For my inaugural column, let’s take a look at the now just past trading deadline. The yearly frenzy every player dreads more than any other time of the year has come and gone yet again. Players hate this time more than any other time of the year. Rumors of who is going where and why run rampant. More often than not, the rumor mill is all for naught, as the actual deals made are nothing more than a last minute stock up or housecleaning, depending on what side of the playoff picture the respective team is on. Once again, there were more rumors this year than there were actual trades. However, a few of the rumors not willing to go away transpired into actual deals. This year saw some blockbuster deals go down.

The New York Rangers were busiest on this day and in the days leading up the deadline. They acquired winger Pavel Bure from the Florida Panthers for two defensemen, Igor Ulanov and Filip Novak. With the Rangers quickly fading from the Eastern Conference playoff picture, you knew they'd be busy.

Another blockbuster for New York brought defenseman Tom Poti and forward Rem Murray from the Edmonton Oilers to this same Rangers squad for forward Mike York. You will recall York was part of the F.L.Y. line in New York (Theo Fleury, Eric Lindros and York). Now he goes to an Oilers team also in danger of missing the playoffs, but should help bolster their top line of Mike Comrie and Ryan Smyth. On the flipside, the Rangers bring in a marquee defenseman in Poti, and bring in a third or fourth line winger in Murray. Personally, I think this trade was a big mistake for the Oilers. Sure, the fans booed Poti constantly, but what the fans didn’t seem to understand is Poti is a blossoming young defenseman of Norris Trophy caliber. With the shortage of good defensemen in the league nowadays, you want to hang on to a guy like that. Don’t tell me for a second Glen Sather doesn’t still have an influence on that team. Kevin Lowe ought to be ashamed of himself for making this deal.

So fine, they’ve now rid themselves of a player the fans didn’t like, but what about Murray? Put this guy on the third or fourth line and you have an offensive threat who could score a late goal or an overtime goal anytime. Unless they put York on a different line, they will have one major line the other team can scout and shut down. Sure this gives a younger or minor league defensemen a chance to step up, but why now in the midst of a playoff race?? What would the fans rather have, one offensive line that can easily be shut down to guarantee an early exit from the post season, or would they rather have a winning team? This was an absolute foolish trade if you ask me.

Battling injuries, Eastern favorites the Philadelphia Flyers brought in Adam Oates from the Washington Capitals. They gave up backup goaltender Maxime Ouellett and 3 draft picks for Oates. Jeremy Roenick and Keith Primeau are both out with injuries, and while Oates will help short term, in the long term the Flyers may wish they had held on to Ouellett.

Rarely do you ever see a trade deadline deal guarantee a Stanley Cup. The favorites to win are already being picked or have been picked for some time. The trade deadline is a way for a team to fine tune an already fine team for the playoffs or for a not playoff bound team to get rid of some unwanted baggage going into the summer free agent market. Make no mistake, in the NHL there are 30 teams; 16 of which will make the playoffs, but only 1 will win it all. Make a wrong impulse move and the team’s chemistry can and will be severely affected. We’ve seen this time and time again. Two years ago, the Ottawa Senators made a deal with Pittsburgh that sent their #1 goalie Ron Tugnutt to the Pittsburgh Penguins along with defenseman Janne Laukannen for veteran Tom Barrasso. Tugnutt was second statistically only to Dominick Hasek, yet the GM of the Senators at the time felt they needed a "veteran" goalie to make it deep in the playoffs. This deal was made despite the fact Barrasso hadn’t played in the NHL for over a year! Every hockey fan knows what happened after that. The Senators went on to lose 60% of their games for the remainder of the season and lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Pittsburgh on the other hand, went on to upset Washington in the first round and took Philadelphia to 6 games in the second round, or perhaps theoretically we could say 7 games, as one of the games ended up being the longest ever overtime game in Stanley Cup Playoff history, needing 5 overtime periods to decide it. Keith Primeau can tell you who scored the winner there.

Ironically, our friend Barrasso was on the trading block again. He now calls the Toronto Maple Leafs home. What did they give up? A draft pick. Forget the fact he has had a fine outing with the Carolina Hurricanes and he won a silver medal with the U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey Team. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end and Carolina made it quite clear they were not interested in paying top dollar for an aging goaltender. They’ve proven that much by bringing in younger Kevin Weekes from the Tampa Bay Lightning and by trading away marquee defenseman Ozolinsh, and forwards Willis and Dingman. While we’re at it, why didn’t we do an outside the NHL trade and send Tommy Salo to Belarus for Andrei Mezei? This would have made as much sense and the Leafs getting Barrasso. Sure, Curtis Joseph is injured, but Corey Schwab has proven that he can hold the fort in Cujo’s absence.  And just how hurt is he really?  We all know he'll be back for the playoffs, no matter how hurt he is.

Aside from the Barrasso trade, the Leafs were actually very quiet this trading deadline. This was also true for two other Canadian teams, the Ottawa Senators and the Vancouver Canucks, both deciding to stick with the team they already have. The Senators acquired Benoit Brunet from Dallas for a draft pick as well as Juha Ylonen from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Andre Roy a few days prior to the deadline (or as an astute fan put it, Roy for a Yahoo), but nothing on deadline day.

The Calgary Flames got forward Blake Sloan from the Columbus Blue Jackets for forward Jamie Allison, proof they are giving up on the post season and perhaps getting rid of an escalating salary for next year. Columbus, on the other hand, perhaps are looking to the future as well by bringing in a proven center who has been known to put the puck in the net. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen in Calgary.

With the regular season so close to ending and the playoff races so close, all this wheeling and dealing begs the question, why bother having the trading deadline so late in the season? The NBA and MLB both have their trading deadline halfway through the season. With all the talk in the NHL about what rules should changed in the wake of the Olympics, why not start with making the trading deadline earlier? Gary Bettman, if you are reading this, "wake up".

While we saw a blockbuster trade or two, we saw that the rumors were simply that, rumors. Most general managers that have a legitimate Stanley Cup contender either made minor adjustments or stuck with the lineup they have had all season. We didn’t see Dominick Hasek traded to New Jersey for Olympic Hockey Gold Medalist goalie Martin Brodeur. Nor did we see Joe Sakic traded to Chicago or any crazy deals like that. Most general managers are finally confident they have the team they need down the stretch and into the playoffs. If a deal was so good that it couldn’t have been refused, it would have been made. As is true every year, we have seen a deal or two that will us you scratch our heads and wonder why. Ultimately, one thing will remain constant. Only one team will win the Stanley Cup.

Andre Savage is one of the leading scorers for the AHL's Manitoba Moose. Fans of the Boston/Providence Bruins and Michigan Tech’s hockey teams will know Savage. The Canucks Brian Burke should be ashamed of himself for not calling up this kid. The Manitoba Moose are the minor league affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks. Signed as a free agent in the off season, Savage has played the entire season in the minors for the Moose. He has played 63 games, the most of anybody on the roster. He has 27 goals, 21 assists for 48 points, plus he has 98 penalty minutes. So not only can he score, he’s a tough customer to boot. The Canucks are quickly fading from the playoff picture in the NHL’s Western Conference. They need depth at forward to fill in for injuries and who do they call up?? Todd Warriner. Don’t get me wrong, Todd is a proven veteran. However, this year he’s only played 30 games combined between the Phoenix and Vancouver systems. He only has 7 goals and 13 assists, and 32 penalty minutes. Statistically, plus/minus, he’s a -6. Compare that to Savage, who’s a +9. Even compare that to Steve Kariya, Paul’s brother, who only has 6 more points than Savage and is a -2. And, as if that isn’t bad enough, Kariya has been called up already this season, not to mention other players that aren’t as good as Savage statistically. Holden, Chubarov, Brown, Bouck…the list goes on. I urge the Canucks to simply give this guy a try. He can put the puck in the net and won’t be a liability to the team. Also, he’s one of the few players left out there who plays for the love of the game and not for the big bucks. He’ll be the first to tell you that even if he doesn’t play in the NHL, he’ll be happy anyway for just having had the opportunity to play. I don’t know about you, but Vancouver could use a player like that down the stretch. Earth to Brian Burke. Hello. Are you listening???

On March 13, 1998, Curtis Joseph signed a $25 million deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Not bad for a player who was never drafted. Joseph signed with the St. Louis Blues as a free agent in 1989 and worked his way into the No. 1 role by the 1991-02 season. Two seasons later he was an all-star.

On March 14, 1986, Oilers’ defenseman Paul Coffey tied Tom Bladon’s record of eight points in a game by a defenseman, when he scored twice and assisted on six other goals in Edmonton’s 12-3 walloping of the Detroit Red Wings. He would come within two goals in 1985-86 of becoming the first defenseman to score 50 in a season, although he did break Bobby Orr’s single-season record of 46.

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