Slow Trade Deadline

Yesterday’s trade deadline was one of the quietest I can remember in years.

There just weren’t any really big moves. Teams like Pittsburgh and Phoenix made a couple of moves to get better, but none of them were exciting blockbuster trades that make you gasp.

My theory is that the Olympics suppressed any huge trades. GMs just didn’t have a strong sense of where their teams were and how other players were doing.

The Olympics only ended on Sunday. It’s tough to make a big, cap-implicating call with information that could be two weeks old.

One of yesterday’s bigger moves was Edmonton’s Lubomir Visnovsky for Anaheim’s Ryan Whitney. I don’t think it’s a coincidence both were last seen playing in the Olympics (although you could also make the argument both were in the Olympics because they play at a certain level and so, in general, are more desirable to GMs).

Both GMs had recent looks at how each player was performing. It took some risk out of the trade.

The weirdest move of the day was Washington’s re-acquisition of Milan Jurcina. Not only had the Caps traded him earlier in the season, but he’s scheduled to be out for four to six weeks with a sports hernia.

Did Jurcina owe someone in Washington money? Is he just a fun guy to have around?

If the NHL does decide to move forward with the 2014 Olympics, I hope they remember today and decide to make the trade deadline either a week later or two weeks earlier. But the league needs to give GMs time to gather information to pull the trigger on bigger, more exciting deals.