There are trades you love the second you hear about them … “The Flames got all that for him!?”
There are trades that have you wondering about the winner, with good parts moving in two directions leaving fans from both cities claiming victory, and only time left to sort out the details.
Then there is the head scratcher. The deal that just doesn’t make sense … case in point tonight when the Flames and Rangers completed a 24 hour odyssey by sending Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust to Gotham for Ales Kotalik and Chris Higgins.
Prust, a plugger that provides energy through his fists can be excused for his lack of numbers, but the other three offensive players have all had terrible seasons leading this writer to wonder why the Flames would take on Kotalik’s salary in yet another remake in two short days.
Higgins had three 20 goal seasons in Montreal but has been a bust in the last year and a half. Similarly Kotalik was a sniper in Buffalo but fell on tough times in the last couple of campaigns.
So why?
Kotalik is not a Sutter player, and Higgins seems to have lost it. Is it the hope that moving a soon to be UFA in Jokinen for two players that have had success but need a change of scenery gives the Flames more top nine players and with it more offensive attack? Roll the dice and hope for a rebound?
Or his more to come? Are these pieces picked up to be used in a third deal still to come; either this week or by the trade deadline in the first week of March?
Darryl Sutter has been a pretty astute GM through the years in Calgary, but at this point I just don’t get it.
We’ll see.
