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Fourteen Things

Busy week in sports, no? Definitely a whole lot to talk about. I won’t get to everything — how about them Raptors? — since most customers won’t make it through to the end of this if I do. Apparently the kids don’t have the attention spans for my, um, extensive writing style. But as Mark Twain said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Here’s a really long letter.

1. I suppose I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the moves the Leafs made last Sunday. For me, they are both very low risk, high reward moves for the Leafs. The players that left town won’t be missed and the players coming back have very high upsides. Let me explain.

2. Dion Phaneuf is one of the most polarizing figures I’ve ever seen in hockey. It wasn’t that long ago that he was a Canadian hero at the World Junior Championships in 2004 and 2005. He was easily the best defender on both those teams and earned tournament all star nods both years, despite playing with future Canadian Olympians Shea Weber and Brent Seabrook.

But Phaneuf clearly wore out his welcome in Calgary, leaving amid accusations he was under-performing and rumours he was not getting along with team mates. How he performs in a Leaf uniform remains to be seen, but Phaneuf still has the potential to be a Norris Trophy candidate. Or a tremendous bust. At just 24 and with good coaching there is a lot of upside for the Leafs here.

3. The price the Leafs paid is more than acceptable. Really, the only one of the four going Calgary’s way who can be an impact player is Niklas Hagman. Ian White was a good defenceman on a bad team, Jamal Mayers is a glorified goon and Matt Stajan should have trouble cracking the third line on a good team. Why Darryl Sutter is convinced he can centre a line with Jarome Iginla is beyond me.

The Leafs didn’t have to cough up a draft pick — not that they have one that’s worth anything — and they managed to pry Keith Aulie away from the Flames, who is a very good, young defenceman. If you’re looking for a sleeper in this trade, he’s it.

4. In the Giguere deal, the Leafs get a goalie who clearly has a good history with Francois Allaire, the Leafs goaltending coach, and a guy who can still be a legitimate number one goaltender. Not to mention a veteran who has won a championship and can act as a mentor to young Jonas Gustavsson, who the Leafs are clearly not prepared to give up on.

5. What do you Leafs send to Anaheim for Gigure? A couple under-performing players who had clearly fallen out of favour with fans, in Vesa Toskala and Jason Blake. The risk is low. You aren’t giving up anything spectacular and if Gigure is a bust, he won’t be around for long. But the reward is high. Giguere could very well find his form once again — he mentioned on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night that he felt like he was in a rut in Anaheim — and even inspire Gustavsson to play better hockey. I know it’s a weird feeling to take the glass is half full approach with the Leafs, but when this organization makes a roster decision that, you know, make sense — it’s big news.

6. That said, there really aren’t many players on the current roster left over from the John Ferguson Jr. era. And if current Leafs G.M. Brian Burke eventually trades Alexei Ponikarovsky and Tomas Kaberle as everyone expects him to, there will be almost no one left over from that arduous period in Leafs history. That’s good for fans of hockey in Toronto, but bad for Burke because he’s running out of people to blame for the Leafs woes. If the team continues to falter, he may have to confront a touchy subject with his college buddy Ron Wilson.

7. Speaking of trades, Olli Jokinen is a guy the Flames should have gotten more return on. He still has 40 goal potential and his contract — which comes off the books when he becomes a free agent on July 1st — only has a cap hit of $5.25 million, which is reasonable for a player of his calibre. Darryl Sutter and the Flames should have waited until deadline day and sold Jokinen for a higher price instead of settling for Chris Higgins and Ales Kotalik from the Rangers — two players who don’t immediately improve the team.

8. That said, Sutter now has one of the most impressive collections of third line forwards I’ve ever seen. If Gary Bettman decides to introduce clutching and grabbing back into the game, his team is going to be remarkable.

9. Might as well get them all out of the way and say this about the Kovalchuk deal — Atlanta was never going to get the top six forward, first round pick and NHL-ready depth players that they coveted in return for the Russian sniper. Atlanta G.M. Don Waddell had to deal Kovalchuk — every G.M. in the league knew it. That put Waddell in a very tough position and forced him to settle for what he thought was the best offer at the time. He did get his first round pick and a couple of serviceable players in Johnny Oduya and Niclas Bergfors. But if anyone thought he would get fair value for an elite player like Kovalchuk under the circumstances, they were crazy. If Waddell wanted maximum value, he would have never let Kovalchuk reach the last year of his deal.

10. The same situation presented itself with Alex Anthopoulos and the Blue Jays this summer. They had an elite player, Roy Halladay, who did not want to resign with the team. Instead of going into the player’s final contract year trying to convince him to resign with a dwindling franchise, Anthopoulos sold the asset for the highest market value before the final year of the contract. If Waddell moved Kovalchuk during the summer or even at the trade deadline last year he would have seen better return on his asset. More G.M.’s from all sports should follow Anthopoulos’ lead and not let the players or other G.M.’s control the scenario.

11. What happens with Patrice Cormier will be the most interesting aspect of this deal. No one was particularly impressed with his performance as the captain of Team Canada at the 2010 World Juniors and his penchant for dirty play is something that has plagued the early stages of his young career. Cormier will sit out the rest of his final junior season to think about this hit. Whether the suspension has a positive effect on the young player remains to be seen.

It’s a commonly held opinion that Cormier could be a very good power forward if he could get his head on straight, but New Jersey — otherwise known as the New England Patriots of the NHL — would have been a much better place to accomplish that than Atlanta. Cormier needs good coaching and a good system under which to flourish. I’m not sure Waddell and Thrashers head coach John Anderson can create that kind of environment in Atlanta.

12. As for Kovalchuk himself — if he’s turning down a $100 million deal from Atlanta, either he really doesn’t want to play for the Thrashers or he plans to bolt to Russia and the KHL when he becomes a free agent after this season. Right now I’m leaning toward the latter. Kovalchuk is a hero in Russia and would earn a ridiculous amount of money in the KHL. In the NHL he’s never had a taste of stardom, toiling away on a terrible team for the first eight seasons of his career. New Jersey may make some noise in the playoffs this year, but they still don’t have to ability to draw the crowds and the attention that can turn Kovalchuk into a superstar on the same level as Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.

For Kovalchuck, the talent is undeniably there. Just not the surroundings.

13. What, you thought I was done with baseball? I really like the Jay’s Kevin Gregg signing. Make no mistake, he isn’t here to be the next great Jays closer — he’s an asset for Anthopoulos, nothing more. Gregg’s contract is for only a year — with two club options that will no doubt be denied —and he comes at the very economical price of $2.75 million. In the likeliest scenario, Gregg will be a Type B free agent next year, meaning if the Jays offer him arbitration and he signs with another team the Jays will pick up a top 40 pick for the 2011 entry draft.

Best case scenario? Gregg blows the roof off and reverts back to his form in his years with the Marlins, becoming a Type A free agent and giving the Jays a first round pick from whichever club signs him next year.

$2.75 million isn’t a bad price to pay for a high draft pick —especially when you’re a team with a revamped scouting department, looking to rebuild through the draft like the Jays.

14. And finally, our deepest condolences go to the Burke family after the tragic passing of Brendan Burke, the 21-year-old son of Leafs President and G.M. Brian Burke. Brendan recently came out to the hockey world through an excellent article written by ESPN’s John Buccigross.

I was truly excited to watch Brendan — who was interested in hockey management and clearly had the pedigree to be successful — take on the traditionally homophobic hockey world and climb the ranks as the first openly gay hockey executive.

No matter what your feelings are about the oft-controversial Brian Burke, it’s undeniable that there is no worse day for a parent than losing a child. I really wish I knew the words to do it justice.

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