I can’t see Sutter making all these moves only to go after a UFA from Atlanta. Can’t see it. Nor can I see two trades in two days resulting in 17 healthy and non healthy forwards in Calgary at the same time (including Backlund) making any sense.
His proximity to Brad Richards when the Phaneuf trade went down (had to fly back from Dallas for the press conference) is the interesting one to me. Hagman was a favourite in Dallas, and Kotalik has to be going with him as his waive of the no trade makes little sense on the surface. He didn’t want to play in Western Canada, so the trade waits until there was certainty of his actual destination, Texas.
The Jokinen trade was held up not so he could play against Philly, but so Sutter could untie a snag in the Dallas negotiation, which clearly was done by either game time last night, or just after …. and presto the deal is done. At first I thought it was a snag with the Rangers, but considering the deal was the same as reported the night before there just has to be more to it.
So is Darryl Sutter now Mike Milbury? On the surface one could certainly suggest he’s heading down that slippery path to GM insanity. But given the family front in the Flames office you’d need not just one insane Sutter, but four in order to make moves that don’t make any hockey or hockey money sense, so I don’t buy it.
Things will be much more clear as early as today.
What number does Richards wear?
