Oh right, I do things other than hockey here

Between extended periods ranging between "not posting" and "rambling about trade deadlines" (I think I'll do a draft blog next month...post facto of course since I'll be out watching it live), I have failed to write anything about issues of societal relevance in a while. I'd like to dip my toe in again by getting militant.

http://tinyurl.com/22n9wpr is an op-ed written by Ezra Levant (a Canadian Jewish conservative) about the increasing vitriol, hatred and lies spreading about Christians in political circles and among the "elites". Thankful as I am to Mr. Levant for his spirited defense, it's a little disheartening that the most passionate voice on our side isn't actually a Christian. But then again, rather beautiful, isn't it? Sort of "Canadian ideal" that someone from a different faith would stand up to defend another faith when it's being attacked.

The basis of the op-ed (and I recommend that you click through) is the recent bashing of Opus Dei made by MPs Gilles Duceppe and Pat Martin in Ottawa. Opus Dei has existed quietly since 1928 as a lay organization of Catholics, until the Da Vinci Code enlightened us all to the fact that they're a secret cult of assassins. Or maybe it wasn't a documentary. In either case, Mr. Martin said that Opus Dei members "give me the creeps" and that he "certainly wouldn't attend anything associated with them". Duceppe took it further, saying that the Prime Minister should "admit that his policy is influenced" by such people and that Opus Dei members should not be allowed to participate in political life if they identify "as a group."

Think about that for a second. The LEADER of a Canadian political party said that members of a Catholic lay organization whose mission involves becoming closer to God through their ordinary day-to-day work SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN POLITICS! (EVEN AS VOLUNTEERS!) And the only place you'll find that news is in an op-ed piece!

Let me paint a picture. Mikey Ignatieff steps up to the mike one day and says that homosexuals should not be allowed to participate in politics if they identify "as a group". Or Stevey Harper says that UJA members "give me the creeps". Do you think we might hear about it? Do you think the papers might find room for it?

Now, what Mr. Levant - I think - should have made more clear is that the fact that Duceppe and Martin SAID such idiotic things should not, in itself, be a crime. They can say whatever they want, just as I can say that they're ignorant and bigoted hate-mongerers. The difference is, there should have been a massive backlash by an intelligent and conscious media and public, and they should have felt pressure to answer for their slander. I'm prepared to stand by what I said, though I hardly see how it can be contradicted.

Winners and Losers

Winners:

-Washington
Added Joe Corvo, Eric Belanger, Scott Walker and Milan Jurcina to an already formidable lineup, only losing Brian Pothier off the NHL roster plus one low-mid prospect, two second rounders, one seventh rounder and a conditional sixth. All of the incoming players are upcoming UFAs so there's plenty of opportunity to reshape the roster around the edges this offseason.

-Phoenix
The "feel good" story of the season, the former Jets are a team that shouldn't even be in operation according to some at the start of the season, but here they are at the deadline in 4th place in the West and throwing cash and picks around like the Rangers (strangely silent today). Added Wolski, Stempniak, Nokelainen, Morris and Schneider. None of the latter 4 are anything to be excited about after this year but all are NHL players and that strengthens a roster.

-Carolina
They stockpiled picks and got rid of salary. That's how you rebuild.


Losers:

-Edmonton
Hey, Tambellini. See Carolina for a proper rebuild. You don't trade for WORSE players with equally-long contracts! Also, don't trade with our hated rival! I want you gone. Now.

-Vancouver
Mitchell injured, Bieksa injured....and you add...Andrew Alberts? Sorry, just doesn't cut it. You lose in the first round again.

-Sabres
I just plain don't like the one deal they made, Paetch and a 2nd for Raffi Torres. You're not going to do anything in the playoffs with the roster you have, so why get a rental? And why lose a reasonable young player and 2nd in the process? Darcy Regier, you are a fool.

BoykCentre '10 - After the storm

Whew.

Let's take a breath, citizens of BoykNation. We've just endured 7+ hours of speculation, rumours, and a seemingly-endless stream of 2nd round picks for gritty bottom-six forwards and journeyman defencemen. We also watched our favourite team effectively castrate themselves and ensure that they will be in the Adam Larssen sweepstakes in the 2011 draft. We are now questioning whether we will be ordering NHL Centre Ice again next year.

I'm going to put together a list of winners and losers, both in the NHL and in the fantasy world. But first, I'm going to get off my couch and get some food. I'd say it's about time.

Oh good, an Oilers trade I like...

...oh, it's to the Calgary Flames. Bloody hell.

Steve Staios to the Flames for Aaron Johnson (UFA defenceman) and a 3rd round pick.

It's a good deal for the Oilers but I hate the thought of seeing Staios suit up for the Flames. It'll make my stomach turn. Good luck, Steady Steve.

F****************************************************K!!!!!

WORST F********KING TRADE EVER!!!

Oilers give Lubomir Visnovsky to the Ducks for Ryan F*******KING Whitney.

That's absolutely terrible. I can't believe it.

Whitney has 3 years left at $4M, Lubo had 3 left at $5.6M. The difference in skill level between the two players is nowhere CLOSE to $1.6M. I am losing...my...mind.

We're getting unconfirmed reports...

...but it sounds like a 2nd round pick was spotted in a small corner of a newly-discovered picture of the Grassy Knoll. This new revelation led to a sell-off of the remaining 2nd round pick on the market, that of the Washington Capitals. The Caps traded the now-disgraced pick along with Brian Pothier and Oskar Osala to the Hurricanes for Joe Corvo.

Corvo is a right handed shot so he probably won't play 1st PP time with Mike Green (also RH) but he'll help out the Capitals' 2nd PP unit. He bleeds chances so he should probably be paired with the newly re-acquired Milan Jurcina for stability.

This is getting silly

ANOTHER 2nd round pick on the move, this time it's packaged with Nathan Paetch to Columbus for Raffi Torres! Is there anything that industrious little round can't accomplish?!?

Eric Belanger, the latest victim of the allure of the 2nd rounder!

The Caps are loading up on grit, with Scott Walker coming from Carolina for a 7th and Eric Belanger from Minnesota for the all-important 2nd round pick.

BoykCentre '10 has a new slogan: The only Blog worth a 2nd round pick.

Speculation...

The Oilers are reportedly calling up 2 defencemen from Springfield...does that mean Staios or Souray or Visnovsky or Gilbert are moving? Stay tuned!

Key names still in play

Ray Whitney, Joe Corvo, Raffi Torres, Keith Tkachuk, Colby Armstrong, Slava Kozlov, Sheldon Souray

A real trade!

This is what Bob McKenzie termed a "hockey trade", i.e. not a rental. Phoenix has traded Peter Mueller and Kevin Porter to Colorado for Wojtek Wolski.

Both are young players who have somewhat underachieved. Mueller is big and Wolski is shifty. Both are inconsistent and both are talented. I like Mueller and what he brings (I was kind of hoping he'd end up in Edmonton) but Wolski wins this deal with skill. He's got potential to be a big part of the Phoenix team going forward and adds the kind of offensive creativity that they just don't have.

Love this deal. This is why TDD is so much fun.

Oilers claim Jones

The Oilers have claimed RW Ryan Jones off waivers from the Preds. Yeah, I know it's not nearly of the magnitude of anything else, but it's slow so far and it's the Oilers so I'm going to comment on it.

Big, strong guy. 26 years old, heading into his prime with 1 year left before UFA at under $1M. Precursor to dealing away Fernando Pisani, methinks. Hopefully Moreau too.

The 2nd round pick strikes again!

I was wrong about Hamhuis to Boston but I was right about Boston acquiring a defenceman.

Boston has picked up Dennis Seidenberg and Matt Bartkowski from Craig Weller, Byron Bitz and a 2nd rounder. Seidenberg is a solid player but that's a big return. Bitz is HUGE, like 6'5" 220lbs, and that ubiquitous 2nd rounder once again gets it done.

I'm hearing Evgeni Malkin to the Oilers for a 2nd round pick (d5).

Derek Morris

From Boston to Phoenix, return is a 4th round pick in 2011 (projected to be a very, very shallow draft. Compare that to a 6th-7th rounder in the past couple of drafts. Might be a precursor to Boston acquiring someone else. My guess: Dan Hamhuis.

Jay Onrait's TradeCentre Blog is a riot btw. I can forgive him for copying my idea.

BoykCentre '10 - T-D Day

Good morning all. I woke up extra early (9:45) to check out all the chatter. To summarize:

• Matt D'Agostini has been traded to the Blues from MTL. No biggie.
• Nick Kypreos erroneously reported that the Leafs were aware of teams Kaberle would move his NTC to go to and he was now in play. Then he backtracked when real insiders (Dreger and McKenzie) reported that, as has been the case all along, Kaberle has no intention of moving. Weak, Kypreos.
• The Panthers are in "sell" mode. If you have any Panthers on your team, I suggest you sell them too, unless they are among the ones who get moved today.
• Dennis Seidenberg is apparently in play. Lots of defencemen on the market.
• Probably the biggest name out there is Dan Hamhuis. "The Dan Hamuis Sweepstakes" is not a very thrilling prospect to this fledgling reporter.

More to come.

BoykCentre '10 cont'd - the value of a 2nd round pick

Boy, a 2nd round pick doesn't buy what it used to.

That once-revered "middle ground" - not quite a 1st but still not bad - in trades seems to be the currency of the league in recent deadlines. The round that brought the Flyers Darryl Sittler and the Oilers Jason Smith back in the day is netting teams a lot of rentals.

This year, the coveted 2nd rounder has been involved in trades for:

Andy Sutton

Denis Grebeshkov

Jordan Leopold

Matt Cullen

Niclas Wallin

Chuck Kobasew

Of those 6, who would you most like to have? For my money it's Grebeshkov, since he's an RFA and the rest are UFAs.

BoykCentre '10 - the story so far

In the past month, we've seen 11 trades involving players expected to contribute to an NHL roster this season (I'm ignoring minor league player swaps. If anyone really wants my take on Greg Moore for Dylan Reese, I'd be happy to provide it). In chronological order, including my take on the biggest ones, they are:

To Toronto:

Phaneuf, Aulie, Sjostrom

To Calgary:

White, Stajan, Hagman, Mayers

• The Leafs acquire the player they expect to be the franchise defenceman in exchange for 4 NHL players.
• Phaneuf is a good player with reasonable upside, but after an impact rookie season has been rather mediocre and error-prone. His cap hit of 6.5M for the next 4 seasons is high-risk.
• Sjostrom is good. Real good. At penalty killing.
• Aulie probably won't ever play in the show. He's big but injuries threaten to derail his career. But as a throw-in, he's probably good value.
• White is a good comp for Marc-Andre Bergeron. Will probably bounce around the league in the next few years to teams who need a cheap puck mover. Wouldn't be surprised to see him go to Pittsburgh at some point.
• Stajan has recently re-signed for 4 years, 3.5M per. That's right, the same deal Jeff Finger is on. If he clicks with Iginla it's a great deal and if he doesn't, it's a reasonable price for a 2nd line centre.
• Hagman is appropriately priced for his production.
• Mayers fits into what Sutter likes in a team but has no business in the league anymore.

Bottom line: The Leafs get the best player and the worst contract. If they can't get out from under the Finger/Komisarek clusterf*** of cap hell (and if they overpay Schenn when his ELC is up, which they will), they will have over-committed money to defencemen and will not be able to ice a deep and competitive set of forwards.

To Toronto:

Giguere

To Anaheim:

Blake, Toskala

• Giguere is a 32 year old goalie with 1 year @ 6M remaining on his contract. He is a former Conn Smythe winner and was displaced by Jonas Hiller as #1 goalie in Anaheim.
• Toskala is also 32 and is coming of 3 bad years in Toronto after being acquired for 1st, 2nd and 3rd round draft picks from San Jose. He is a UFA after this season.
• Jason Blake has 2 years left at a cap hit of 4M after 2.5 disappointing seasons in Toronto.

Bottom line: This is a salary dump for both clubs. Real $ for Anaheim and term savings for Toronto. Playerwise, the Leafs get the superior player and the one with the most upside.

To New Jersey:

Kovalchuk, Salmela, 2nd round pick 2010

To Atlanta:

Oduya, Bergfors, Cormier, 1st & 2nd round picks 2010

• Kovalchuk is a UFA this summer and, absent some truly impressive cap juggling by Big Lou, will not be re-signing with the Devils. That makes him a pure rental player. He will play ES on a line with Zubrus and Elias, with the top line of Parise-Zajac-Langenbrunner remaining intact. He will play the point on the PP and will likely rack up more points there than he did in ATL, but his overall numbers will probably stay the same or go down this season due to decreased ice time.
• The return for the Thrashers is pretty good for a rental. Oduya is signed for 2 more years at 3.5M and is a steady top-4 guy. Bergfors is a top prospect and is a likely candidate to end up as a reasonable 2nd line option for many years. Cormier is a boom/bust type prospect and has a career ceiling of Steve Ott.
• The pick swap is relatively even and probably nets out to a mid/high 2nd rounder in favour of the Thrashers.

Bottom line: The Kings wouldn't give up crucial roster players for Kovalchuk (Simmonds, Brown) and so Atlanta went with the youth movement. The Kings will probably take a run at Kovy this summer but they'll be competing with a rumoured 3 year, $10+M deal from the KHL.

To Dallas:

Lehtonen

To Atlanta:

Vishnevskiy, 4th round pick 2010

• The Stars signal their clear intention to move on from the Marty Turco era either at the deadline or in the offseason with the acquisition of the enigmatic former 2nd overall pick. Lehtonen has not played this season and, while professing to be healthy and ready to go, should not be counted on to play more than 1/3rd of the games down the stretch as Dallas needs to ride the hot hand to get into the playoffs.
• Vishnevskiy is a 22 year old offensive defenceman playing in the AHL, he should fit in well with the rebuilding core in Atlanta and has 2nd pairing potential.

Bottom line: Not a true "deadline deal", more of a pure hockey trade. If Lehtonen can stay healthy he can still be a starter but his window is closing fast. Expect Dallas to miss the playoffs next year by a healthy margin (a la Columbus this year).

Thanks to TSN TradeCentre (a tribute to the original BoykCentre) for the images. More to come...

BoykCentre '10

Beginning today I will be blogging on all the NHL trade deadline action. I have compiled all the rumour websites on the net (and will also occasionally check Eklund and Garrioch) and will be banging out trade updates, rumours, speculation and analysis.

Stay tuned for my take on the trades that have gone down so far, from Kovalchuk to Grebeshkov.

Who's honouring me now?

I haven't updated this blog in, oh, two years, so I don't expect anyone to read this (don't worry, I'll tell people in person).

I would like to point out that two years ago (two posts down) I bragged about the Oilers signing Dustin Penner. I said the following:

"Here's my prediction for his goal totals in the next few years: 23, 16 (injury-shortened), 35."

Actual totals - 23, 17, and this year he has 9 in 15 games. 35 is looking like a very reasonable number.

Booya.

Things I learned on my trip to the 89th PGA Championship:

1) The McDonald's Big 'n' Tasty is, in fact, neither.
2) After going to the driving range and trying it myself, putting intense backspin on a ball with a three iron IS more difficult than the pros make it look.
3) Tulsa is both hot and ghetto. I wouldn't recommend it.
4) I also wouldn't recommend connecting through O'Hare International Airport unless you have no interest in getting to your destination on time. If going to visit the in-laws, for example, it's a great idea.
5) If your flight is overbooked, you can get some sweet travel deals by volunteering to get bumped to another flight.
6) There are no clouds in Tulsa. None. Ever.
7) ESPN's version of SportsCentre a) spells "centre" incorrectly, and b) does not frequently show anything related to hockey. Even when a big name like Josef Vasicek signs a one year, $750,000 deal.
8) If a waitress offers you free dessert to eat a jalepeno pepper, slap her in her stupid whorish mouth.
9) If Jason says he'll eat a pepper if you eat yours first, slap him in his lying whorish mouth.
10) Tiger CANNOT be beaten. Don't even try.

RFA frrrrrrrenzy!

Universal apologies to my hoardes of fans who have missed me lately. I have no legit explanation of my hiatus - I just didn't feel like writing things, or maybe nothing outraged me sufficiently.

So, in lieu of pontificating, why don't we talk some hockey, just you and me?

First off - Dustin Penner. Kevin Lowe is officially the Godzilla of the resticted free agent market. Monsters sign RFAs, that's what MONSTERS do!! I'm excited to see what this kid can do on Hemsky's wing. He'll get almost all the garbage goals we lost with Smytty, plus he's got the grit to take care of anyone who feels like taking a run at Ales' shoulder again. Here's my prediction for his goal totals in the next few years: 23, 16 (injury-shortened), 35. $4.25M per season is an overpayment, but it's hard to argue against a 6'4", 245-pounder with soft hands.

Another little note - The man slated to be the head coach for Edmonton's new farm team in Springfield, Geoff Ward, has accepted an assistant coaching position with the Boston Bruins. This is shortly after Edmonton's assistant GM Scott Howson took the Columbus Blue Jackets' vacant GM job. It doesn't sound like much to lose, but these two guys were really, really good. I wish them luck in their future careers and I know the Oilers' farm system and management teams respectively will suffer.

Oh, and a shout out to Patrice Brisebois, going back to Montreal. It's about time. No-one took him seriously in Denver, he belongs in La Belle Province.

Good time to be a hockey fan

Gary Bettman must be holding his breath and trying not to do or say anything.

The NHL is currently the only major professional league in North America that doesn't have a full-blown crisis on its hands (disregarding, for the moment, the quickly-moving MLS juggernaut). Let's review the private hells being experienced by Bud Selig, Roger Goodell, and David Stern and compare them to similar NHL situations.

MLB - Bud would probably laugh, but his nightmare is the best of the three. All he has to deal with is the immanency of the most sacred record in his entire sport (Hank Aaron's home run record) being broken by an accepted cheater, liar, and all-around-jerk. Barry Bonds is the last player any commissioner would want to preside over the coronation of as Home Run King.

For Bettman and the NHL, this would be like Sean Avery passing Wayne Gretzky's all-time points total.

NFL - The most popular (as measured in jersey sales) athlete in the league has been indicted on an array of disgusting and depraved charges involving dogfighting. Even I am grossed out by some of the things he and his cronies did to dogs, and everyone knows I'm pretty adamant about the whole (human life) > (animal life) inequality holding true. If Vick was so messed up as to do that to dogs, who says he wouldn't do it to people?

Picture Sidney Crosby being indicted on drug trafficking and prostitution charges.

NBA - Wow. Just wow. David Stern is boned. At least in the other two sports, the problems stem from one bad apple player. For basketball, the integrity of the entire game has been thrown into sharp question. The news that Tim Donaghy bet on games that he himself refereed would be bad enough if it were just a few regular season games, or if it was assured that he acted alone. But he reffed PLAYOFF games, and made several egregious calls. And no-one is sure that this isn't a widespread, systemic disease that is crippling the league. In short, every time a questionable call is made in the NBA for the next 10 years, everyone will assume the ref is on the take.

Think...all of the Canadian NHL franchises moving stateside. And nukes destroying Detroit, Chicago, Denver, and New York. That's how pooched the NBA is.