What the Zherdev Trade Means

I wanted to write this before any other news hit – that way i can claim that I am original.

As far as I’m concerned, the Zherdev move means one of two things:

1) Howson knows (knew) something that we don’t about an incoming player.  Morrison/Huselius?

2) Management has a LOT more confidence in the young guns than we originally thought.

Not much I can say about #1.  We can only guess at this point – although it seems that if we had a player coming then we would have heard about it already.  Sort of a 1-2 punch.

So let’s examine #2.  I think that both Howson and Hitchcock have very high expectations for Voracek and Filatov on the wings (even though Filatov is a natural center).  Did Howson believe that he’d found a replacement for Z when he made that pick a few weeks ago?  I’m starting to think so.  As for Voracek – I think that it is pretty unanimous in the front offices that he is the number 2 right wing.

I’ve had a bit more time to think about it, and I’m starting to come around to the Zherdev trade.  Yeah, I said it.  You know what, Z didn’t fit Hitch’s system.  He’s too flashy, a liability on defense, and is one of the most temperamental players that I’ve ever seen.  (I should have read my Tampa post before going nuts)  In order for a team to build a true winner, they have to develop an identity.  Zherdev didn’t fit into that identity – so we chose to use him as an asset to secure players that we could use.

The thing still stings though is how little we got for him in return.  I wish him the best of luck.  Hopefully he is able to find that spark in his game that allows him to turn it up.

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Tags: NHL Free Agency, Nikolai Zherdev

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