The Week In Roster Movement

TNZT Reviews the week that was on the NHL transaction wire

Courtesy thehockeyhouse.net

Colorado has been all over the place this week, good Lord!

By Max Sussman

Each week, TNZT runs down the major transactions and roster moves of the week. This, the first week in our history, was a doozie. It started with a former All-Star being traded from the only team he's ever known (to the Islanders no less), continued through Semyon Varlamov's arrest and right on through the Avs swapping Steve Downie for Philadelphia's Max Talbot. As always, winners, losers and oddities.

Winners

The Buffalo Sabres pulled a fast one on the New York Islanders. Matt Moulson was shipped from Nassau along with two picks (a first-rounder in 2014 and a second-rounder in 2015) to Buffalo for Thomas Vanek. Full stop. All they got for their second most productive forward was Thomas Vanek, nevermind the picks. Vanek is the prime candidate for the "Better In Our Heads Than He Is In Reality" team. He had a great season in 2006/2007 (43G/41A/+47), but if you take that one season out, Vanek is Moulson are statistically very similar players. Both guys score a hair under a point per game and play the type of game that requires a great set-up man to succeed. 

We discussed it on this week's TNZT Podcast: On paper, Moulson and Vanek are essentially the same player, Vanek's just a bigger name. But Buffalo didn't make this trade because they really wanted to slot Matt Moulson in alongside Tyler Ennis or Cody Hodgson. They made this trade for the picks. If media consensus is right, the Islanders' best-case-scenario is the seventh- or eighth-seed in the Eastern Conference. That turns what is now Buffalo's first-round pick into, at worst, the 16th pick in the draft. Middle first-rounders are still very valuable assets in today's salary-capped NHL. The two picks are likely why GM Darcy Regier was willing to pay a chunk of Vanek's salary this year. Both Moulson and Vanek are on expiring contracts, so don't be surprised to see one or both of them flipped to a contender before the trade deadline. 

For now though, the Buffalo Sabres are the early winner of 2013's first major trade. 

Honourable mention(s): Edmonton should (theoretically) get better with the return of Sam Gagner from the injured list. 

Losers

I've addressed that the Islanders lost the Vanek-Moulson trade, so I won't get into it again. We'll also get into the Steve Downie-Max Talbot trade, but I don't believe anyone won or lost that, so we'll leave it for later. However, we look at roster movement as a whole, not just in terms of trades. It was a rough week for Colorado. There blazing-hot starting goalie Semyon Varlamov was arrested on charges of domestic violence on Wednesday, momentarily thrusting Jean-Sebastien Giguere into the starting job. Since then, Varlamov was released on (laughably affordable) bail and is allowed to travel with the team. He will be in Dallas for tonight's game against the Stars, but coach Patrick Roy has not said who will be starting.

Regardless of whether Varlamov continues to play, I have my doubts he'll continue to be in the top five in every major stat kept for goalies. With the already-aged - rather than "aging" - Giguere waiting in the wings, expect a drop off in the net no matter who is tending it for Colorado. 

Honourable mention(s): Saku Koivu doesn't produce a ton anymore, but he is still a key "glue guy" for this year's Anaheim Ducks. Losing him via Brandon Dubinsky's brutal hit to the head will hurt the Ducks in intangible ways. Add to that Teemu Selanne's injury and the Ducks would have been this week's losers if not for the Semyon Varlamov story. Selanne's both a glue guy and a productive offensive forward. 

Oddities

Colorado made a fairly splashy trade just over 24 hours after Varlamov was arrested, but it wasn't for a goalie. The Avs traded Steve Downie, an energy/toughness guy to Philadelphia for Max Talbot, an energy/annoying-the-other-team guy. The two players' similarities are many, but Downie is a few years younger and has shown some offensive upside at times. Beyond that, no one really wins. Neither guy is known for durability (the two have played just one 82 game season combined throughout their careers) and both more checking forwards than anything else. 

This move gets potted into the Oddities section for that reason: The Avs and Flyers basically swapped third- or fourth-line plugs. Downie's on an expiring contract that pays him $2.75 million this year while Talbot is signed through the 2015/16 season to front-loaded deal. He's owed $2 million this year, but by the last year of the contract, he'll only be paid $1 million flat. 

So the Avs save a little bit of money in exchange for roster flexibility and neither team truly gets any better. To add to the oddity of this trade, the idea that Colorado made this move to distract the public from the ongoing Varlamov fiasco has been floated by a number of members of the media. 

Odd.

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Max Sussman is the most famous American immigrant in the BCIT Radio Arts and Entertainment program. He is also the Editor of the TNZT Blog. He also asks that you follow him on Twitter at @trulyitbemax.