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Duck Season. Rabbit Season. Open Season

Well this weekend was a big weekend in the NHL. Whenever a legitimate superstar is traded the hockey media gets all atwitter. When it involves the Toronto Maple Leafs, holy crap journalists get so happy because they finally get to use that second pair of underwear in their laptop bag.When the Leafs trade for TWO of the NHLs biggest stars the hockey media resembles cougar night at happy hour on a Twilight movie release date, right down to the middle aged white 40 years olds drooling all over athletic men 20 years their younger. Hell in this case Dion Phaneuf even sparkles. It doesn't even matter that the two "Stars" are only being traded because they have been as disappointing as, well, the Leafs.

More after the jump

The Calgary Flames and the Toronto Maple Leafs both had huge shakeups on their roster, and Anaheim and the New York Rangers helped out by trading with those two teams. Well, As a fan of a team from the Western Conference, I actually don't give a damn what the Leafs got. But I do care about what Calgary has done. And let's take a look at what they've done.

Calgary made trades with both the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs, both noted for their azure hues. In other words, like those of the immortal Tobias Funke, They just blue themselves.

Actually when their first trade with the Leafs went through, I actually thought they won that one. For the erratic and mercurial, ok the asshole, Dion Phaneuf and solid penalty killer Freddie Sjostrom to the Leafs for Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Ian White, and Jamal Mayers. This seemed like a good trade for Calgary, as three of those 4 are free agents (White Restricted) at the end of the season. Calgary gets a decent upgrade at offense (Stajan and Hagman) and an upgrade at defense (White's a serious upgrade over Phaneuf in his own zone). Then with Jokinen, Stajan and Mayers going into free agency, they have money to upgrade their roster. Not a bad trade there.

Then they traded Jokinen to the NY Rangers for Winger Ales Kotalik (2 more years @ $3M/year) and Winger Christopher Higgens. Obviously Calgary is thinking...

I don't know what the hell they're thinking. First some of that cap room they went and freed up for next season is now going into Ales Kotalik's contract. Second, it doesn't seem to help them all that much either. They actually have some good wingers: Iginla, Hagman, Glencross, Bourque, Kotalik, Higgens. Even though the last two are monumentally disappointing that's still a pretty stable gaggle of wingers. But lets look at their centers:

Conroy (not really sure when he's returning, but it's a knee injury)
Stajan
Langkow
Backland

As a hater of Calgary let me say: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA. My god, this team could be called the Calgary Capacitors, potential on the outside, empty in the middle (yup, that's an Electrical Engineering joke folks). My only regret is that without Phaneuf and Jokinen this team becomes a lot harder to hate. I still will find a way, but it'll take some digging. At least C fans are taking it well. Ok, they maybe just a touch bitter. Nevertheless, they got rid of two of the most vile players on their roster. Want to see how good a locker room presence Jokinen is, here's his comments about the entire trade:

CLASSY! Oh, well how could he add to that:
"The media cost the Flames two points last night"
Well that kind of spunk and prickliness should play well in New York.

Lost in all this was Anaheim trading away the James Garfield of NHL goalies (he won the Conn Smythe and Stanley cup in non-consecutive seasons). In order to rid themselves of his contract they had to take on the revolving door that is Vesa Toskala and Jason Blake's contract.While that seems like taking on crap, Blake isn't very good but he'll play and at the very least be ok. Giguere was gonna sit on the bench. So it works for them, well other than every start they give to Toskala from now until the end of the season.

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