As the NHL’s trade deadline approached you got the feeling that there was always going to be some sort of blockbuster deal.
My money was on the New York Rangers sending Ryan Callahan to Tampa Bay for Martin St Louis, the disaffected superstar who apparently asked for a trade after his general manager Steve Yzerman left him off the Canadian olympic team.
But over the last few days there were conflicting stories flying about regarding the situation with Buffalo’s star goalie Ryan Miller.
One minute, Miller was being shopped about, and the next minute came a report that the first was nothing more than a fabrication and that Miller, a silver-medal winning hero of Team USA’s magical olympic run in Vancouver 2010, was a part of the Sabres’ plans going forward, and that he wasn’t going anywhere.
Then came Friday night, when the hammer fell.
Ryan Miller and Steve Ott were told to pack their bags and head to the Gateway City, now members of the St Louis Blues.
Actually, the two former Sabres will meet Central Division-contending Blues in Phoenix for a game there later in the weekend, but you get my drift.
I guess we should have seen this trade coming.
I mean, you generally believe the first story that flies around, right?
Where there’s smoke there’s fire.
The denial that the Sabres were shopping Miller … well, we should haveve seen through the smokescreen that it was.
In return, the Sabres get goalie Jaroslav Halak, Chris Stewart – a guy who had apparently been a potential part in a possible Callahan from New York to St Louis trade – a prospect named William Carrier and two draft picks: a first rounder in 2015 and a third-round selection in 2016.
The fine print tells us that Buffalo will pay the difference between Miller’s and Halak’s salaries, about $1.75 million, which, in the realm of North American sport, is basically nothing.
Make no mistake here, for St Louis (and Miller) this is a tremendous deal.
Indeed, teams around the National Hockey League should start getting afraid.
The Blues are brilliant defensively and have looked to build around a solid goalie for some time.
They haven’t really had that … until now.
Despite his numbers in Buffalo, Miller (who, it should not be forgotten, was selected as an Olympian for the recent tournament in Sochi) is still among the best between the pipes in the NHL.
His lack of wins and poor save percentage should be attributed to the shoddy defence in Buffalo.
That team is a shambles.
The franchise seems to be stuck in a rut, and you know, Miller couldn’t have been happy.
He’s a player who deserves more.
Now, he’s gotten more.
If St Louis were hard to score on before with Halak and Brian Elliott sharing net-minding duties, it’s going to be like penetrating the White House perimeter fence once Miller gets in between the pipes.
Plus, in Ott, you have a guy who’s a solid and dependable figure.
He doubles as an agitator and will find plenty of physical work to keep him busy – checking, as well as dropping the gloves every now and again – in Ken Hitchcock’s superb defensive system in St Louis.
For Buffalo it isn’t a bad move, either.
It’s a shame to see one of the enduring player-team partnerships come to an end after twelve years but this is professional sport and, as they say, it’s business, not personal.
Obviously, the team recognises that they’re going to be rebuilding for some time – something that fans in upstate New York probably feel like they’ve been hearing for decades now – and Miller is still a viable guy, someone who can attract suitors to help them do that.
Well, he has, and now with Halak and Stewart, both good players heading north-east, the further rumblings suggest that the Sabres might not even give these guys a chance to unpack their bags, perhaps looking to shop them straight away, most likely in an attempt to stock up on young talent.
After all, it’s easier to rebuild your franchise when you’ve got a dozen blue-chip prospects waiting to go.
There will likely be some backlash against new general manager Tim Murray (he’s been on the job only about two months, and has arrived to find a team basically in tatters) who’s just moved on a franchise favourite.
That’s to be expected and it’s the price of doing business in the modern NHL.
Like I said before, it’s business, not personal.
Hopefully Sabres fans have a chance to properly farewell Miller, who has been a great servant for the team, often under trying circumstances.
Back to St Louis, I see this trade as something of a shot across the bows for other teams in the Western Conference.
The Blues are the second-best team in the west so it’s not like they were lagging behind in the playoff race before they made this trade.
Now, they might just be the best team – sorry Anaheim and Chicago – and their acquisition will probably lead to others out west trying to beef up their line-ups to compete.
The run up to the Stanley Cup playoffs promises to be very interesting.
For Miller there’s little doubt that despite the sadness of leaving Buffalo he’s salivating at the thought of working behind the pipes for a very good team, rather than a cellar-dwelling unit like he has recently in Buffalo.
It may be just the rejuvenation he was after.
The first big trade of the deadline period might prove to be the spark that ignites the powder keg.
It should be a very interesting couple of days in the NHL.
The Ryan Callahan/Martin St Louis watch is still on but most eyes will be focused on events in the west.
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