|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Primeau on the move? For Hasek?
Posted: Thursday February 03, 2000 05:57 PM
Click here to send an NHL question to Kostya Kennedy. The All-Star break is upon us and both conferences look wide open and full of intriguing teams. Will Buffalo get into the playoff mix with Dominik Hasek in net? Are the Red Wings and Devils headed for a Cup rematch of 1995? Can the Blues outlast the Wings for first place? Will Edmonton and Calgary battle it out for a playoff spot into the last week of the season, as they did last year? Will Pavel Bure net 60? Will Jaromir Jagr? And, as always: Whither the talented Flyers? It's going to be a great second half, folks. Enjoy your All-Star weekend.
What's your take on the Rod Brind'Amour-Keith Primeau trade for Philadelphia? I see one of the most underrated players in the game (Brind'Amour), who is also a noted team player, leaving for someone who held out all year, seemingly alienating both management and players in the process. Is this a real upgrade? And does it improve the Flyers' chances come playoff time? I find the trade a bit curious from Philadelphia's standpoint -- unless it was done to set up another deal. Brind'Amour is indeed one of the most underrated players in the game and he's coming off a 50-assist year. He's a shade older than Primeau, and established as a very hard-working, consistently productive player. Primeau, 28, has a great deal of talent, and there's still the possibility that he puts up a monster season -- he's always been a good player and he shows flashes of being better than that. But he did squabble with management in Carolina, and before that he sulked at times in Detroit. In the short term, I think Carolina is the real beneficiary here: They had no one with Primeau sitting out and now they have Brind'Amour. Is he enough to get them into the playoffs? I'm not convinced, but he will certainly help. For the Flyers, short-term, the deal doesn't help them that much. Center is the team's strongest position. It may be that Bobby Clarke will turn around and move Primeau soon (in a deal for Hasek?). Or he may be trying to set the team up with a good, big young center at a reasonable price, in anticipation of ultimately dealing Eric Lindros. That wouldn't surprise me. But the Flyers, as constituted, are going to have a hard time winning the Cup. In the long term (that is, the next two or three years), if they're without Lindros, their chances drop considerably.
Kostya, one reason for the Caps' recent hot streak has been the success of the Euro-Line formed by Richard Zednik (Slovakia), Jan Bulis (Czech Republic) and Ulf Dahlen (Sweden). Please delve into the impact and philosophy of playing three Europeans, three North Americans, or mixing the lines. Which of the three philosophies do you believe works best overall? There is absolutely no guiding philosophy. How could there possibly be? You put together a line because the players complement each other, not because of where they're from. It's all about individual players and their particular skills. There have been times when players of the same nationality melded well in part because of their backgrounds. The all-Russian line on the Red Wings team of the early 1990s line is an example of that. Those linemates had been schooled in the same tradition and were familiar with one another's style. But in the Capitals' case, and the case of other lines of European players around the league, the players complement each other not because of where they were raised (yes, I know that Zednik and Bulis are out of the former Czechoslovakia) but because their individual talents mesh.
I would love to know what it is about certain GMs and organizations that enable them to consistently find blue-chip talent while most other teams only rarely find the mark. In recent years, for example, Lou Lamoriello of the New Jersey Devils has found Scott Gomez, Brendan Morrison, Petr Sykora, Patrik Elias and Jay Pandolfo. Pierre Lacroix of the Colorado Avalanche has landed Chris Drury, Milan Hejduk, Alex Tanguay and Martin Skoula. And it's not as if the Devils and Avs have had a slew of high draft picks. Do Lou and Pierre just have better scouts, a keener eye for talent -- or do they have some sort of system that the rest of the NHL should know about? Well, the Avalanche has had a lot of draft picks in recent years, which has helped, but there's no doubt Colorado has used them well. The Devils are the best drafters in the business. There are no secrets. Finding good players depends on good scouts, who put in a tremendous amount of time and are incredibly thorough. Then the organization has to have the courage to trust the scouts on draft day. The Devils and Avalanche have put a lot of emphasis on their respective scouting systems. That's one thing other teams should note: If you make amateur scouting a priority and let your amateur scouts know that they are the core of your organization -- I mean that; scouts might form the most important assets an organization can have -- they'll have greater pride in their work. Then they'll probably do an even more diligent job.
What are the realistic chances that the Blues will make a move for a defenseman or power forward? I've been hearing trade rumors for weeks, but nothing seems too close to materializing. Also, have they given up on Marty Reasoner? He's tearing up the minors, but has received VERY limited chances with the big boys. They haven't given up on Reasoner at all. The team had just been doing so well they hadn't felt the pressure to bring him up. When he did arrive he paid immediate dividends (two goals on Feb. 1, in his second game this season) and I expect him to continue to produce. He's small, though (at 6' 1", 185), so he'll have to get used to the physical punishment of the NHL. As for the Blues making a move: They're not going to do anything that will upset the team chemistry in a major way, and they won't disturb their payroll much, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them acquire someone. They know they can win a Cup this year, so an investment would be wise. They'll almost certainly bring in some defensive help. Power forwards are harder to come by, but you can bet that GM Larry Pleau will take to the road over the next month -- and he'll be scouting about the league.
First off, love the Mailbag. I have a question involving the Penguins: I think they need to do something to mix the team up, and a trade of some sort might work. I think Robert Lang needs to be sent down or traded, and they should bring up Robert Dome, who seems to play harder. I also don't think Herb Brooks is the answer at coach. What do you think? Kevin Constantine, remember, was a superb coach with the Penguins, and they are feeling his loss. I thought Brooks was a solid interim guy, but only interim. The hardest thing for anyone coaching the Penguins is that players like Jagr and Alexei Kovalev don't want be coached -- they just want to go out and play their games. Brooks has been clearly frustrated by the inattentiveness of some of his players. These guys don't listen the way teenage Olympians did 20 years ago. As for Lang, I kind of like him and think he might be more valuable as a keeper than as trade bait, simply because his trade value isn't that high. But if the Penguins could get a good defenseman in a deal involving Lang they should certainly explore a trade. Send a question to Kostya Kennedy, and check back weekly to read more of his answers.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
