are you saying nash doesnt play defense? how many loose pucks has been beaten to?Bucky Katt said:
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Jackets hope Fedorov can boost offense
Wright, Beauchemin dealt to Ducks
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Michael Arace
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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The Blue Jackets made a bold move yesterday to shore up the center position and boost their offense by trading for Sergei Fedorov, once considered the best player in the world.
The Blue Jackets sent forward Tyler Wright and defenseman Francois Beauchemin to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks for Fedorov, who turns 36 in December, and a fifth-round draft pick in 2006. Fedorov has this season and two more on his contract, which is worth $6 million annually.
Fedorov took a red-eye flight from California last night and could not be reached for comment. He is expected to play tonight, when the Blue Jackets face the St. Louis Blues in Nationwide Arena.
"We haven’t had a successful start, to say the least, and that has been well documented," Blue Jackets president and general manager Doug MacLean said. "I had hoped with the strength of (Rick) Nash, we could get along without a premium center. But when Rick went down, we really struggled to score. Four of the last five games, we played well, but we can’t win because we can’t score. We need Rick back, and hopefully Sergei can give us some spark."
Nash has missed all but three games because of ankle and knee injuries. He’ll be out at least another three weeks. The Blue Jackets (5-13) have scored fewer goals than any other team in the league. They have the worst power play.
Fedorov, bothered by a groin injury, has played just five games this season. He proclaimed himself healthy after playing back-toback games last weekend. MacLean, sitting in the lower bowl, surreptitiously scouted Fedorov on Saturday in Phoenix. MacLean’s top pro scout, Bob Strumm, watched Fedorov on Sunday in Anaheim.
Ten days of negotiations ended yesterday. The Blue Jackets hope Fedorov will have an immediate impact on their top line and their power play. They hope Fedorov also will give a boost to their young and struggling wizard, Nikolai Zherdev. They fantasize about a Fedorov-Nash combination.
"He’s a complete player," said Blue Jackets coach Gerard Gallant, who played three seasons with Fedorov in the early 1990s. "He’s still a great presence, and a guy who’s going to make these kids better."
Fedorov has 1,020 points in 993 career games with Detroit and Anaheim. In 12 seasons with the Red Wings, he was part of three Stanley Cup championship teams. He won the Hart (MVP) and Selke (best defensive forward) trophies in 1994, when he had 56 goals and 120 points. He has appeared in six All-Star games.
During the pre-lockout season of 2003-04, Fedorov had 31 goals and 65 points in 80 games. He did not play in Europe last season.
The Blue Jackets’ payroll is around $31.5 million, well below the salary cap limit of $39 million. They could afford to take on a big contract.
From Anaheim’s point of view, the trade was a dump. Ducks GM Brian Burke made substantial commitments to Rob and Scott Niedermayer and also signed Teemu Selanne last summer. The Ducks were pushing close to cap ceiling and unloading Fedorov’s contract became almost necessary. They were nearing a point where it would have been difficult to recall a player from the minor leagues in the event of another injury.
"I couldn’t sell this as a stand-alone hockey deal and I wouldn’t try," Burke told The Orange County Register. "It’s a cap move, but we also like the players."
Beauchemin, 25, is a promising defenseman. Wright, 32, is a skilled utility player who was a noted pest in his prime. Wright also is an original Blue Jacket and a champion of local charity.
"I’m very fortunate to have played here and stayed here for as long as I have," Wright said. "I’m not bitter. I’m disappointed for my family, but, in another sense, it’s a new start for me."
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Jackets go to great expense in trying to save season
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
BOB HUNTER
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Can the Blue Jackets use Sergei Fedorov?
Silly question. The woeful Blue Jackets could use Mark Hartigan, which is why they called him up from Syracuse yesterday morning. That’s not meant as an insult to Hartigan, a 31-goal scorer for the Crunch last season, but a statement of fact. The team was so desperate for offense that anybody who once scored a hat trick with a broom handle in a game of street hockey was a serious candidate for the Blue Jackets’ bailout brigade.
But Fedorov? A future Hall of Famer and six-time NHL All-Star? Even though he’s almost 36, it shows you how serious Doug MacLean and Co. thought the problem was. With Rick Nash expected to be out for another three weeks, a minor deal or two would have been like giving a corpse an aspirin.
There’s no way to know whether Fedorov is the answer to the team’s problems, but this much we do know: The Blue Jackets deserve credit for taking on his $6 million annual salary — for the next three years — to try to save this stinker of a season.
MacLean is about as popular around town these days as Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, which is to say he might not want to wander too close to any pie stands. Fans were starting to talk about him in the past tense, and when that happens, a lot of guys in his position will start looking to move prospects to get a few live bodies who might be able to save their jobs.
To MacLean’s credit, he managed to make a major deal that could save the Blue Jackets’ bacon — and his — without mortgaging a future he might not be part of. At 25, defenseman Francois Beauchemin is a good player with a promising future. But heck, Columbus picked him up on waivers from Montreal two years ago and, well, you’ve got to give up something. And Tyler Wright? A great guy who was immensely popular with the fans, not only because he was an original Blue Jacket but because he always played hard. But, truthfully, Wright probably will be a bigger loss to the community than he is to this hockey team. Columbus won’t be as good a place without him and his charity work; he also skated with the fourth line yesterday morning.
So for Beauchemin and Wright, MacLean managed to make a deal for a guy who has 431 goals and 589 assists in his NHL career. Yes, he’s almost 36 and has just returned from a groin injury. But only a guy who had spent the whole day on a bar stool would think it’s possible to get Peter Forsberg or Joe Sakic for Beauchemin and Wright. If you want an impact player who’s 29 or 30 — if one’s even available — you’d better initiate the trade talks with the names of one or two of your recent high draft picks.
In that context, then, this is a pretty good deal. It’s a gamble, maybe, because of Fedorov’s age and the length of his contract, but it was a deal that was definitely worth making. And as a bonus, they get a Russianborn mentor for Russian-born Nikolai Zherdev, who may be only a mentor away from stardom.
Even MacLean, who talked about the playoff possibilities of this team during the summer, admitted that with Nash out and the losses piling up, standing pat was not an option.
"I felt I had to do something," MacLean said. "But I’m telling you, I had opportunities to move a lot of kids in the last few weeks and I was not moving them. I was getting calls daily and I was not going to make a move for a kid. We were adamant about that, and that’s hard to do, I’ll tell you. Hard to do."
Fans still have every right to be angry about this team’s woeful performance, but they probably should spend a few minutes thinking about how lucky they are to have John H. McConnell in the owner’s box. He could have stated the obvious — even a deal for Forsberg or Jarome Iginla might not have been enough to save this season — and told MacLean he was going to take the profits and wait until next year.
McConnell obviously has an investment to protect, but there are pro sports owners within a couple hours’ drive of here who have done just that.
"It was as great a conversation as I’ve ever had with Mr. Mac (Monday) night," Mac-Lean said. "I’m not kidding, I was nervous to phone him last night. I made the call and informed him, not that I was done but that I was involved in it. I said, ‘I just want to give you the situation and what’s involved and who it is,’ and he said, ‘That’s great, if you think that’s what we should do, let’s go for it.’ " Go for it? At 5-13, that is about as good as it gets.
Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch
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<!--StartFragment --> Jackets trade for Ducks center Fedorov
By Kevin Allen, USA TODAY
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The reality of the NHL's new salary cap became clearer Tuesday when the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim traded six-time All-Star Sergei Fedorov to the Columbus Blue Jackets to gain some flexibility.
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</TD><TD class=sidebar vAlign=top width=75>Center Sergei Fedorov, 35, had one assist in five games this season for Anaheim, his second with the Mighty Ducks after 13 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings.</TD><TD rowSpan=2></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=bottom align=left>By Nam Y. Huh, AP</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
The Ducks were pushing up against the $39 million cap, and they gave up Fedorov ($6.08 million) for center Tyler Wright ($950,000) and defenseman Francois Beauchemin ($500,000).
"This is the new NHL," said Anaheim general manager Brian Burke. "It's a new landscape. You are going to see more deals where the financial aspect is a factor in the deal. This is life in the National Football League. This is how it works (there). Economic concerns are the backdrop to most deals."
Fedorov has two more seasons on his contract for a total of about $18 million over three seasons.
"This was a good fit for both teams because I have a young group and I needed some veterans, and he needed some flexibility," said Columbus general manager Doug MacLean. "I needed someone who had won, and I'm getting a superior athlete, one of the best conditioned people in the NHL."
Though the deal pushes Columbus closer to the cap, MacLean said he is looking at making other deals.
MacLean scouted Fedorov in two games over the weekend.
Fedorov is flying to Columbus on Tuesday night and is expected to be in uniform when the Blue Jackets entertain St. Louis on Wednesday.
"When I talked to him, he had excitement in his voice I haven't heard since he was a young guy," MacLean said. "I was excited from talking to him."
The speedy Fedorov will presumably end up playing with Blue Jackets star scorer Rick Nash, who's out with a sprained knee.
Columbus had expected to contend for a postseason berth for the first time in the franchise's five-year existence, but is off to a 5-13-0 start. With 10 points, the Blue Jackets are next to last in the Western Conference. They've also scored an NHL-low 34 goals.
Burke said the decision to trade Fedorov wasn't based on his performance level. "I have no problem with Sergei (or) how he played here," Burke said. "He was our best forward in the preseason."
Although trading Fedorov leaves a significant offensive hole, Burke said he believes he still has a group that can win. He lauded the potential of rookies Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. "They appear like they can take on a bigger role," he said.
Burke also said he plans to use the money saved to strengthen his team in the future. "We plan to spend at or near the cap, less an adequate reserve for injury," he said. "This isn't about saving money. It's about spending it elsewhere."
Fedorov has 431 goals and 589 assists in 15 seasons in the NHL. The Russian had a career-high 56 goals for the Red Wings in 1993-94, when he won the Hart Trophy as the league's MVP.
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Contributing: The Associated Press
I don't think anyone is expecting him to come in here and win the MVP, the Ducks have said that this was a salary dump for them. So obviously he has something left. He is going to be a leader in the lockerroom and based on what we gave up it was a pretty good move. is this going to win the stanley cup? hell no. Wil this pay dividends down the road in what he can teach a bunch of guys who its their first three years in the league? Hell Yes.
