I'd trade any four or five Leafs for [Alex] Ovechkin. He's that awesome. But would it benefit either the Leafs or Caps to enter into such a deal?The answers? "Absolutely" and "hell no," respectively. The article goes on to include this gem:
As for Ovechkin, would the Caps trade him for, say, [Mats] Sundin and any three others? They'd be crazy not to.Let's assume, for a second, that the Caps entertained the idea. Who would they take? In addition to Sundin, presumably they'd want the Leafs best goaltending prospect (Tuukka Rask), their best defenseman who is actually signed for the next few years (Tomas Kaberle), and their best young center (Alex Steen). The Caps would be trading one of the two best prospects (this is not the place for the AO/Sid debate) in two decades for a 35-year-old center, a blueliner who has never topped 50-points before this year, a goaltending prospect that may or may not ever pan out (see Ouellet, Maxime), and a rookie center who, on a decent team, is -12 and barely among the top 10 rookie scorers.
More to the point, how much better would such a deal make the Caps on the ice? While each of those players is an upgrade over his Capitals counterpart, the loss of Ovechkin would more than offset any gains made.
The Caps currently have a stable of good prospects and five picks in the first two rounds of this year's draft. Add to that the financial dimension - the Caps have about as much cap room as a team can possibly have and have shown their willingness to spend when appropriate while Sundin and Kaberle alone make well over $10 million combined - and this deal would make absolutely no sense at all from a Caps perspective.
Who, again, is crazy, Mr. Worthington?
1 comment:
4 for 1 eh? sounds like a fantasy league trade...PW is correct in that AO is probably worth 4(if not more)players, his potential is unlimited...but who in their right mind would trade AO for anyone... other than maybe a 1984 Gretzky...I can't believe PW gets paid to write aboot his wettest dreams...
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