Gagne Trade
When the season ended on such a high note, it was obvious the Flyers needed to upgrade their goaltending. The Los Angeles Kings have a young starter and a highly touted prospect. Since the draft, I’ve been waiting for the Flyers to use Simon Gagne or Jeff Carter to get one of them, or another suitable starting goaltender and go into next year trying to win the Stanley Cup.
While I was waiting for any of this to happen, Ilya Kovalchuk was taking forever to negotiate his lifetime contract with either the Kings or the New Jersey Devils. Today he decided. Almost immediately following that, the Flyers trade Simon Gagne to Tampa Bay for nothing.
The Kings just lost out on a goal scorer they desperately need and the Flyers have a goal scorer they desperately need to get rid of to get under the cap. Was it even considered?
How do the Flyers end up with nothing except cap room, Tampa Bay get Gagne and the Kings still a need a winger? How does Gagne, who becomes the best player available after Kovalchuk signs, still have no trade value at all? Why do the Flyers immediately take this deal with Tampa Bay rather than wait 45 minutes to see what other offers arise? All I have are questions at the moment.
None of this makes sense. I hope there is a part two to this move planned that will make it less disastrous, but what would that be? They don’t have, or wont give up, what it would take to get a goalie from the Kings. The best free agent left is Marty Turco, and he sucks. And, best of all, they are down a winger from their top line with nothing coming back for him.
I’m not as big a Gagne fan as a lot of people who are upset with this trade today. What bothers me is that they gave up an asset for nothing when better options had to have been available.
