Now, it's Mike Brophy over at The Hockey News opining on the matter of Alex Ovechkin and whether or not he should be moved.
Brophy frames his argument with a question...
But what if Ovechkin doesn’t want to play in Washington any longer? What if the young superstar tells the Caps he’d prefer to play someplace a little more cosmopolitan than Washington? You know, it could happen.
Uh, Mike? With the possible exception of New York City, there might not be a more "cosmopolitan" city in North America than Washington. If you want to make the argument that there might be more "hockey-centric" cities, be my guest. There are probably scores of them.
He dips his toe into the waters of a trade discussion by suggesting that, "Caps GM George McPhee should, at the very least, explore the possibility of trading the 22-year-old sniper." But that is something of a red herring. He gets right to the point soon...
Let’s face it, with Ovechkin in their lineup, the Capitals have shown no signs of being a playoff team. There are no guarantees re-signing Ovechkin will make the Capitals a successful franchise.
It always comes down to that...Washington. It isn't enough of a hockey locale to suit the likes of Brooks, Kulfan, and now Brophy. There is a fair amount of window dressing in the form of dredging up the Lindros-for-the-world trade between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Quebec Nordiques that led (so the argument goes) to Stanley Cups for Colorado (after their move out of Canada) and "squat" for the Flyers. And, if Wayne Gretzky could be traded, anyone could. But the argument seems to boil down in some manner, shape, or form to "Washington doesn't deserve Ovechkin." We won't mention too loudly that the Nordiques also had a guy named "Sakic" who came in a deal wholly separate from the Lindros caper (Caps fans will certainly remember the particulars), not to mention some goalie that came from Montreal..."Roy," I believe his name was.
Hey, here's a thought. Pittsburgh is sitting two games over .500...they have a goalie on the shelf who was playing rather inconsistently (not to mention hasn't won anything of note in the playoffs as a pro at any level), and have a rather pedestrian defense. Think they ought to be sending out feelers for Sidney Crosby?
Larry...Ted...Mike. The NHL is a 30-team league. It isn't just New York, Detroit, and Canada, much as the TV types would wish it so. There are the Carolina's, Tampa Bay's, Calgary's, and Edmonton's that can and do reach a Stanley Cup final from time to time...even Washington has done it. So, please, stop trying to move Alex Ovechkin. And maybe look past Ovechkin when assessing the prospects of the Capitals...a couple of Calder Cup final teams in the AHL that have graduated the likes of Mike Green and Jeff Schultz...the emergence of a Nicklas Backstrom...guys like Karl Alzner waiting in the wings to join young guys like Alexander Semin and Boyd Gordon. The prospects for this franchise might not be as bleak -- with an Alex Ovechkin -- as your opinion suggests.
5 comments:
The thing that makes this article so stupid is the idea that the Capitals dont already have a lot of talented young players, which is just wrong.
Plus, comparing it to the Lindros situation is dumb - look at Lindros and Forsberg over their careers, they were about the same. Even when Lindros was healthy, Forsberg was such a dominant player Lindros wasn't that much better.
For a trade like this to happen now it'd have to be something like Malkin, Fleury, Staal, Armstrong, Orpik, two first rounders, 25 million and a prospect. Not gonna happen.
TO, LA and Miami are all way "more cosmo" than DC. Obviously, the last two aren't places where OV would go, but let's be fair about where DC fits into the world.
MTL is very European, but quaint. Boston would be close to us too, but its too provincial.
Montreal couldn't be anything further from quaint when you're one of the biggest hockey stars in the world.
And peerless, the Penguins don't have to send out feelers for Crosby because he signed a long-term extention as soon as possible!
that would not preclude a trade to make the club more "competitive," which is the nominal (read: bullshit) argument offered for moving Ovechkin.
All of this "move Ovechkin" talk would be entirely rendered moot if Caps management and Ovie got together and worked out a new contract. I'm not criticizing them for not pulling the trigger on something already - I'm confident a deal will get done - I just think that a lot of this speculation about Ovechkin wanting out of DC and into a "better" market has to do with the fact that Washington hasn't locked him up in a 10-year, max-money contract... YET. Once that happens, he'll go back to being a non-story in a non-hockey town to these writers. They'll have Sid and others to grace with their attention.
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