Not a lot of Coyotes news to talk about today....so lets move around the league and see what's happening.....
Antoine Vermette
As the Coyotes return to action following the Olympics, much of their playoff hopes will rest on the continuing strong play of Antoine Vermette.
This is not good news. Prior to the break, Vermette had been playing out of his mind, racking up 13 points (8 goals) over a ten game point streak. That is awesome and everything, but it just isn't sustainable.
Vermette is a strong third line player. He can occasionally chip in some offense while being one of the NHL's best penalty killers and faceoff men. He has, however, a zero percent chance of keeping up this kind of offense. The best thing the Coyotes could do with him is flip him to a team that needs depth and will overpay for him. His value is not ever going to be higher.
St.Louis Trade Rumours
The big rumor coming out of the Olympics was that Martin St. Louis was going to be traded and that it would be shocking.....then came an interesting rumour - and its hard to tell if it was a real rumour or just speculation that blew up on Twitter - that he was going to be traded to the Rangers for Callahan.
Almost everyone universally panned this trade from a Tampa perspective at least.
Me, I think if they could re-sign Callahan that it would be a great trade. If they only got him for the rest of this year, it would not be a good move.
St.Louis is 38. He has not slowed down to the level of a normal 38 year old, but that doesn't mean that he will continue to be a star player for much longer. Callahan on the other hand is a great player whose best years are probably ahead of him at the age 28. He brings a lot of intangibles to the table, but he is not going to score 40/50 goals probably ever, and St.Louis remains nearly a point per game player.
If the two players were the same age, it would be a terrible trade, but what exactly can you really hope to get for a 38 year old winger?
That is, if it's true he requested a trade.
If it really is true that he requested a trade because his own GM didn't put him on the original Team Canada roster, I think that's pathetic. Your GM hurt your feelings so you want to bail on the guys you play with? The fans who have supported you for over a decade? I know St.Louis has the reputation of being one of the classier players in the NHL, but someone should tell him that like 90% of people don't particularly like their boss. I can't see this as being anything but an immature overreaction to a decision he didn't like. And, it's not like it was an outrageous decision, since he was eventually added to the team anyway and the coach didn't think he was worth playing very much either.
Tavares
John Tavares being out for the rest of the year is not just a huge blow to the Islanders, but also to the entire hockey world. Everyone knew going into the Olympics that this kind of star player injury was a possibility, but I gotta say I loved what Garth Snow said afterward, which, and I am paraphrasing here, was basically "Is the IIHF going to reimburse our season ticket holders?"
While I don't think he literally means that that the IIHF should mail out checks to the Islanders fans, the gist of his point is that the individual franchises have nothing to gain and everything to lose with the Olympics. I can't say he's wrong.
It blows my mind that a sport as dangerous and as profitable as hockey allows its players to play for someone else. Look, I get that you are never going to convince people that international competition is boring and pointless, but there has to be a better way of doing things.
Shutting down the league, condensing the schedule, etc. is all bad for business. If you absolutely have to be in the Olympics (and I don't see why this is, as a World Cup would feature the same teams and rosters, only with NHL rules, ice, and Nicklas Backstrom) why not play in the summer Olympics? Yeah, it'd be weird, but they are going to play hockey this week in California, in the midst of a drought, in whether that is no different than would be featured in any random Summer Olympics.
I know this has been kicked around before, but I think it's time to revisit the idea.
Hockey Pools
I think that it turns out I like hockey pools even better than I like hockey! This was surprising to me, but with the season shut down for the Olympics, I was at a loss to find anything to do with my time, now that I wasn't refreshing my phone every five minutes from 7pm to midnight!
Thankfully, that's over. A guy can only watch so many sitcoms with his wife!
Look for team Young Money to make a run for the title in the last few weeks of the season. And, if you need some advice: sell high on Vermette, buy low on Brown.
Steve Yzerman Steps Down
After team Canada won the Gold Medal, Steve Yzerman almost immediately stepped down from his role as GM of the Canadian Team.
People were quick to point out what a great job he had done, having won back to back Golds, and to lament that such a superstar of managing abilities wouldn't be returning.
Not to be all super negative or anything about Yzerman and the job he did, but you know who else could have picked a really good team Canada? My Mom! Yes it's true, my Mom knows almost nothing about hockey, and would almost certainly just pick the top 23 Canadians on the scoring list when it came time to pick the team, but that team would probably win.
And that's just the problem. Yzerman did a fine job, but anyone could have. If Canada lost (which was always a distinct possibility in a six game tournament where randomness is the most important element) people would be unfairly chasing him with pitchforks right now. If he lost, it wouldn't be because he did anything wrong. And it's the same with winning. He didn't pick the best team (he might have, but it's not a fact that he did). He could have swapped out 15 players and still won.
So the point is, I can't blame the guy for leaving. It's basically a no-win job. But, I can confidently say it literally does not matter who picks the team. And this brings up the entire problem of these tournaments: One team is way too stacked. It would never happen, but if we are going to stick with these tournaments, why not find a way to handicap them?
Maybe Canada could leave off their ten best players? Or maybe they could adopt a best of seven Canada vs. The World format? Beats me, but it's hard not to feel like Canada just won a game of poker with the Royal Sampler.
Thanks for reading, and tweet me up if you want at coyotes1234.