Atlanta lets Burke off the hook, trades for Schneider
In a stunning move, the Thrashers have traded Ken Klee, Brad Larsen and a prospect of little consequence to Anaheim for Mathieu Schneider.
Well, okay, it’s not all that stunning. The Thrashers are now on the hook for Schneider’s $5.75 million contract but have the No. 1 defenseman they desperately needed, and the Ducks just saved themselves $3.7 million against the cap. That’s some Teemu Selanne money right there.
By adding Schneider, the Thrashers have essentially achieved their objective of dramatically changing their defense.
It is important to note, however, that “changing” and “improving” have two entirely separate definitions.
A top four of Schneider, Ron Hainsey, newly re-signed Tobias Enstrom, and (maybe) rookie Zach Bogosian isn’t bad by any means, but the Thrashers seem, at least by USA Today’s Kevin Allen’s reckoning, to be operating under the impression that they’ll have the remotest chance of making the playoffs. A clue: No. This is still a team with no forward depth and a very questionable goaltending situation, and having three puckrushing defensemen who range from good (Schneider) to iffy (Hainsey) in their own zone isn’t exactly the recipe for success that’s going to get the Thrashers out of the basement.
I hate to disagree with Kevin Allen, but even with this trade, the Thrashers are still the absolute worst team in the NHL and they’ll still score only about 150 more goals than Ilya Kovalchuk’s total. Call me when Atlanta trades for a center.
What this is for the Thrashers, really, is smart asset management. Come deadline time, they’ll be able to get a lot more for a few months of Mathieu Schneider, in his declining years though he is, than Ken Klee and Brad Larsen. If this is the best deal Burke could get, the five or six we heard about the other day had to have been just atrocious HFBoards-type proposals.
