The Day Before Tomorrow
It’s an unnerving time to be a fan right now. Never mind the recent (or, less recent) performance of the club, it’s the trade deadline coming up tomorrow.
WHAT’S IT WORTH?
It matters quite a lot. With a quick cell phone call and a brush of a pen, the next few years could be in a much brighter sunlight.
Or, an even dirtier underwear drawer.
If you’ve stopped in over the last few weeks, you’ll see that my opinion on sending Dustin Penner or Ales Hemsky anywhere away from Edmonton hasn’t changed much in that I don’t believe sending either away will A) help the team at the onset of 2011-12 or B) yield a positive enough return to make a deal with either player worthwhile.
DUSTIN PENNER
A rumour surfaced a few days ago in the Edmonton Journal saying that Minnesota might want a piece of Dustin Penner.
“Great idea” you say, let’s trade him within the division.
What’s coming back in the grocery bags?
- A first round pick?
- Jared Spurgeon and a pick?
- Jared Spurgeon and Guillaume Latandresse, and a pick?
- Something else?
- Maybe less?
First round picks are really nice things, don’t get me wrong. Somehow, Toronto’s currently got their hands on two of them after getting rid of Versteeg and Kaberle. Minnesota’s first round pick is going to be in the mid-teens, so while a quality NHL player is quite likely to come from that area, it’s a good shot that it’ll be a couple of years before he’s seen.
HEMSKY
Is the Penner to LA thing still alive? I keep hearing Hemsky to LA for Brayden Schenn now that the whole Hemsky to Atlanta for Zach Bogosian seems to have cooled off. Especially now that Marco Sturm has been waived and picked up by the Capitals, this is a deal that I could see going down.
Brayden Schenn was the fifth overall pick in the 2009 draft, and he’s played well with Saskatoon in the WHL so far this season (about 40 points 18 games good). Schenn’s not a longshot prospect. Maybe he’d even burn up camp in Edmonton and start this October. Who knows? When Hemsky plays, he’s near a PPG guy over the last six seasons. Hemsky’s here, as in, here right now, meaning I wouldn’t be surprised if Hemsky has himself a three point night tonight against Boston. Schenn has arrows going in his favour, but the time has come where we can no longer wait for prospects while we fritter away what stars we have.
"I hope to live long enough to see this team mature. Tambellini must get 100 cents on the dollar."
–Lowetide 13 February 2011
Here, you’ve got two players on your team, one who says he wants to be here and one who we haven’t heard from mainstream media that he doesn’t. For what it’s worth, they also happen to be two of the more talented guys on this team.
Mr. Tambellini, please, try not to screw this up. I realize that this sounds condescending to a guy who runs a professional sports franchise that has people handle tens of millions of dollars in player salaries and the like, but this team is on one helluva streak (this year included). Everyone understands that this is “another one of those” years, but let’s not make a move that’s going to set this team back another election.
And if you do find yourself a deal that sees Dustin Penner or Ales Hemsky leave Alberta, please do make sure that you’re getting 100 cents on the dollar. Make it a trade that will help this team on Opening Night 2011, but also make it a trade that will help this team on 1 March versus Nashville. DON’T make a draft pick the central part of the deal. If it comes with the territory, then I can understand it, but don’t rush back to me tomorrow night with a story about how you got LA’s first round draft pick and some In-N-Out Burger for Ales Hemsky. That won’t help us, Steve.
This team will have a great pick come the draft. I promise you.
Now enjoy tonight’s game versus the Bruins, guys.
Get up tomorrow, eat a good breakfast, and do the right thing.
Go.
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