Whitney to Calgary?
According to the "Canes Insider" on Twitter, Whitney may indeed be a Calgary Flame soon. Take with a grain of salt until confirmed by the likes of TSN...
For now, let the wild speculation begin - who would be going the other way? Sarich?
over 2 years ago
Kent Wilson
36 comments
0 recs |
Email
PrintComments
who would be going the other way? Sarich?
The cap hits match within 50k, so unless there are others involved, that’s the obvious move. If Jokinen is moved, Carolina has to trade someone else, because they’re even tighter to the number than Calgary is. They don’t have 1.7 million worth of room to accommodate the difference.
it would piss me off, at this point, to move sarich. he’s a 3.5 million dollar #2 defenseman. period.
I like the guy, but unless you think they’re unloading Dion or Regher, that’s the salary slot that needs to be swapped for a better forward. I’d rather see Jokinen moved, of course, but he’s a pretty tough guy to deal right now, since you’re trading at the absolute bottom in terms of his value.
by Robert Cleave on Nov 1, 2009 1:45 PM PST up reply actions
Yeah…the Flames need another legit top 6 forward more than than they need Cory Sarich, quite frankly. I thought that was kind of true before the season started (when I assumed Jarome would be decent and Jokinen would at least be scoring against soft competition)…but now it’s even more glaring.
The other thing to look at is next year and beyond. Whitney is UFA, as is Jokinen. That’s 8.8 million dollars of roster flexibility July 1st. Some of that will be used on Bourque, one would hope, and the rest to chase a center. Marleau might be my guess. Cheap middle-of-the-rotation D are easier to find than top-sixers. Whitney’s just a gap filler, IMO, until the Flames can go big game hunting next summer.
by Robert Cleave on Nov 1, 2009 1:52 PM PST up reply actions
I’d only be in favor of chasing a big-name UFA center if said player was equally capable of playing a wing position. At some point you need the space for guys like Boyd and Backlund to step up and earn that NHL top six role.
Sarich makes sense from a salary perspective but not from a roster perspective. The Flames already have 1 NHL salary toiling away in the AHL (Stuart) I can’t imagine they want another one, nor do I think we have many players on roster that would sail through the waiver wire. If it were to be anything it would be something like Sarich + Dawes to clear the appropriate salary + roster spot. I don’t know how (if at all that would affect the return).
I don’t see a roster issue at all. They have 13 forwards and 8 defencemen currently in Calgary. A trade like the one described would leave them at 14 F 7D, which is how most other teams array their players. It would be a straight roster player for roster player deal. The greater issue is that two of Pardy, Johnson and Kronwall would have to play every night, which would be sub-optimal, no doubt.
I hear you on your first point, but the Flames aren’t in the player development mode. Their alleged top forwards are all older, so a move for a proven center fits where they are in the cycle. Bear in mind Conroy and Langkow are older, so if Boyd and Backlund become regular top-nine guys in the near future, there are clear spots to be had even if a number one center arrives via free agency.
by Robert Cleave on Nov 2, 2009 9:04 AM PST up reply actions
Sarich is the obvious fit cap-wise, but I wonder if it may be Jokinen. I know there’s a 1.7 difference, but from my cap source, the canes have slightly more cap space than the Flames.
Also, Niclas Wallin makes 1.75 and Chad Larose & Jussi Jokinen make 1.7. Could 1 of those join Whitney for Olli & Johnson/Kronwall &/or a draft pick?
I’d be stunned if Sutter dealt Jokinen just 40 games into his time with the Flames, regardless of the (terrible) results. I can’t imagine him dealing with the cognitive dissonance that well.
the only reason this seems plausible is because sutter dealt with the so-called cognitive dissonance on the vandermeer contract, the primeau contract, and bertuzzi…. i have deemed it totally impossible over and over due to sutter hubris, but i’ starting to wonder if it’s plausible to think that daz is aware that he’s got a 5.5 million dollar centreman on the third effing line.
by walkinvisible on Nov 1, 2009 10:39 PM PST up reply actions
I don’t know how much cognitive dissonance is a factor. Sutter has the stubborn persona and is an ass to the media but he also has people to answer to within the Flames org so the need to improve the club in all areas is constant (unless he wins the Stanley of course!)
And of course from a business perspective W’s are the priority so that colors every decision. Does Sutter get away with patience vis-a-vis Kipper if the Flames don’t have dominant offence last season?
Of course I have no idea what a GM’s life is like anyway, I’m sure each one has a different working relationship with his higher-ups and a different lens through which he views the team. From what we’ve seen from Sutter he’s been pretty quick at fixing holes (goaltending, offence, forward depth) although he has a bias towards defencemen which I wonder about, the more I watch hockey the more I think it’s about the forwards.
Back to the point at hand: we all thought Jokinen was a soft-minute guy and Sutter went ahead and acquired him anyway, paid a hefty price, so I’m inclined to think that Sutter will give him more time than us. But Sutter’s patience with his projects has never been infinite, he’s flushed a number of them as WI elucidates below and results be results, they are too awful at this point to ignore. No matter which lens you use.
I’m calling BS on this – I just don’t see it happening. Part of me wants to be wrong because something needs to change (already….yikes), but then…. so does Carolina (2-8-3) yuk. I think that’s where this rumour is coming from….desparation on the part of the Canes media. Hwoever, with the auditions that the defense are going through, you know someone is moving eventually, but I don’t see if happening for Ray Whitney. A trade would, as well, make sense of the Johnson acquisition which has had me stumped.
If we do trade for a forward…I don’t see it being 1 forward for 1 defenseman because we would be way to bloated (in numbers, not talent) up front. So, I think, multi-player deal.
Just because I’m thinking Ray Whitney is not coming…I will throw out my prediction for this unlikely move that won’t happen either:
Ray Whitney + Brandon Sutter + 2nd rounder for Jokinen + Boyd + Kronwall.
Oh, and before I get killed for suggesting Boyd….I’m only saying it because I know eventually Sutter is going to make a trade that makes me say “Oh god, are you fucking kidding me?” because 1. you can’t win on trades all the time and 2. the other team is going to want something in return…and Olli and Kronwall aren’t much. I should state, I wouldn’t want Boyd to be traded.
BUT,,, I also did say none of this is going to happen.
As to this trade: a lot of things I don’t know from here. I’m no expert at trades but I do know that one of the biggest considerations is: what are the trading partner’s needs?
We mention Sarich as the trade chip but does Carolina need D? They lost Seidenberg who I believe was one of their most productive D in terms of EVGF/60 a similar categories (someone on Lowetide keeps mentioning him) although from BTN it seems he played mid-level comp. He did get sent out for a lot of D-zone faceoffs, broke even in Corsi. Once I get my shift chart reader going I can see how many Ovechkin minutes he played but my guess is “not the most on his team” since they kept Gleason over him. And Gleason seems to have played just as many (if not more) high-leverage minutes.
If they did need to fill a high-leverage D role Sarich would be perfect for that. But I suspect we need that role filled just as bad, Phaneuf is being sheltered right now and although I’d like to see him play against tough comp with JBo, that might not do so well for our chances at W’s. Although who knows, Keenan starting exposing him to the big boys in 07/08, granted it was often in O-zone situations and presumably behind Iginla who was good back then.
And Carolina would be fools to trade for Jokinen although wouldn’t that be a coup. Maybe they have a beef against their announcers and want to frustrate them with two Jokinens? That’s a more plausible idea than them wanting to upgrade at centre by acquiring one of the worst in the league, imo.
Perfect Eklund rumor.
Not really related, but who is Eklund? I’ve been around a bit but honestly don’t know who this guy is, what his blog is (assuming it’s a blog). He obviously isn’t very well regarded by this crowd, but who is he? If anyone cares to enlighten…
He’s a guy who fancies himself a sports journalist and claims to have all sorts of contacts in the head offices of many NHL clubs but his actual success rate is so low that pretty much everyone figures that he just makes stuff up and/or just repeats rumors that other equally clueless folk come up with.
As an aside I have no idea who “Canes Insider” is. Any cred on him/her at all or is he/she just repeating Eklunds stuff?
Eklund grew to fame (and infamy) during the lock-out by peddling rumors about CBA negotiations when the entire hockey following universe was starved for attention. He built a fairly large following and converted that audience into a blog/website when hockey returned by turning to trade rumors. His site (hockeybuzz) features a large stable of writers now, some of whom are good and some who aren’t.
Eklund himself is almost illiterate his writing is so poor. He remains “anonymous”, although his identity has been known by many for some time. His rumors are little more than messageboard fabrications and dart throwing sessions. Several people have shown that his hit rate is no better than chance (and sometimes worse). I seriously doubt he knows any higher office folks and I suspect he doesn’t actually know that much about hockey in general.
As for Canes Insider, I’m not too up on him/them either. I saw it on Twitter and figured I’d share. The fact that nothing has been mentioned about it since makes me think it was probably just parroting of Eklund.
seems like a really un-reliable source, guess there’s no reason to get our hopes up for any changes…
Someone went through Klessel (Eklund’s) history, and determined that his accuracy rate was about 3%. And that is despite the fact he tries to up the odds by routinely naming several possible destinations for the same player, thus improving his own odds.
His formula is also quite simple. The overwhelming majority of his “rumours” involve at least a big name, or a popular team. Why? To drive hits, and revenue, to his site. You will never see an Atlanta to Nashville rumour, because that doesn’t sell like a rumour involving Calgary, Toronto or the Rangers would.
Greg Wyshnyski did a wonderful job of outing this clown some time ago. The dude is nothing more than a total fraud who thinks he is a legitimate sportswriter, and has tried to get into the PHWA, but has been rejected because to legitimize him would harm the entire industry.
*sigh*
The internet has done some fantastic things in general, and especially in how we as fans can analyze and discuss our teams, but when some Twitter nobody can get all of this attention by ripping off something Dwayne freaking Klessel made up, I lose faith in the entire concept.
It’s not something that really gets me riled up one way or the other, quite frankly. From now on, we just know not to take anything we hear out of “Canes insider” seriously. In the meantime, we had fun discussing the possibilities of the trade anyways.
Agreed fully, actually, I wasn’t intending to criticize you for posting it. It was more a general statement on the pitfalls of the internet.
Wikipedia is a good example… I take care to ensure that everything I write is accurate and well sourced. But all it takes is one moron to make something up, and the entire concept loses credibility. People like Klessel and “Canes Insider” do people like you harm because they bring the entire blogging community into disrepute.
That’s probably true. Whenever I hear some main stream media warrior taking blogs to task, they either explicitly or implicitly cite Eklund (and his ilk) as the problem and then use him to smear everyone else.
Which is comical, really, when you could counter by mentioning Dowbiggin, Strachan or Gallagher in rebuttal.
Res, personally, I take Eklund as seriously as I take Bruce “Malkin to the Kings” Garrioch. No more or less.
by Robert Cleave on Nov 2, 2009 4:12 PM PST up reply actions
Also, thanks to RCI, Klessel IS mainstream media as well. I doubt anyone will ever forget that embarrassing trade deadline show Sportsnet put on a couple years ago.
which actually brings me to an interesting point in my blog career…. there’s been some interest (largely due to the third jersey rant) by the mainstream media so i gotta ask —-kent, i’m curious about the pros and cons to going real from the blog handle (metrognome) to the real life name ?
by walkinvisible on Nov 2, 2009 9:11 PM PST up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Matchsticks and Gasoline
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
Flames Schedule
Last 5 Games
Anaheim
|
Sat 04/07 | W 5 - 2 |
|
Vancouver
|
Thu 04/05 | W 3 - 2 |
|
@
Vancouver
|
Sat 03/31 | OT - L 2 - 3 |
|
Colorado
|
Fri 03/30 | L 1 - 4 |
|
Los Angeles
|
Wed 03/28 | L 0 - 3 |
In Association With
Latest Puck Daddy - NHL from Yahoo! Sports
- Jersey Fouls: Penner Pancakes; Attack of the FrankenJerseys; Winnipeg’s beer tribute
- Marek Vs. Wyshynski Radio: LA Kings juggernaut; Oilers coaching scenario; Game Show Friday!
- Will Mike Green return to the Washington Capitals?
- Jamaica’s Winter Olympic ice hockey dream bolstered by IIHF acceptance
- Penalties in 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Who’s drawing them, and who’s taking them?
Latest stories and headlines from NHL.com
- Hejduk staying with Avalanche
- King, Quick lead LA Kings to brink of Cup final with 2-1 win over Coyotes in Game 3
- King, Quick lead LA Kings to brink of Cup final with 2-1 win over Coyotes in Game 3
- King, Quick lead Kings to brink of Cup final with 2-1 win over Coyotes in Game 3
- Milano takes over NHL's Twitter feed for Game 3
