Ottawa Sun trade rumors have great veracity
EVERYONE TO EVERYWHERE (E16)
Beware, o reader. What you are about to read makes absolutely no sense. Not even the slightest bit. For the sake of your own sanity, it would be best to read this next post after popping a handful of valium just so you don’t overreact and do something outlandish.
You have been warned.
The Ottawa Sun is citing “internet rumors” (always trustworthy) of an impending three-way trade between its hometown Senators, the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Los Angeles Kings.
This alleged trade would have the Sens giving up Andrej Meszaros and Martin Gerber, the Kings giving up Anze Kopitar, and the Blackhawks giving up Nikolai Khabibulin and either Brent Seabrook or Cam Barker. Other players and picks could also exchange hands in this insane fantasy world.
On the surface, it seems the deal could be a rare win-win-win.
No it doesn’t. Let’s look at this rationally.
Ottawa gets: Khabibulin, Seabrook/Barker
L.A. gets: Gerber and Meszaros
Chicago gets: Kopitar
Try to wrap our heads around this one. Ottawa gives up Meszaros and a fairly cheap goalie in Gerber for expensive and aging Khabibulin and a Meszaros comparable (in terms of age and salary) in Seabrook or Barker. Ottawa gets worse in net and stays the same on the blue line for more money. L.A. gets a mediocre goalie (they have a lot now) and Meszaros, who is a perfectly good defenseman but gives up one of the best young offensive players in the league despite struggling to score last year. Chicago unloads an awful contract and a redundant defenseman to get Kopitar.
The only winner in this trade would be Chicago, and they would win by a wide, wide margin.
The wonderful Eklund says the trade would work like this, which is surprisingly more sensible but still quite bad.
Sens get: Khabibulin,Barker and (Patrick) Sharp
Kings get: Gerber, Seabrook and (Chris) Neil or (Antoine) Vermette
Hawks get: (Eric) Ersberg, (Tom) Preissing , (Patrick) O’Sullivan and Vermette or Neil
Sportsnet has picked up this story as well, which tells you just how much you, as a hockey fan, should value anything they ever have to say.
