Christmas Comes Early In St. Louis

On Dec 14, 8:34 pm, tack <thetac... RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote:
> On Dec 14, 9:42 pm, tack <thetac... RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > MacDonald for Weight and Birner, and a 7th-round pick? Are you
> > kidding me?
>
> > Sure, MacDonald is in a bit of a slump, but he's better and seven
> > years younger than Weight, whose best years are behind him. And,
> > Birner and the pick are just noise.
>
> Further:
>
> Caught some of the Duck's game on Center ice tonight, and announcers
> said that the trade was purely to open cap room for Niedermeyer. If
> that's true, then, this trade seems particularly dopey, at least to
> me. You take a very talented 28-year old forward and throw him off
> the boat for a veteran in the sunset of his career, so your star
> defenseman can come back and play a half a season?
>
> That's the kind of move that seems pennywise and pound foolish.

Yep. Burke has been masterful putting this team together, but this
year things aren't going so well. The Oilers fiasco, and now this.
This is great news for the Sharks. I hate seeing the Sharks play
MacDonald in a Ducks uni. Deadly.
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On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:34:15 -0800 (PST), tack <thetacker RemoveThis @gmail.com>
wrote:

>On Dec 14, 9:42 pm, tack <thetac... RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote:
>> MacDonald for Weight and Birner, and a 7th-round pick? Are you
>> kidding me?
>>
>> Sure, MacDonald is in a bit of a slump, but he's better and seven
>> years younger than Weight, whose best years are behind him. And,
>> Birner and the pick are just noise.
>
>Further:
>
>Caught some of the Duck's game on Center ice tonight, and announcers
>said that the trade was purely to open cap room for Niedermeyer. If
>that's true, then, this trade seems particularly dopey, at least to
>me. You take a very talented 28-year old forward and throw him off
>the boat for a veteran in the sunset of his career, so your star
>defenseman can come back and play a half a season?
>
>That's the kind of move that seems pennywise and pound foolish.

I don't know that he had a choice. I'm sure Burke tried to trade a
defenseman for a cheap prospect, and couldn't find anyone with cap
space on the other side. I'm actually impressed with the cleverness
of this deal, trading for a UFA this summer who doesn't count against
next year's cap, which was his problem. Burke probably figues he can
cash in one of his d-men at the trade deadline or before, to bring in
some forward help (and he still has #2 overall Bobby Ryan in the
minors), and meanwhile, maybe Weight will click with Bertuzzi on what
will now be the 2nd line. If he had any hopes of bringing back
Selanne, I don't think he would have done this deal. So that probably
means Selanne is retired for good -- more good news for the Sharks. If
he doesn't re-sign Weight for as much as he is paid now ($3.5M) --
very likely -- he has created more cap space next year to sign Corey
Perry, too.

Yes, St Louis definitely "won" this trade, but like New Jersey last
year trading their 1st round pick to the Sharks for, in effect, cap
space, he was forced into this situation. And now he gets Neidermeyer
to play, one of the top 5 blueliners in the NHL.
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