Reflections On The NHL Trade Deadline

More than a week has now passed since the NHL Trade Deadline.  Some players, such as Olli Jokinen in Calgary, have made a great impact already with their new team.  However, the actual trade deadline day was uneventful at best.

Kyle Roussel (www.twitter.com/kyleroussel) has authored the following comments on the media hype surrounding the NHL Trade Deadline:

If you’re anything like me, the days leading up to the trading deadline are full of excitement and hype. Lots of hype. Whether your team is ramping up for a run at the cup, grasping to get in the playoffs, or loading up for the future, you’re especially excited for this day. In fact, it’s almost considered a holiday among hockey fans…ok, not really, but apparently a lot of people pay attention, even if it’s on a Wednesday. 182,000 people was the average number of people tuning in to TSN throughout the day on March 4th, 2009. That’s not including the number of people who opt for Sportsnet, those in Quebec that watch French coverage on RDS, or simply those working and streaming TSN.ca’s live feed.

But after all was said and done at 3 p.m….didn’t you feel the least bit ripped off? We were force fed for weeks all kinds of hype from TSN, Sportsnet and RDS. Of course, they’re trying to drive revenue and interest in their network, but seriously, come on! I’m sorry, but from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. is a little much.

The Deadline Deals

The guys on TSN spent nearly 2 hours making small talk and repeating themselves until the first trade came over the wire. Pascal Leclaire for Antoine Vermette. Wow. Other Earth-moving trades to come shortly thereafter:

Jordan Leopold for Lawrence Nicholat, Ryan Wilson and a 2nd rounder (11:39, over an hour and half after Leclaire for Vermette)

Andy Wozniewski for Danny Richmond (11:49 – hey! they cut short the Leopold highlight reel!)

Mikael Tellqvist for a 4th round pick in 2010 (12:04)

Martin Gerber claimed off waivers by Toronto (12:15)

Brendan Morrison claimed off waivers by Dallas (12:15)

Steve Montador for Petteri Nokelainen (12:37)

It wasn’t until 12:40 that Calgary made arguably the day’s biggest move by picking up Olli Jokinen. Other “names” changing addresses were Recchi, Guerin, Antropov, Morris…but hardly any big name superstars. You can see the entire list for yourself here.

By day’s end, there were 22 moves involving 45 players and 21 draft picks. None of the moves outside of Jokinen were of the variety I think people were playing hookey for. This is what was delivered to you for your day of calling in sick. You had the privelege of watching James Duthie and his “panel of experts” gab for hour after hour, fondling their blackberrys waiting for something important to happen. I mean, how long can they talk about Erik Christensen swapped for Eric O’Dell with a straight face? It was painful to watch these guys (and at the same time impressive) get so much mileage out of such little, irrelevant content.

Why The Media Hype When They Don’t Control The Delivery?

I’ll say this: it’s not TSN or any other network’s fault that the deadline is a dud. These guys aren’t making the transactions, they simply report them. But wouldn’t it be cool if they found newer more interesting ways to disseminate the deals? What if breaking trades were first delivered on Twitter? For many of us, that would be a godsend! I’ll give them this one for free!

But for next year, and every year going forward, they need to temper their promotion of this event. It’s clear that with the CBA‘s restrictions and the economy’s woes that impactful “hockey trades” are no longer possible. It would serve our sports networks well to not insult our intelligence and pretend that this date every year is one to watch closely.

It’s not. Not anymore, if it ever was! All that being said, will our networks do that? Or will they look to build on their 182,000 person average and turn up the hype for next year’s deadline? One thing is for certain – we will probably get bombarded with entry draft and July 1st (start of free agency) hype starting in early June, and especially as the cup finals draw to a close.

Those events are virtually guaranteed to cause some fireworks, so some hype is expected, deserved and warranted. But until the trade deadline starts to bring some real drama to the table, like the Sidney Crosby lottery did, it’s my belief that they need to ratchet back a little.

Is it too much? Not enough? What were your impressions of this year’s trading deadline and the hype associated with it?