By Trading Jokinen and Phaneuf, Darryl Sutter Has Destroyed The 2010 Calgary Flames

February 1, 2010 in Breaking News by paul

With the 2010 Olympic Hockey roster freeze coming on February 12th, Calgary Flames GM Darryl Sutter has missed out on an opportunity to add a Russian offensive cornerstone to the depth chart.

By now most of the hockey community has heard of the blockbuster trade involving cornerstone defenseman Dion Phaneuf formerly of the Calgary Flames. Along with Fredrik Sjostrom and prospect Keith Aulie, Phaneuf is headed to the Toronto ‘Center of the Hockey Universe’ Maple Leafs. In return the Flames are taking on the talents of Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Meyers and Ian White.

The hockey community may not know that Calgary GM Darryl Sutter is also brewing up another trade. According to TSN, Sutter is planning on trading their top center, Olli Jokinen, as well as Brandon Prust to the New York Rangers in exchange for forwards Ales Kotalik and Christopher Higgins.

Darryl Sutter, are you f***ing kidding me?

Sutter has done a relatively good job of keeping this team competitive. Even though his squad hasn’t garnered much playoff experience under his reign, he’s done a decent job of drafting – Phaneuf – and resigning free agents.

This latest trades more than blemish his resume.

Ilya Kovalchuk, one of the top players for Team Russia at the upcoming Olympics, has been available all season. He becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer, and although he is asking for a rather large contract – somewhere in the range of 10 mil a year – he is worth the cost. The guy is a goal scoring machine, a perennial favourite to win the Maurice Richard Trophy for top goal scorer in the league. And this is coming from playing in a hockey blackhole known as the Atlanta Thrashers.

Imagine this guy, who is known around league circles as an artist on the ice, creating highlight-worthy goal-scoring-masterpieces on a nightly basis, paired up with one of the most talented, hard-working players in Jarome Iginla. Iginla is known to do whatever it takes to win, and if it involves feeding the puck to a guy like Kovalchuk would more than likely thrill Iginla. The tandem of the Russian and Canadian players would be astounding.

The Flames have been suffering all season from a lack of firepower on offense, so to add the Russian weapon would delight Iginla to no end.

One of the main arguments against this transaction is the fact that the Flames have little to no cap space, a measly 0.9 Million dollars so Kovalchuk would only be a rental player. However, by trading Phaneuf the Flames free up 7 million in cap space. Add on the fact that Olli Jokinnen is apparently about to be traded freeing up another 5 million dollars. That is around 12 million in cap space, which is more than enough to sign Kovalchuk this summer, making him a cornerstone for years to come.

Another point to remember is that the numbers for signing Kovalchuk are coming out of Atlanta, where hockey takes more than a backseat to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Div-1 College Football superpower, the Georgia Bulldogs. After years of losing seasons, I’d be a betting man that Kovalchuk would take a small discount to play on a team that already has the framework of a playoff contender with a dominant goalie in Finnish netminder Mikka Kiprusoff, a strong blueline led by recent free agent addition Canadian Jay Bouwemeester, and Canadian power Jarome Iginla.

If the Flames took Phaneuf and Jokinen and traded them to the Thrashers for Kovalchuk and a prospect, then the Flames would have cleared cap space, as well as satisfied the Thrashers wishes for impact players.

Instead, the Flames are getting 6 mediocre-at-best players in return for their Finnish first-line Center Olli Jokinen, their tough-as-nails goal scoring machine defenseman in Phaneuf and their most touted defensive prospect Aulie.

kovalchuk_russia2010 Flames fans might as well mail in their season and just admit that the season, and quite possibly the next few years are going to be complete disasters. Their current 9-game losing streak may or may not continue, but the rest of the season is bound to be a joke. If you want to put down some money, now would be an amazing time for a few futures bets. This team is going to be pitiful. A safe bet for future games is to take the opposing team if they are listed as an underdog to the Flames. Bookies more than likely don’t know what to place the odds at for Flames games so there will be good value in betting on the opposing team if they’re listed as underdogs.

For Olympic betting, pay close attention to the Russians. Kovalchuk is entering his contract year in the NHL, so he will be trying to showcase his talents on a team loaded with talent like Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin. If he can prove that he is equal or better than these studs he’ll be in line for a big payday. Betting on the Russians and Kovalchuk’s drive to dominate will also offer you an opportunity for a big payday.

In Vancouver for 2010hockeybetting.com,

Steve O

February 1, 2010 at 5:20 am | Baljit

What an idiot
February 1, 2010 at 5:35 am | Rich

your an idiot and shouldnt be allowed to publish material for reading… he was adding depth to a team that deperatley needs it and quite possibly setting himself up for another trade and freeing up cap space for this summer dumbass… do u watch hockey?
February 1, 2010 at 5:41 am | Joe Mead

so by trading for a bunch of plugs he’s freeing up cap space? Sure thing rich. When you have an opportunity to grab a guy like Kovalchuk you take it. Get him in now, give him a few months to get comfortable with Calgary, then he’ll be easier to resign come summertime. By waiting until summer to resign they’ll have no chance since he’ll be open to going anywhere. By trading for him now you get your home crowd fired up after a HUGE losing streak, as well you get him accustomed to Calgary. And from what it sounds like, Calgary hockey players are very accustomed to the ‘accomidating’ female fans.
February 1, 2010 at 6:36 am | William Varley

He hasn’t destroyed the Flames, please. None of the players in the Phaneuf trade inspire tremendous excitement, but they are all serviceable players (perhaps not so much Mayer, who seems like a throw in) and for the duration of this year at least, the Flames have more depth and offensive upside. Hard to know what the Leaf players will be like under Sutter’s coaching, but they have been a big chuck of Toronto’s offense. White has actually produced more offense than Phaneuf thus far, but again, under Wilson’s loosey-goosey coaching system so it’s hard to make a direct comparison. Phaneuf may be given free reign in Toronto to do as he pleases and may rack up points he couldn’t in Calgary. Anyway, I think you’re going way over the top in your assessment of Sutter. Who would have predicted Jokinen or Bouwmeester would provide so little of what has been expected? Did you? They seemed like upgrades at the time.
The jury’s still out on how it all plays out.
February 1, 2010 at 6:41 am | Steve O

I can’t argue with that Willy, all I’m trying to say is that when you have a chance to build your franchise around a player like Kovalchuk, you do it.

Look at Ovechkin in Washington. They have a piece of shit in net and they’re winning cause of the russian stud. With the flames blue line and kipper they would be amazing
February 1, 2010 at 8:25 am | albert

All this is based on the argument that the Flames didnt get Kovalchuk. And it seems like you are assuming that it is an automatic that the Flames could have picked him up. Maybe they tried and Waddell said no? Maybe Atlanta isnt interested in Phaneuf and Jokinen? Sutter can’t just wake up in the morning and say, “im getting Kovalchuk today for Phaneuf and Jokinen”. It dont work that way. So condemning Sutter for not getting Kovalchuk at this point makes no sense. Im sure he would have if there was something that worked for both teams. And besides, just because someone is a superstar doesn’t mean they will win you games. Ovechkin is surrounded by some huge talent… Green, Semin, Backstrom. If it was as easy as picking up an all star to win a cup, then why has Gaborik not put the rangers in first? They have a stud goalie to boot. How come Pronger isnt making the Flyers run away with the east? So quit condemning someone who has 40 years experience in the game, and sounding like an uneducated douche while making your point
February 1, 2010 at 5:45 pm | Steve O

uhhh so Iginla isn’t a huge talent? Bouwmeester? Kipper? Didn’t I say that with those 3 studs and Kovi that the Flames would be perennial cup contenders?

Kovi is like a tom brady, kobe bryant. You just don’t get this opportunity much.

And you know what, maybe the trade didn’t work cause Waddell wasn’t interested. That doesn’t deny the fact that he traded away for 6 ‘depth’ players. The Flames don’t need depth, they need someone who has proven they can score on any line.

And Gaborik? On the same level as Ovi, Kovi and Crosby? To quote Mr. Chad Ochocinco, “Child please”
March 3, 2010 at 8:06 pm | Clarkson

so you think that after trading away CGY’s best defenseman, and a couple forwards they should get one forward in return? DUMB, DE DUMB DUMB. Thank goodness you aren’t calling the shots; you want short term thinking ? Look no further than your post, and your ideas.

Stick with blogging about pizza and girls.
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