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Calgary, AB • Canada • 31 Years Old • Male
To my disappointment, Darryl Sutter did not make any trades today. I had woken up today expecting Sutter to take the only remaining opportunity to improve the Flames, but alas, no dice for the third straight year. I am not going to criticize Darryl, as from everything I've heard it certainly was not for a lack of trying. In any case, the only player I saw as a can't miss for the Flames this deadline was Olli Jokinen, but I did hear that the Panthers' owner had vetoed trading him. Still, I saw the deadline as the only way I could see the Flames as anything more than 1st round exits this year, so now it's up to them as a team to prove to me that they didn't deserve to be at least tweaked a little. I thought for sure Kristian Huselius would be on his way out. The playoff push officially starts in eight minutes for the Flames against the Avalanche.

With that mini-rant out of the way, I'm going to throw my opinion on top of how many others as to the rest of the deadline. This was the first deadline I've really followed as it happened, and even though my Flames didn't do anything it was still pretty fun.

While Campbell went to the exact team I thought he'd go to for the past month, I don't think the Sabres got enough for him as they could have. The 1st was a certainty but I was surprised they could only get Bernier instead of one of San Jose's defensive prospects.

Shocker of the day to me wasn't the Huet deal, but Hossa going to the Pens. I never saw that coming. Great deal for both teams....I had a feeling Waddell would sell Hossa short but he proved me wrong.

My favorite deals of the day, in no particular order:

- The Hossa trade. Atlanta gets two pretty good young roster forwards, and two first round picks. And Pittsburgh gets Hossa to play with Crosby. When I saw this deal come down the wire I thought "Now that's the way a trade should be." Although this trade doesn't make all that much conventional sense from the Penguins perspective, they're obviously intending to go deep. I applaud them for their courage in making this deal, although courage and stupidity do often go hand in hand.

- The Richards trade. Tampa gets a roster third line center, a good young forward and a goalie to solve that problem. Dallas gets Richards for the next three years and a goalie to compensate for the loss of Smith.

- The Canucks shipping Cooke to Washington, where the Flames won't have to see him very much. Irritating little bugger that guy was.

- Ottawa picking up Lapointe from Chicago for next to nothing.

- I wish the Flames could have only given up two draft picks for Stuart last year.

Overall it was an entertaining deadline. I feared I was going to lose my mind after the last three weeks of relative monotony.

~SKR
Filed Under:   deadline   flames  
February 26, 2008 11:07 PM ET | Delete
The Hossa deal will really handcuff the Penguins. If they don't go deep ni the playoffs after giving up so much for him, they'll be forced to resign him to show the fanbase they didn't give up a large part of their future for nothing. If they resign him, it really causes problems when they start looking to resign Malkin.IMO, this isn't the Pens' year. They've had a rotating door of starting goalies, and Crosby is still out from a serious injury. Yet they sacrificed so much to get Hossa. I think they know they won't be able to resign Malkin, or resigning him is going to effectively 'close the window' for them, hence they had to pull out all the stops by getting Hossa this year.
February 26, 2008 11:08 PM ET | Delete
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