Some Off-Season News
The off-season has been nice. As always, a good time to just refocus and re-energize for the upcoming season -- and the NHL teams have been no different. Some very unexpected and mind-boggling trades have completely retooled some of the top contenders. So lets start with the most controversial so far - Philly.
Fly Boys - Something happened here. You don't just get rid of two of your top scorers (Mike Richards and Jeff Carter) without something really going on in-house. I guess they just had a breaking point and wanted a new look for next season. Some of this may have come down to the playoff performance, and I've also heard speculation that there were locker room (i.e. personality or character) issues with these guys. Either way, Richards and Carter are in L.A. and Columbus, respectively. Also of note, my classmate Darroll Powe is also in Minnesota. That might be a good fit for him though - Minny has always had a tough, play hard team. I'm sure he'll help them continue that trend.
Sharks - Another consistently playoff-bound team, the Sharks, have gone through a major transformation this year as well. Two of their scoring forwards, Danny Heatley and Devin Setoguchi, were separately traded to Minnesota for Martin Havlat and Brent Burns, respectively. Kind of an interesting swap of passing along top-4 forwards along with a previously-concussed defenseman. I'm not sure who benefits the most from these trades if anyone. It may actually turn out better for both teams. But with the current shakeups, I think Minnesota will have the better year. They can't go too much farther down, whereas the Sharks had a lot of ground to lose. They've consistently been a top seeded team in the playoffs. Maybe mixing up their core of players was not the answer.
There is still a few other teams to watch for next season (and next season's fantasy league). The Kings, Leafs and the new-Jets (really? that's the best logo you can do? Why not just steal Hockey Canada's logo while you're at it?) will be discussed next time.