F Matthew Lombardi, F Brandon Prust and a 1st round pick. Jokinen was one of the big sharks that teams could have lured in, and the Flames won that lottery. It gives the Flames a top 6 forward, and makes them a legitimate contender in the post-season. The Flames went on to make a second deal with the division rival Colorado Avalanche. The Flames acquired (or re-acquired) defenseman Jordan Leopold from the Avs in exchange for D Lawrence Nycholat (Who the Flames picked up off waivers less than 2 days ago), D Ryan Wilson and a 2nd round pick. Leopold rejoins the Flames after a few years in Colorado, as he was part of the deal that sent Alex Tanguay to the Flames a few years back. Jokinen and Leopold are wonderful editions to the team, Jokinen played for coach Mike Keenan back in his Florida days and those were the best days of his career. With these two trades, the Flames are now a threat to go deep into this year's playoffs.
Loser: Montreal Canadiens
Free-falling fast in the standings and struggling to say the least, the Canadiens did...nothing. No trades on the day, and still plenty of problems to deal with. Sure Alex Kovalev seems to have found his game again after being asked to sit out, but what about the goaltending? Carey Price has yet to find his early season form since returning from injury and even though Jaroslav Halak has been a good fill-in, is he a goaltender that can help the Habs win in the playoffs? They have also failed to add anymore scoring power, and there is only so much impact Mathieu Schneider can make on the blueline. Disappointing day to say the least for Montreal fans.
Winner: Phoenix Coyotes
The Coyotes were amongst the most active teams on the day, while they did not land a huge name, they added depth and youth. They dealt Olli Jokinen to Calgary and got young guys back in Lombardi and Prust along with that 1st round pick. The added Scott Upshall from the Flyers and another 2nd round pick in exchange for Daniel Carcillo. They picked up another pick (4th round) when the dealt backup goaltender Mikeal Tellqvist to Buffalo. And on top of all that, they dealt Derek Morris to the Rangers in exchange for Dmitri Kalinin, Nigel Dawes and Petr Prucha. All talented players, and all amazing additions for a Phoenix team that needed a boost in veteran leadership. Dawes and Prucha are hard working puck-hawks, and Kalinin is a solid defenseman who's contract runs out at the end of the year. Upshall is an awesome player, he is tough on and off the puck and knows how to put away rebounds. Great moves for Wayne Gretzky and his Coyotes to acquire not only players to play but also those three picks.
Loser: Colorado Avalanche
For Avs fans, it was tough to watch. Even though they were able to deal for some young talent and a pick, that was the only move of the day. They failed to move the long rumoured trade bait Ryan Smyth and they failed to get any promising goaltending. They still have yet to find another scoring forward for when Joe Sakic decides to hang them up, and they failed to acquire anymore draft picks to boost the retooling process. They are one of the worst teams in the league this year and needed to trade away guys to start rebuiliding for the post-Sakic era, and they did not.
There were a couple of other moves that didn't involve the teams mentioned above. The Rangers were one of those, acquiring Nik Antropov and Derek Morris, but how will those two blend with new coach John Tortorella? Will they at all? If not, there could be a problem in the Big Apple sooner rather than later. This was one of the more silent trade deadlines fans have seen in a long while.
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