Word has it there were Montreal scouts in attendance last night in St. Louis and that they were looking at Backstrom. With that in mind, here's my WPB "Crazy Rumor of the Day:"
Niklas Backstrom & Pierre-Marc Bouchard for Saku Koivu & Sheldon Souray
From the Wild's perspective I probably wouldn't pull the trigger. PMB's only 22 and has huge upside, while Saku's in his 30's and Souray is an unrestricted free agent after the season. It would be tempting, though, especially if they'd take Benoit Pouliot instead of Bouchard.
3 comments:
I think they'd have cap problems with that deal. I'm also not sure that it really addresses the Wild's needs, either. While I really think the Wild could use a third solid center (Wyatt Smith and Todd White are disasters if you ask me), I'm really not sure if giving up PMB and bringing in Koivu is a net positive in the end. PMB does a lot for this team. Souray has a bit of a mean streak and of course he's got that great shot, but he's not exactly what you would call a shut-down defender, which is really what the Wild need more than anything back at the blueline. Of course they could use some offense from the blueline as well, so why not, eh?
I can't say it's not tempting, though. The lineup does need a bit of tweaking. That much is clear. We'll see...
1st response: NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
2nd response: really, that's a terrible, terrible deal on so many levels. we (mtl) need scoring, in massive quantities, so it would be just plain silly to trade away our top two scorers for one forward (even a young one with huge upside) and a goalie (even a really good one). there's no short-term benefits in this for us, and long-term, we're freakin' drowning in goalies over here. if it was just souray for a center, that'd make more sense...
Very true, e. Why would Mtl want a goalie over the short term if they're trading two of their best players going down the stretch? Doesn't make any sense. As for Souray for a center... How about Todd White? He's been the Wild's 1st/2nd line center for most of the season (though I struggle to understand why more and more with each game), but hey he is a center! He used to be decent with the Sens. Remember?
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