Last second deals wreck the game, shouldn't be legal
With an hour and a half left until the NHL trade deadline on Monday, nothing was happening.
Then suddenly, it was like rush hour on a Los Angeles freeway.
In that tiny window between 10:30 a.m. and noon, no less than 16 trades were completed, and the Vegas Golden Knights even signed former Ottawa star Mark Stone to a new, eight-year contract worth $76 million as a condition of his exchange.
Who says agents can’t work fast under the gun?
When the entire exchange of human flesh was completed by late afternoon, 22 trades were finalized — involving 25 current NHL players and boatloads of draft picks, some of which carried so many various conditions that they might as well have included the weather forecast.
In case you’re wondering, by the way, Spokane native Tyler Johnson (who skates in Coeur d’Alene’s Frontier Ice Area during the off season) was not among the horde of players moved.
In fact, Johnson’s Tampa Bay club basically took the trade deadline off, since the Lightning already have lapped the field with 102 points by Wednesday night.
To put that number in perspective, the second-highest total in the entire league belongs to Calgary with 89.
THE NUMBER of late trades was ridiculous, and many of them were rentals as teams with Stanley Cup dreams‚ mostly in the Western Conference — loaded up for next month’s playoff run.
Winnipeg added five players, which you may know is the number of skaters (excluding goalies) you can put on the ice at any given time.
Players in the Jets’ dressing room should have been wearing name tags this week as strange faces popped up in various lockers.
Now then…
I think this rearranging of deck chairs was insane.
So are late-season deals in every other sport, and I want to be on record as saying they should be ditched entirely.
Play the people you had under contract on the first day of the season.
Live with those guys, instead of shipping them all over North America for two months, at best.
That’s one of the cool things about high school and college sports.
You try to improve your current players during the season because, to put it bluntly, they are all you’ve got.
Look, Post Falls wasn’t allowed to add a player in a blockbuster deal with Gonzaga Prep just before this weekend’s 5A state basketball tournament.
I’M SAYING this as a fan of the Kansas City Royals, who won the 2015 World Series after adding pitcher Johnny Cueto and jack-of-all-trades Ben Zobrist just before the July 31 trade deadline.
Both those guys were gone shortly after the victory parade, having been signed as free agents by far richer clubs.
In fact, I said the same thing back then.
As much they helped, I didn’t want Cueto and Zobrist — because altering a roster to that extent just before titles are handed out is pretty damn absurd.
Rental players who are going to become free agents in a few weeks aren’t really part of your club’s culture.
Teams that acquire these guys who stay in motel rooms while in in pursuit of championships generally pay a stiff price, as well.
And besides...
Fans should be able to identify with their heroes, not just see them barely in time for names to be stitched on uniforms.
The whole concept of last-second trade mania is wrong, in any and all professional sports.
Make your moves in the off season, then play the hand you’ve got.
Hey, you dealt it.
Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on
Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He also contributes the Zags Tracker package on Gonzaga basketball each Tuesday.
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