In this week's episode of the Puck Soup podcast:
- We look at Pierre McGuire's treatment of Kendall Coyne Schofield, which was awkward or maybe something worse
- Reactions to all-star weekend
- What should the Blue Jackets do with Artemi Panarin, and is it ever OK to lose a star player for nothing?
- Greg interviews Jillian Fisher
- What the bubble teams should be doing at the deadline
- What might have been if the Oilers had made the Ryan McDonagh trade
- I sit quietly while Ryan and Greg discuss who should play Batman
- And lots more...
The Maple Leafs pulled off a major trade on Monday, acquiring Jake Muzzin from the Kings for a first-round pick and two prospects. For the most part, early reactions were positive for Toronto and the deal undeniably makes them better in the short term.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the move will work out in the long run. That’s the funny thing about trades; you can never be quite sure how they’ll be viewed in hindsight. That can be especially true when you’re dealing for help on the blueline, where finding the right fit for the right player can be tricky even if the price tag makes sense.
Luckily, the Leafs have plenty of experience in this area. Today, let’s crack open the history books and look back on the last 30 years of the Toronto Maple Leafs trading for blueline help. This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list of each and every defenceman the team has acquired during that span (as much as I’m looking forward to all the comments along the lines of “Ummm, no Gord Kruppke?”), but we’ll cover off most of the bigger names.
Some of these moves worked. Some of them didn’t. Some of them were just confusing. And someday down the road, we’ll be able to look back and know which category the Muzzin deal belongs in.
The blockbusters
“Blockbuster” is admittedly subjective, and there may be other deals on this list that you’d argue belong in this category. But in the modern history of Leafs’ blueline deals, these three stand out. And maybe somewhat surprisingly, from a Leafs’ perspective, they mostly hold up well in hindsight.
The trade: On January 31, 2010, the Leafs sent Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Ian White and Jamal Mayers to Calgary for Dion Phaneuf, Fredrik Sjostrom and Keith Aulie.
The situation: This was the first full season of the Brian Burke era and it was not going well. With the Leafs near the bottom of the league and without their own first-round pick, Burke pulled off a seven-player swap with the Flames that was built around Phaneuf, a 24-year-old who was less than two years removed from being the Norris Trophy runner-up.
The verdict: At the time, the consensus was that the Leafs had pulled off a robbery. In hindsight, not so much, as Phaneuf never lived up to the franchise-savior hype that greeted him in Toronto. Still, he was the Leafs’ captain and top defenceman for most of the next seven years and none of the players they gave up for him amounted to major losses. This trade still looks like a win on balance, even if it never came close to matching expectations.
The trade: On March 3, 2004, the Leafs acquired Brian Leetch and a fourth-round pick from the Rangers for prospects Maxim Kondratiev and Jarkko Immonen, plus a first and a second.
The situation: This was John Ferguson Jr.’s first major trade as Leafs GM and it was an all-in move at the deadline. The 2003-04 Leafs were very good and very old and with the lockout looming they represented what looked like the last chance to win a Cup during the Pat Quinn era. With his window open for a big move, Ferguson went out and landed the biggest name available in the 36-year-old Leetch.
The verdict: Leetch debuted with a three-assist night and instantly looked like the team’s best blueliner. But the Leafs didn’t win the Cup that year, falling in the second round to the Flyers. And while Leetch had a year left on his contract, it was wiped out by the lockout, so this became an expensive short-term rental. Still, none of the picks or prospects amounted to much of anything, so it’s best viewed as a smart gamble that just didn’t pay off.
The trade: On November 10, 1990, the Leafs sent forwards Ed Olczyk and Mark Osborne to the Jets for Paul Fenton and Dave Ellett.
The situation: This was the Leafs hitting the detonate button on a disastrous start to the season. A year after generating some optimism with a .500 finish, the Leafs were a 2-15-1 laughingstock when they pulled the trigger on a four-player blockbuster.
The verdict: Ellett didn’t come cheap, as Olczyk had been the Leafs best forward during his three seasons in Toronto and had only just turned 24. But while he’d play well in Winnipeg and for another decade around the NHL, the deal still worked out well enough for the Leafs as Ellett became their top blueliner for most of the next seven years and was a key piece of the Fletcher/Burns/Gilmour-era resurgence.
We know this, because Gary Bettman has told us so. Oh, sure. Fans everywhere insist on thinking that it happens because we have eyes and common sense, but Bettman has assured us that’s only because the media makes it all up. Nobody tanks in the NHL. Nope, nothing to see here.
But just for fun, let’s pretend that they did. Not the players, mind you; even a cynic would admit that those guys are wired to go as hard as they can in any game that counts. But let’s imagine that the decision-makers in the front office and behind the bench occasionally realized that there was nothing left to play for apart from lottery odds, and decided to do the logical thing and try to increase their chances of landing a franchise player in the draft.
In that strange alternate universe in which tanking was an obvious and undeniable part of the NHL, which of this year’s worst teams would be in the best position to pull it off? Call it the power tankings if you’d like. Who has the advantage when the time comes to Choose to Lose for Hughes?
Let’s find out. Today, we’re going to take the 10 teams that are within a half-dozen points of dead last in the league and rank them based on how successfully they could tank if they chose to. For each of those teams, we’ll look at where they stand in three key categories that are crucial to a good midseason tank:
Seller status: The easiest way to tank at this time of year is to start trading anyone who might help you win a few games down the stretch. A well-executed deadline selloff kills two birds with one stone, stocking the cupboard with picks and prospects while also making the team significantly worse down the stretch. But not every team is positioned to pull this off, especially if their veterans are tied up on long-term deals that will scare off teams looking for rentals.
Goaltending problems: The gold standard for modern NHL tanking is the Buffalo Sabres’ performance during the Connor McDavid tank battle of 2015, which included them pulling off a brilliant move: They traded away both of their goaltenders with a month left in the season, and finished the season by giving starts to guys like Matt Hackett and Andrey Makarov, who were never seen in the NHL again. Not every team is willing to go that far, but shaky goaltending gives a tanking team a big edge.
Motivation: Put simply, how bad do they want it? At this time of year, some teams are more than happy to hit rock bottom and then grab a shovel. Others might still be holding out hope of a late playoff run. Still others might have GMs whose jobs could be in danger if they don’t finish strong. And, uh, other teams might have already traded away their first-round pick. We’re not naming any names here; we’re just saying that might also be a thing that could happen.
Each of our 10 teams will get a score in each category, which will be based on a complex calculation that involves me pulling it out of the air. Then, we’ll add them up and determine the 2018-19 season’s potential tank king.
Again, NHL teams don’t tank, because Gary Bettman says so. But if they did, here’s who could be in the best position to make a big push in this year’s race to the bottom.
10. Edmonton Oilers
Seller status: 5/10. Cam Talbot’s really the only pending UFA who’d get much traction as a rental, and even that’s doubtful. They could trade somebody like Jess Puljujarvi, but for the most part the current Oilers roster seems to be a few untouchables and then a bunch of guys nobody else would want, without much in between.
Goaltending problems: 9/10. The good news for the Oilers, at least as far as a potential tank job goes, is that both of their goaltenders have looked shaky. The even better news is that both are UFAs this summer, so they’re not committed to … (checks earpiece) … they what? Oh. Oh, no.
Motivation: 3/10. The Oilers know a thing or two about tanking. But right now, what they know is that they don’t want to tank. They’ve got an interim GM auditioning for the full-time job and a season-long insistence that it’s playoffs or bust. If anything, they’re probably buyers.
Tank potential total: 17/30. If things got really bad, sure, maybe they take a knee. But right now, they’re looking to get better, not worse. (And besides, they’re the Oilers – they don’t need the odds to be in their favor to win a draft lottery.)
There are three main things you want from the NHL All-Star weekend. You want it to be reasonably fun. You want it to be at least a little bit memorable. And then you want it to be over.
This year’s event definitely checked that last box. And let’s be honest, it probably took care of the first two as well.
As is often the case, the skills competition seemed to offer up more big moments than the actual games, with Friday’s event generating some solid buzz. That was largely due to the presence of the women, with four stars from the U.S. and Canadian national teams invited to participate. The night was highlighted by Brianna Decker’s pinpoint performance in the passing event and Kendall Coyne Schofield’s all-out flight around the rink in the fastest skater competition.
History was made and barriers were broke. It was such an honor to be the first woman to compete in the @nhl All Star Skills Competition last night. I can’t wait to see what the future holds! #NHLAllStarpic.twitter.com/Sc125oBGCx
— Kendall Coyne Schofield (@KendallCoyne) January 26, 2019
This being the NHL, the moment couldn’t pass without at least some controversy, with some question emerging over whether Decker should have earned the prize money for her performance. The league eventually stepped in with compensation and charitable donations on behalf of all four women. And rightly so, given that they stole the show on a night that otherwise seems to insist on being a little slower and a lot more complicated than it needs to be.
That was followed by Saturday’s mini-tournament, which was … well, it was fine. Most fans who watched it probably don’t even remember which team won, but that’s hardly the point. The 3-on-3 format continues to work well enough, generating plenty of action at both ends. There’s no defense to speak of, with back-checkers openly quitting on breakaways and barely pretending to wave a stick in the vague direction of the puck, but nobody watches these things for defence. And we still get those weird moments where a team collectively decides not to put the puck on the net for some reason, resulting in an endless string of passes that makes the whole thing look like a video game where some confused newbie forgot which one is the shoot button.
But there’s still the occasional cool moment – we’ll see Devan Dubnyk’s glove save on Connor McDavid for years to come and the Steven Stamkos between-the-legs move was cool. It’s always fun to see the best of the best out there together, even at half-speed. This year, we even got to see them with lots of extra numbers and lines and arrows all over the screen, but we’ll get that part figured out too. The All-Star Game is what it is. It’s fine.
And now it’s over, and now we’re back to the action that counts. Except that we’re not, because most of the league heads out for their bye weeks. Only 10 teams see action between now and Friday and only two or three games on the schedule each night until then. Still, at this point, we’ll take what we can get. On to the rankings …
Road to the Cup
The five teams that look like they’re headed towards a summer of keg stands and fountain pool parties.
We only had three nights of games on the schedule since last week’s rankings. And a third of the league wasn’t even around for that, with the bye weeks kicking in for ten teams. It’s been quiet. Too quiet. And that means that we don’t see much movement in the top five this week.
5. Nashville Predators (30-18-4, +26 true goals differential*) – The Preds are the only new team on this week’s list, as they nudge the Golden Knights out of the five-spot after beating them on Wednesday and also passing them in the standings. Two points here or there shouldn’t matter all that much at this point in the season, but I think it makes more sense to have a second Central team instead of a third from the Pacific, so Nashville returns to the top five after a month-long absence. Let’s see if it lasts.
4. San Jose Sharks (29-16-7, +23) – All in all, it sounds like San Jose did a nice job as the All-Star weekend hosts. And kudos to the fans for showing no mercy to guys like John Tavares, Sidney Crosby and John Gibson. At least somebody was treating the action like it mattered.
In the Friday Grab Bag:
- Breaking down the pros and cons for six of the top candidates for the Oilers' GM job
- Please stop giving hockey lines nicknames based on their initials
- An obscure player who held an amazing Vancouver Canucks record
- The week's three comedy stars
- And a YouTube breakdown of the 1985 all-star game, in which everyone is dressed up like a cowboy for some reason
Puck Soup is a podcast featuring me and Ryan Lambert. We release one free episode each week during the season, plus mailbags and other bonus episodes for Patreon subscribers.
"Biscuits" was the Vice Sports hockey podcast, hosted by DGB and Dave Lozo. It ran for two seasons; the final episode was in July, 2018. You can find the archives below:
