Trade deadline reshapes the league

After weeks of punditry, speculation and sleuthing, the nation's hockey sportswriters are going to get some time off from hazarding guesses at what trade is coming next.

The NHL's trade deadline passed by on Tuesday, and as the dust settles, we are treated to a very different league than we had last week.

If some fans were looking for the NHL to remove a couple teams from the league, this may be the second-best thing. Underperforming, overpaying teams like the New York Rangers and the Washington Capitals gutted themselves in some weird form of hari-kari, sending half their respective payrolls around the rest of the league.

Carolina Hurricane Ron Francis, the man who said he would not leave his franchise of 17 years, was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, as was Ranger Brian Leetch, who said that all he wanted of his hockey career was to stay in New York.

With a lockout nearly assured by this point for the 2004-2005 season, it seems that those teams that have the remote chance of grabbing the illustrious Stanley Cup this go-around are betting the farm, the house and the kids' college funds on doing it right now.

Teams like Toronto and the Detroit Red Wings have average player ages of over 31 years, and they know that they cannot afford to risk not winning this year, since half of their rosters will enter the geriatric ward when the lockout ends.

And teams that have been on an upward trajectory the past several years, such as the Vancouver Canucks, are concerned that when everyone comes back in 2005, they will have missed their chance.

So now that the rosters are set, who won the Battle of Barter? For those that cheer all that is Beantown, the Boston Bruins picked up the best defenseman available in Sergei Gonchar, as well as strong center Michael Nylande from the Caps.

The two additions give the team some great defense, especially with Gonchar, but where's the goalie? Andy Raycroft is untested in the playoffs, and Felix Potvin is a head case that should never be trusted with a book of matches, let alone a playoff game.

The rest of the East is loaded with goaltending talent. All-Star Sean Burke was picked up by the Philadelphia Flyers from the Phoenix Coyotes. The New Jersey Devils have Martin Brodeur, arguably the best goaltender in the league. The Tampa Bay Lightning have Nikolai Khabibulin, who has lost two games since Jan 21. The Maple Leafs have Eddie "the Eagle" Belfour. The Montreal Canadiens have Jose Theodore, the hero of Quebec.

And against that, Boston has "Consistent Collapser" Potvin and Raycroft the Rookie?

For the first time in a long while, the East is looking seriously serious. The West is starting to quake in its boots as it realizes that it might not have done quite enough to prepare for whatever powerhouse decides to make it out from the other side of the Mississippi.

Detroit made its usual splash by picking up Robert Lang from Washington, but what good does that do with Lang now out for over a month with broken ribs?

The Colorado Avalanche did a lot by picking up another goalie in Tommy Salo from the Edmonton Oilers. Salo is not what you would call "clutch" in the playoffs, with an awful postseason record, but he does provide a sensible insurance policy if the Avs' David Aebischer has problems in his first year as playoff starter.

But Colorado fans must be wondering if perhaps General Manager Pierre LeCroix is starting to lose his touch. No big move, no star player added to the Avalanche roster this year, a serious trade faux pas in Denver.

But despite the playoff performers bulking up before the big Cup competition, some fans think that teams have not done all that they needed to do. To get some idea of the state of the league, we talked to some Canadian hockey experts this week to figure out the state of the NHL.

Uncle Lou, a Newfoundland native, is having serious doubts that the Maple Leafs are going to be able to get very far with only Ed Belfour to netmind.

"Well, the problem is that Eddie's back is hurting him these days," uncle Lou explained. "I don't think it's gonna hold, and we got no one to really back him up."

This might be the case, but cousin Paul from Kingston, Ontario senses that an experienced goalie like Belfour should be able to make through the injury alright. Paul is much more worried about Toronto's lack of defense against a Montreal team that now has sniper Alexi Kovalev and a Philly team that added scoring threat Alexei Zhamnov. What about their recent pick up of All-Star Brian Leetch?

"Well, the problem is that Leetch is old," Paul said. "We really wanted Sergei Gonchar, but Boston nabbed him first."

That should make Bruins fans quite pleased. But my money would never go on a team that might need Potvin to actually perform in the playoffs.