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Of all the moves made on a verrrry interesting trade deadline day, the most intriguing development may have been how it was the youngest and most inexperienced of the general managers who also took the boldest steps.
There was Ray Shero, second-year GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins, outmanoeuvring the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins to land Marian Hossa, to complete the most significant upgrade among Eastern Conference playoff contenders.
There was Francois Giguere, second-year GM of the Colorado Avalanche, surrendering a significant package of draft choices to land Adam Foote and Ruslan Salei, improving his defence corps a day after Peter Forsberg provided additional help up front.
Then, in what was probably the biggest deal of all, that quirky Dallas Stars front office, consisting of steady Les Jackson and wildly exuberant Brett Hull, prying playoff-tested Brad Richards out of the Tampa Bay Lightning without surrendering a core asset.
Marian Hossa of the Atlanta Thrashers skates against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 23 in Toronto. (Dave Sandford/Getty Images)
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Hull and Jackson won a bidding war against the Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets and Vancouver Canucks to acquire Richards — and were able to do so because the Lightning deemed that the goalie they had in play, Mike Smith, was significantly more NHL-ready than what the other clubs were offering.
Now a year ago, it was the New York Islanders' Garth Snow who rolled the dice at the deadline, trading three assets to get 19 games worth of regular-season service (and five playoff games) out of Ryan Smyth. It may even be that Hossa doesn't stay in Pittsburgh beyond the current season. With Sidney Crosby's $8.7-million (U.S.) contract extension starting next year and Shero needing to find mega-dollars to sign Evgeni Malkin sometime after July 1, it is hard to imagine there being enough left over to satisfy Hossa's demands too.
Presumably, Shero went into the undertaking with his eyes wide open, weighing the risk against the reward, seeing nothing in the Eastern Conference that should frighten the Penguins and thinking, 'why wait, let's go for it now.'
In fact, he said as much Tuesday, noting: "There's risk in anything you do. There's risk in standing pat at the deadline, there's risk in acquiring players of this magnitude, especially Hossa, but I feel very confident in the team we have right now and I want to give them every opportunity to win."
Shero acknowledged that he had "zero going, honestly" at 1 p.m., or two hours before the deadline, and then had addressed his two biggest needs before the witching hour struck. In doing so, not only did Shero improve his own team, he also prevented the Senators and the Canadiens from bettering theirs.
In Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa may boast the single best forward line in the conference, but you'd be hard-pressed to say they were better than the Penguins' new dynamic trio of Crosby, Malkin and Hossa. The addition of Hal Gill provides some needed toughness on a blue line that features two highly skilled puck-moving defencemen in Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney, but the primary difference between the teams oddly enough is between the pipes, where the Penguins have been getting yeoman's work out of Ty Conklin of late; and now have a couple of reasonable alternatives in Marc-Andre Fleury and Dany Sabourin should he falter.
The Senators, meanwhile, need to get more far out of Ray Emery and/or Martin Gerber than they have of late. If Emery produces too many more turkeys along the lines of his loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs earlier this week, that level of goaltending isn't going to be good enough, the Martin Lapointe acquisition notwithstanding. The Senators may not need Roberto Luongo-level goaltending, but it sure needs to be better than it is right now.
The Canadiens, too, curiously created a goalie controversy of sorts by trading the thoroughly respectable Cristobal Huet for a second-round draft choice and leaving the No. 1 job squarely in the hands of uber-prospect Carey Price. Price, who played well in leading their minor-league affiliate in Hamilton to an AHL championship last year, has given every indication that he will be a front-line NHL goaltender for years to come.
But right now? So soon? It is a gamble that general manager Bob Gainey figured was worth taking, even if it looks from the outside as if he's banking on another Ken Dryden/Patrick Roy playoff miracle this spring.
Apart from the New Jersey Devils' Martin Brodeur and maybe the New York Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist, there isn't an Eastern Conference contender without some degree of uncertainty in goal. But Pittsburgh looks far more secure there than either Ottawa or Montreal, at least for the moment.
It may well be that Shero eventually develops the same buyers' remorse that some of his more aggressive colleagues endured at last year's deadline. That he won't know until after the playoffs end. Long term, the sellers almost always win the day in these rent-a-player sweepstakes. But for the moment, Shero's moves Tuesday sent a signal through his dressing room - that the future, which they've been building towards for all these many years, is upon them right now.
