| | After a week of wild trade rumors, the dust finally settled on Sunday
morning when the Carolina Hurricanes sent unsigned free agent center Keith Primeau to the Flyers for veteran forward Rod Brind'Amour. The Hurricanes also got goalie prospect Jean-Marc Pelletier, and the teams swapped a couple of draft
picks in this summer's entry draft.
|  | | Primeau will be Philly's No. 2 center behind captain Eric Lindros. |
The trade ended what had been a very near-deal in which the Hurricanes
were going to send Primeau to the Rangers for centers Petr Nedved and
Manny Malhotra. The final part of that deal was to be another trade in which the
Rangers packaged Primeau to the Phoenix Coyotes, and winger Keith Tkachuk would end
up on Broadway.
The Flyers did not get involved until the proposed trade between the
Hurricanes and Rangers was well under way. An informed source indicates that Flyers
general manager Bob Clarke asked for and received permission to talk to Primeau
directly last Friday -- as the deal between the Rangers and Carolina was falling apart.
Coincidentally, the Flyers had already spoken with Primeau's agent Don
Reynolds earlier in the season when the club was exploring the possibility of trading
Eric Lindros.
The Flyers explained the parameters of a deal worth $22.75 million over the
next five seasons (including this season), and they buttoned down the deal with
Carolina on Sunday morning.
What is the immediate result?
Well, the Hurricanes get better fast. Primeau was an asset who had not
been playing, so the addition of Brind'Amour helps right away.
The Flyers?
The criticism of this deal is that it does not address the Flyers' two
most pressing needs: a top-notch defenseman to play behind Eric Desjardins, along with a
goalie to take the place of struggling John Vanbiesbrouck. There is also an issue of how
much risk there is that a veteran player will get injured after missing so much of the season
-- just ask the Panthers about Pavel Bure (knee) last season.
At best, the Flyers get a physical, sturdy center to play behind
Lindros, giving the Flyers an even better power game. If you are a cynic, the Flyers also get an
insurance policy in case they cannot sign Lindros after this season (he will be a Group II
free agent), or if his career is stalled by concussions. Lindros
suffered the third concussion of his career on Jan. 14, and is not due back in the lineup
until Thursday night against Florida -- the same night Primeau should join the lineup.
The Flyers' "upside" is that Primeau will flourish as a second-line
center, and he might provide some leadership on a team that often appears to lack
leadership. Primeau is also likely to make the players around him more effective, as Brind'Amour tended to carry the puck a majority of the time, and was not a gifted playmaker.
However, Brind'Amour was a coach's dream, able to play in any situation -- from power play to four-on-four to penalty killing -- and providing wins on key faceoff situations.
The murky parts of the deal involve Carolina owner Peter Karmanos, who had
previously nixed a deal with Phoenix, and also got involved in squashing the
deal with the Rangers, in part because he did not want Primeau to make any more than the
$3.5 million Carolina had offered.
One source close to the situation insists that NHL commissioner
Gary Bettman made a call to Carolina on Saturday just to make sure there was no
chance of a case against the team or the league for restriction of trade in regard to
allowing Primeau to work for another team.
It would have been a long-shot case, but the NHL did not need the circus
atmosphere which has surrounded the Hurricanes since Karmanos denied an
initial trade with Phoenix, in which he stated that Tkachuk had a "stupid contract,"
and the Hurricanes would not take on that contract.
The team that gets burned the most by Sunday's trade would appear to be
the Rangers, and to a lesser extent, the Coyotes. The Rangers thought
they had a deal in place to get Tkachuk, who would have greatly enhanced their offense.
Then again, the Rangers are playing their best hockey of the season. Nedved is playing like a legit first-line center, and if they had made the deal for
Tkachuk they would be in search of a center or centers to play with wingers such as Tkachuk and Theo Fleury.
Perhaps more than just incidentally, this is the third time the Flyers
have become involved in a deal the Rangers were hoping to make, and then halted the
deal. Over the past few years, they have used the free-agent market to block the Rangers'
chances of getting either Luke Richardson from the Oilers, or Chris Gratton from Tampa
Bay.
Neither of those worked out well for the Flyers, and they had better hope
Primeau gives them more than they got from Richardson or
Gratton, who is back in Tampa Bay.
In the meantime, the Coyotes are left in the embarrassing and
compromising position of having twice "traded" their captain over the
past few weeks, and now they have to hope he can still be effective trying to lead a
team that has done everything but put a "for sale" sign on his helmet.
You had better believe the Rangers are still going to try to get Tkachuk
at Madison Square Garden by the end of the year.
Al Morganti covers the NHL for ESPN. | |
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