| Kenny's Round Mar 22nd, 2002, By Scott Wilson While many Red Wings fans are crying and moaning about Darius Kasparaitis (hereafter KASPAR) going to their archrival the Colorado Avalanche, I have to salute Ken Holland and I am conceding the annual deadline battle with Pierre Lacroix to Holland. Here is the reason why: COLORADO KASPAR for Ville Nieminen and Rick Berry. The Good: Kaspar is an aggressive agitator who Steve Yzerman himself admits, "Is hard to play against". So Colorado now has 2 all star defenseman (one of which who's knee currently cannot last a game), Skoula, and Kaspar. This is a fine defensive unit from 1-4 to be sure. The Bad: Colorado's Goal production has been non-existent. If not for Patrick Roy, Colorado would be looking at a #6 - #8 seed in the west. With Peter Forsberg and Milan Hejduk questionable due to serious injuries, and Dan Hinote hurting, and his team desperate for scoring, Pierre traded away a young player who can score for a rental defenseman who cannot. Sorry Pierre, you paid too much for what you got. He also gave away his #6 defenseman, so now an injury to Blake or Foote, and Colorado is toast. It is also highly unlikely Pierre can sign Kaspar at the end of the year, and since his stats are routinely meager, so will the compensatory draft pick be for losing him to free agency. CHICAGO acquires Lyle Odelin for SPACEK and a 2nd round pick. The Good: Chicago adds a strong defensive defenseman to there blue line core for the playoffs, no doubt about it. The Bad: SPACEK is a fine young defenseman, a real solid young player. Plus they give up a second round pick. You expect a second rounder to be in the NHL in two years. The price was high. It may work out for the Blackhawks, but they gave up a lot for a 34 year old journeyman. We shall see how it works out for Chicago. DETROIT acquires Jiri Slegr for Butsayev and a 3rd Rounder. The Good: Detroit acquires a 30 year old heavily experienced 6'2" 220 pound defenseman. Slegr has decent speed, is a great stick handler and passer, is physically very big and strong, and is willing to play physically when there is a reason to do so. After Lidstrom and Chelios, right now he is likely the 3rd best defenseman on Detroit's roster. He will fit in instantly into Scotty's Puck Control system, and should make the WINGS blue line substantially better. Is he a pounder? No. But he will score 4 times as many points and take less than half the penalties Kaspar will. The Bad: The Red Wings give up a young forward who will never survive waivers next year on a center intensive roster, and the lowest 3rd round pick in the draft. Where is the bad in this deal exactly? We may see, that Slegr is better than Odelin and Kaspar, and know that all three are on good teams, we will be able to judge that for the first time. DEADLINE 2002, Kenny scores a 10-9 round over Pierre. Depending on how things transpire, it may very well turn out to be a 10-8 round, because Detroit did not lose a single thing from their roster. I still don't think Ken Holland is very smart, but he was on March 19th. |
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