Trade Deadline: The Dust Has Settled

With the trade deadline yesterday now in our rear view mirror, lets take a look at some of the trades that happened yesterday

First, the Rush added the guy who is consistently the among the league leaders in dropped passes. Dan Teat joins the barbwire brigade (a great fucking nickname I know), a team that has virtually no offensive power after Chris Gill was traded to Colorado and Mike Accursi's production was exchanged for Teat ball dropping and some picks.

This is what new GM/Coach Bob Hamley had to say about the trade:

"He hasn't had the season he wanted. He's going to get a lot of playing time with us and he'll help our young guys mature. He doesn't need the ball in his stick until he's on top of the goalie and he's good at getting open. And he's a great guy."

OK there Bob. You did a great job in Arizona and really did well brining in Plunkett and Hominuck. But why bring in Teat? He is old (and not John Tavares good old, but just kind of old and bad). He wants to help the team's young forwards. I guess Brendan Thenhaus will get some playing time with Steve Hutchins. But essentially what Hammer wants Teat to do is to help Dan Stroup, Jim Quinlan, Plunkett, Hominuck and some other guys like Randy Daly who don't play anymore. Thats great, those guys are all really, really young. He also mentions that Teat doesn't need the ball in his stick until he is on top of the goalie. He doesn't need it in his stick because he loses the ball or passes it to the other team. I think Darris Kilgour figured this out finally. Usually once he gets the ball on top of the crease, he drops it too. That will be a big help for Edmonton.

The one thing I did like in this trade for the Rush (in addition to trading the great Matt Disher to Portland) is the draft picks acquired, because Paul Day seemed to think that trading what could have been Jeff Zywicki or Dan Carey for Andrew Turner was a great move:

"I worked the phones pretty hard," said Hamley. "We didn't have any draft picks the next two years when I arrived and we had to get some back."

Good for you Bob, just don't play up the Dan Teat part of this trade so much.

Now on to Jamie Batley, the guy who couldn't get anything for Scott Self because the asking price was too high in Chicago's end:

"Our defence and our goaltending are keeping us in games and giving us a chance to win,"

That is great Jamie. You are 2-7 and 3.5 games behind 4th place with 2 teams to leapfrog. Do you really want to go 4-12, or do you want to have a chance at Darryl Veltman or somebody good for your team. Have fun when Self is playing for Winnipeg or Dallas or wherever the Sting end up next year.

Finally, lets hear some statements of the big one yesterday.

First, Lewis "Sweet Lou" Ratcliff: "I just have to play my game when I get there. That's trying to put the ball in the net, being a threat on offence. I don't think they're bringing me in to change my style at all."

No shit Lewis. I don't think they are going to put Scott Campbell out on offence instead of you.

Now Sanderson: "After we won both our games last weekend I thought it was off so I was a little bit shocked when it happened,"

Why would you be shocked Josh? You don't play for the Barrie Lakeshores in the summer. Ask your old teammate who is now terrorizing defences on the west coast. Don't think he saw his coming either.