My take on the trades made by Sutter the last couple of days. It sounds like he's done for now based on his interview today (I know it's Darryl and I shouldn't believe him lol), and will re-evaluate post Olympic break. I know alot of people are up in arms over losing Phaneuf and bringing in Kotalik, his lazy reputation and his 2 year/$3.0m deal, but I like what Sutter's done. He's subtracted from a strength of the team to address some severe weaknesses. I realize we have way too many forwards right now, but 3 are on the IR and we have no idea when or if any of them are coming back.
Out
Dion Phaneuf - Past Norris trophy candidate, and could get there again but at this point his development had stalled somewhat. This is a player who may or may not reach his ceiling, people talk about him like he's a sure fire Norris candidate for years to come. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. Sucks to lose him but with all that money on the back-end, and our inability to score goals lately (compounded by some recent injuries) one of our defenseman had to be sacraficed to repair holes up front. Dion could bring the biggest return, and his contract being gone gave us cap space to add some skill up front.
Freddy Sjostrom - 4th liner, I expected more out him this year, but he was still a decent 4th liner. Bottom line though, we needed to replace some 4th liners with guys who could potentially put up some decent offensive numbers.
Brandon Prust - Another 4th liner, really hate to lose this guy, and I'm sure Sutter did too but Mayers should be able to fill his role on the team easily enough.
Olli Jokinen - Well, the center the majority of us wanted for years never got it going here in Calgary and that's unfortunate. He had almost a full season to get it going and as much as I liked him it just didn't look like he was ever going to find his groove. It's too bad because he really liked it here and said last night he had hoped to finish his career in Calgary. He said it himslef though "$5 million dollars and 11 goals isn't going to cut it"
In
Ian White - Has pretty much identical numbers to Phaneuf at a fraction of the cost. A lot of people seem to say he is alot like Giordano and one of the most under-rated defenseman in the league. He's also versatile and can play the wing once in awhile. Seems confident too, and quite firey......again very similar to Gio.
Matt Stajan - A passing center that can win face-offs. Something that we sorely need. He istantly became the Flames second leading scorer and has 16 goals to go along with his passing ability. A nice addition to our top six forwards.
Niklas Hagman - A sniper with skill, also solid defensively. Has 20 goals already and also has decent speed. It's been said that he can be streaky, but anyone who can score at all is going to be a help to this team. Another nice addition to our top six forwards.
Jamal Mayers - Getting on in his career, but still skates well, has a decent shot and can scrap good enough. He also has excellent face-off numbers. A bigger, older version of Prust with possibly a wee bit more upside offensively.
Chris Higgins - A good all round player with skill. Has scored 20+ in this league multiple times. Apparantly he was playing well in NY, but just couldn't get the puck to go in for him. Hopefully a change is just what he needed and will go on a tear for us. Another nice addition to the top six forwards.
Ales Kotalik - Skill to burn and a lethal shot. Another guy who has scored 20+ multiple times in the NHL. He's big too at 6'1 - 225lbs. Has a lazy streak though and apparantly fell out of favour with Torterella, but will hopefully be excited at a new opportunity here and help us offensively. Yet another addition to our top six forward group.
So, if you're keeping track, up front we've subtracted two 4th liners, and one underachieving top six forward, but added one 4th liner and FOUR potential top six forwards. Plus, we've replaced Phaneuf with a guy who comes with Giordano-like aura around him. That's a good thing isn't it? Seeing as how Gio has pretty much been our best all-round defenseman throughout this entire season? I think it is a good thing. Just about every Leaf fan I've talked to or seen post, has said that we are going to really like Ian White.
I realize that Kotalik and Higgins are having off years, but there is no denying the skill and potential they bring for the same combined cap hit of Jokinen by himself. If even just one of them find a groove here we will be miles ahead of where we were before these trades, because Olli just wasn't cutting it.
This team was struggling mightily offensively. Well take out Jokinen and add Hagman, Stajan, Kotalik and Higgins to Iginla, Langkow and Bourque.........we've gone from not having enough top six forwards to potentially more than we can fill two lines with. Will they all pan out? Maybe, maybe not but atleast all our eggs aren't in one or two underachieving baskets anymore. This is a good thing IMO.
I just hope that they can find some chemistry and find it quickly, because time isn't really on our side at this point.
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