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Atlanta Thrashers Blogger •
I have to be honest with you…when I first heard of the deal that sent Garnet Exelby and Colin Stuart to Toronto for Pavel Kubina and Tim Stapleton, the first thought was not whether or not this was a good deal or not. Nope…I actually thought about a friend of mine who goes by the handle of “Gretchelby”. As you can probably guess by the way she’s melded her name in with XLB’s, he was her favorite player.
Outside of Ilya Kovalchuk, Garnet’s name has been one of the more popular responses if asked who a fan’s favorite Thrashers is. His gritty play on the ice combined with his willingness to avail himself to the public made him very popular in these parts. As such, he’ll be missed in Thrasherville.
But when considering this in the viewpoint of how it affects the team, well…I have to say that on the surface I like it. I say this for a couple of reasons…
First off, let’s not kid ourselves…the Atlanta Thrashers and “great defense” have rarely been used in the same sentence…er, paragraph…OK, OK, story. Since day-one this has been the weakest link. Last year the Thrashers allowed 3.40 goals per game on 32.7 SA/G. The year before that, it was 3.24 GA/G and 33.9 SA/G. You get the point.
So, it’s just a ridiculous notion to return with the exact same defensive unit as before…and Exelby was the most viable option to be traded away with the realistic expectation of getting something decent in return.
Bogosian? Not in your dreams are we gonna trade him.
Hainsey? Who’s gonna absorb his salary?
Enstrom? Don’t even think about takin’ him.
Valabik? Whatcha gonna get for him right now?
So…XLB it was.
Also, if the Thrashers were to have brought in a top-four blueline of equal or greater status than Kubina, then XLB would have been reduced to the 3rd line full time. So…if you think about it, Atlanta upgraded a bottom-two defender to a top-four one.
Plus, looking at it from a purely statistical angle…Atlanta just replaced a player who accounted for 0 goals and 7 assists in 59 games played with one that netted 14 goals and 40 overall points. The season before that XLB’s numbers were 2 goals and 5 assists in 79 games while Kubina put in 11 goals and 29 assists in 72 games played.
Thus, Kubina looks to fit into John Anderson's style of play quite nicely.
As for Stuart, he spent a lot of time bouncing back and forth between the Thrashers’ AHL affiliate Chicago Wolves and Atlanta and was going to be…at best…a third line winger for us. The way I see it, Evander Kane’s roster spot has just been opened up.
On the Leafs side, they offloaded Kubina’s $5 million in salary and replaced it with about $1.875 million between Exelby and Stuart…so, they freed up some cap space. Brian Burke used some of this savings to bring in defenseman Mike Komisarek, who signed a 5-year, $22.5 Million deal on Wednesday as well.
That ain't too shabby.
So, nice deal…not a blockbuster by any means…but nice.
Sorry Gretchelby…
Outside of Ilya Kovalchuk, Garnet’s name has been one of the more popular responses if asked who a fan’s favorite Thrashers is. His gritty play on the ice combined with his willingness to avail himself to the public made him very popular in these parts. As such, he’ll be missed in Thrasherville.
But when considering this in the viewpoint of how it affects the team, well…I have to say that on the surface I like it. I say this for a couple of reasons…
First off, let’s not kid ourselves…the Atlanta Thrashers and “great defense” have rarely been used in the same sentence…er, paragraph…OK, OK, story. Since day-one this has been the weakest link. Last year the Thrashers allowed 3.40 goals per game on 32.7 SA/G. The year before that, it was 3.24 GA/G and 33.9 SA/G. You get the point.
So, it’s just a ridiculous notion to return with the exact same defensive unit as before…and Exelby was the most viable option to be traded away with the realistic expectation of getting something decent in return.
Bogosian? Not in your dreams are we gonna trade him.
Hainsey? Who’s gonna absorb his salary?
Enstrom? Don’t even think about takin’ him.
Valabik? Whatcha gonna get for him right now?
So…XLB it was.
Also, if the Thrashers were to have brought in a top-four blueline of equal or greater status than Kubina, then XLB would have been reduced to the 3rd line full time. So…if you think about it, Atlanta upgraded a bottom-two defender to a top-four one.
Plus, looking at it from a purely statistical angle…Atlanta just replaced a player who accounted for 0 goals and 7 assists in 59 games played with one that netted 14 goals and 40 overall points. The season before that XLB’s numbers were 2 goals and 5 assists in 79 games while Kubina put in 11 goals and 29 assists in 72 games played.
Thus, Kubina looks to fit into John Anderson's style of play quite nicely.
As for Stuart, he spent a lot of time bouncing back and forth between the Thrashers’ AHL affiliate Chicago Wolves and Atlanta and was going to be…at best…a third line winger for us. The way I see it, Evander Kane’s roster spot has just been opened up.
On the Leafs side, they offloaded Kubina’s $5 million in salary and replaced it with about $1.875 million between Exelby and Stuart…so, they freed up some cap space. Brian Burke used some of this savings to bring in defenseman Mike Komisarek, who signed a 5-year, $22.5 Million deal on Wednesday as well.
That ain't too shabby.
So, nice deal…not a blockbuster by any means…but nice.
Sorry Gretchelby…
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