Burke or Deano?

[Wolvie]

Originally Posted by Youngblood

Nope. Right interview, wrong player. This seems to be a common misconception on LGK. Watch the video. 8:56 of the video is where he talks about Lewis and going with what the scouts had told him. DL's interview regarding Bernier is earlier, around the 4 minute mark, and he doesn't say anything about trusting his scouts.

http://http://youtube.com/watch?v=fdYZXWsfIYE

I love revisionist history!

[Brodeur]

Originally Posted by JJ289

Thanks for the correction. My point, though, remains the same. Even though Fedorov's contract was frontloaded, with the cap he still would have been taking up $8 mil/ year, right? I still don't understand what McLean was thinking with that deal. That move shed salary and dead weight and freed Burke to make other moves; trading for O'Donnell, Pronger. Hopefully DL will be in the same position in a few years.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/news/2003/0719/1582918.html

Fedorov signed a 5 year deal for 40 million. 10 million the first year, 6 million the second year (this was the lockout year, so his agent was pretty smart there), and 8 million the final three. So his post lockout cap hit was a uniform 6.08 million for three years (8 million with a 24% rollback).

MacLean probably panicked a bit, thinking Columbus could be a playoff contender post-lockout. Since this happened after the lockout, there was that void of a year where GMs were trying to recall what a player was like two years ago because there was no recent track record. His dilemma was would he rather have Todd Marchant for 4 years, or Sergei Fedorov for 3. Honestly it was a decent gamble at the time. It just looks terrible that Beauchemin was a throw-in who turned out to be easily the most valuable commodity in the deal.

It's not exactly the same, but would you trade Michal Handzus and Kevin Dallman for Brad Richards if the deal was on the table? I think that was the rationale on Columbus' side. They had a defensive center on a long contract that wasn't quite living up to it, and they had the chance to trade that contract for somebody who they thought was worth the extra money.

And I think Burke cleared enough salary for O'Donnell by trading Keith Carney. He got a prospect and a 2nd rounder for Carney, while giving up only a prospect for O'Donnell at the deadline. Sadly I think the Ducks had more than enough money for Pronger even if Fedorov was still in town. Having Fedorov might have prevented them from signing Bertuzzi or Schneider this offseason however.

But yeah, the Fedorov trade was smart even if Beauchemin hadn't panned out.

[KINGS17]

Originally Posted by Salty Dog

You're missing my point completely.I am not upset at "losing now" as I am at Lombardi's UFA choices so far as GM. You can rationalize that it doesn't matter how they play because they are rebuilding, but that doesn't change the fact that they have ALL underperformed. Isn't that some sort of red flag? Why do people expect it to be different in the future?

I don't disagree with any of this, and I am happy there is a plan and that changes have been made. It obviously bodes well for the future, however, it is not a guarantee of anything. We have to wait and see if the "plan" is going to be effective. So far there have been positives (the building of a reserve list, young talent, draft picks, etc.) but there have also been negatives (UFA signings, hiring Crawford, team toughness, continuing goalie problems for the 20th year in a row, etc.) So I am in the wait and see camp. I'm not going to praise Lombardi for what might be in the future, but I am hopeful he will be successfull.

I don't praise Lombardi for the results of the plan, because no one knows what the results will be. I praise him for having a plan and obviously having alternatives built into the plan as he moves forward, which is more than Dave Taylor had. Whether or not it was Taylor's fault that the plan was always just make the playoffs is debatable.

Look, Lombardi's plan A this past off season was to sign Drury or Gomez. When that plan went to hell he acted decisively and signed as many fillers as possible to short term deals. What would have had him do differently, pay Drury or Gomez an even crazier amount of money than the Rangers?

I expect the UFA signings to become better in the future because the Kings will have a better team, but even if they don't improve in that area, that's what building a reserve list is all about.