The One That Got Away - NOV.23.07
Entry posted by Sunny Dhillon
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<table width=100%><tr><td><img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/09/sunny_blog.jpg" align="left" hspace="4">If there’s one lesson to be learned by Canucks fans after Leafs Nation suffered a collective coronary earlier this week, it’s this: making panic trades with your good, young goaltending prospects will only come back to haunt you.
Tuukka Rask, a former first-round pick of God’s Team, was shipped off to Boston in June 2006 for Andrew Raycroft.
The deal made little sense at the time. Rask was coming off a mesmerizing performance at the World Juniors in which he was named the tournament’s top goaltender. Raycroft was coming off an abysmal season with the Bruins in which he allowed more men to score than Tara Reid.
But Leafs GM John Ferguson, eager to formally stamp out the Ed Belfour era in Toronto, got caught up in the wheeling and dealing that’s become synonymous with NHL Draft weekend.
On the same day Alex Tanguay went to Calgary, Pavol Demitra was traded to Minnesota, and just 48 hours after Roberto Luongo became a Vancouver Canuck, Ferguson bit the bullet and traded away his top goaltending prospect for some magic beans.
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The rest, as they say, whoever they are, is history.
Raycroft struggled so severely in his first year in Toronto, turning in the league’s 32nd best goals-against-average and 36th best save-percentage, that the team was forced to give up first, second, and fourth-round picks just to bring in former Shark Vesa Toskala as a replacement.
Rask started the year in Providence but flew out of the gate, compiling a 7-2-0 record and 2.10 GAA, forcing Boston to call him up.
And who, coincidentally, at least if you believe Bruins head coach Claude Julien, did Rask’s first career start come against? You guessed it: those very same Leafs. Rask was the first star as Boston knocked off Toronto 4-2 at the ACC Tuesday night.
Reading the message board rants and listening to the doomsday phone calls, it became clear that Leafs Nation wasn’t just upset about blowing another third period lead on home ice. No, Toronto fans were angry because this goaltender who was supposed to lead them to the Holy Grail for years to come was now nothing more than the one who got away.
Every single time Rask squares off against the Maple Leafs, Toronto fans will have a sick feeling in the pit of their stomachs. Every single time Rask kicks out the pad or makes a glove stop, Leafs fans will think, “He should have been doing that for us.”
Tuukka Rask is to the Leafs what Scott Kazmir is to the Mets, what Kevin Garnett is to the Timberwolves, what Jay Buhner is to Frank Costanza.
And he’s what Cory Schneider could end up being to the Canucks if Vancouver fans ever get their way and ship the goaltending prodigy out of town.
No other Vancouver property in recent memory has been mentioned as frequently in trade talk in the Canucks.com forums than Schneider. If I had a nickel for every time someone tried to package Schneider, Jan Bulis, and a second-round pick last season, I’d own the Canucks.
<a href="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/09/Sep2007_SchneiderClose_b.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/09/Sep2007_SchneiderClose_t.jpg" align="left" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="1"></a>“Let’s trade Schneider, Bulis, and a second rounder for Peter Forsberg.”
“Let’s trade Schneider, Bulis, and a second rounder for Ryan Smyth.”
“Let’s trade Schneider, Bulis, and a second rounder for peace in the Middle East.”
It’s worth noting that the third deal almost went through, but when the Middle East asked for Nathan McIver, Dave Nonis walked.
The mantra from Canucks management has seemingly been that prospects can be traded if the move helps Vancouver for several years to come. If trading Schneider landed the team a young sniper in the mold of Nathan Horton or Jeff Carter, for instance, management would at least consider it.
But if Schneider has to be dealt so the Canucks can rent a player like Forsberg for 17 games, as Nashville did last season, Vancouver rightly isn’t interested in the short-term move.
As Canucks fans, we should be very grateful of that fact. Watching Forsberg skip out of town after a quarter of a season and inevitably waiting for Schneider to light it up in a Flyers uniform would have been gut-wrenching, regardless of how crowded Vancouver’s goaltending situation may currently appear.
If you don’t believe me, just ask a Leafs fan.
You’ll probably find a few at your local emergency room.
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