The NHL trade deadline was this Wednesday, and for a day that is normally like an action movie, filled with unbelievable acts and fantasy scenarios, it was categorically underwhelming. The Leafs were supposed to be Walmart this season, but they were only able to move the awkward and frustrating Antropov and the cheap restoration project Moore (although I’m glad we chose this route instead of locking our salary cap up for another $2-3 million). As written in their contracts, there was no movement on the two K pillars on the blue line.

The lackluster day was not the Leafs fault, the rest of the league didn’t see much action, with only the usual veteran suspects moving around (Recchi and Guerin – Tkachuk should have joined the musical teams for fun), which was quite unlike the big splash that the Penguins made last year. All the teams are scared of the contraction of the salary cap two seasons from now, and investing in propsects and picks.

The economic landscape has changed too. Teams aren’t looking to add to payroll. They want to shed payroll. Many teams that had high-priced veteran players were looking to exchange those contracts for younger players with lower-priced contracts. And banks won’t allow teams to increase their losses by tucking older players in the minors or doing magical contract buyouts. Cash is king in business today and the big spending teams don’t have the money to spend like they used to and can’t cover lots of payroll mistakes. There is also a plethora of no trade contracts out there in the NHL, more than you can imagine. In fact, as a team, we score very low in the NHL on that score. Many teams are handcuffed because they have so many players on their roster with no movement clauses.

Makes for some boring hockey opera. Why can’t the league be more like the Evening News or Nascar?

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: hockey, recession