Jon's thoughts on the trade deadline moves and overall day

Here are my impressions of the two trades Seattle made near the deadline, and also a look at the disappointment the overall day brought me. 

I want to start this off by saying that I saw all the rumored trades we were a part off, the names being thrown around and all the trades we were (supposedly) close to completing.  But, I (and all of us fans) have ZERO knowledge of what the truth was.  So based on this, I will not speculate on any names of players, and why didn’t we go get XYZ. 

The two trades we did make:

I do not mind either of the trades Seattle made.  I think the trades did a great job of improving the team for this season, without sacrificing the young talent that we have.  However, I do not believe that either trade improved the team that significantly.   

Maxwell for Swenson and Holub 

Maxwell fills a roll at Center that the team has struggled with at times all season.  According to all accounts from Lethbridge, he is VERY popular with the staff, other players, and most of all the fans.  Everyone described how sad they were to see him go, and how much they were going to miss him.  Players said they learned so much from him.  This is the type of player every team wants and needs for any stretch and playoff run.  GM Farwell describes him as a player that can play both ends of the ice, and at the time of the trade was near the top of the Hurricanes scoring chart. 

With the acquisition of Maxwell, another forward was going to lose ice time.  Looking at the roster, if everyone moves down one slot, that meant most likely Seth Swenson.  In the article on MyNorthwest.com, Farwell says that Swenson was unhappy with his ice time and role on the team.  I don’t blame him one bit.  He is 20 years old, playing his last season in the league, and has the potential talent to play a bigger role, but in the eyes of me, has not shown it consistently.  He was a strong penalty killer, and will be missed for that.  But, that is also a roll that will give someone else the chance to show what the can do.  He was also reported to be a great person in the locker room (and I can attest to that from the many times I have talked to him).  But from the sounds of it Maxwell has leadership qualities that you replace by losing Swenson.

Holub had left the team, and it has been said that he had requested a trade.  I think that if he had not left the team, he would have had a big roll with all the injuries this season but an even bigger role next season.  Obviously, he was not willing to wait until then.  Just like Swenson, I don’t blame Holub for thinking and wanting that.  I think he went about it all wrong, but once you go down the path he did, there is no turning back.  So too me, no loss at all since he was not coming back to Seattle. 

Kozun for Myles and Douglas 

I see Kozun as an upgrade in net, but only because he is a year older with more experience in the league.  He has been playing in front of a terrible team in Kamloops all season (except versus Seattle), so I don’t look at his numbers at all. 

Of course with the trade for Kozan, one goalie needed to go.  In this case, it was Justin Myles.  This was even more a case of looking forward to next season when everyone expects Flodell to come in as the backup. What surprised me was that we swapped Myles out for an older goalie that is older but also has the same number of playoff minutes played as I do. 

GM Farwell once told me that to get talent, you must give up talent.  This appears to be the case with Douglas.  I think he has a lot of potential, but is a long term project.  I did not like him as a 15 year old in training camp.  But had to admit that as a 16 in training camp, he was improved.  I think the team made the correct decision in sending him down to play a larger roll at a lower level for last season.  He was not going to get much ice time as a 16 here.  Going into this training camp, you could tell that he had made even more progress, but it was not enough to break into a top 6 role.  Would he have been in the mix next season in Seattle had he not been traded? That's a good question.  This trade gives him a chance to play the remainder of this season virtually full time, and to progress with Kamloops.  So I see this as not much of a loss this season, but has the chance to be a loss the next couple. 

So overall, as I said at the top, not a lot of loss, with some positive gains. 

Overall Feelings

As much as I was ok with the two trades, I was very disappointed with the trade deadline as a whole.  It is not secret to anyone that had talked to me before what I believed Seattle should do (like it matters to the team).  I thought Seattle up front was ok once they got healthy.  In between the pipes, both goaltenders have proven capable.  The only thing I don’t think either has done is stolen a game (come close a couple times).  When either goalie has had issues, for the most part, it has been the defense in front of them.  So to me, the defense was the weakest spot. 

I thought with one open 20 spot (and a second with Swenson being gone), that was a perfect opportunity to go out and get a rock solid defensive defensemen.  There were rumored to be 2 or 3 out there that could have been available.  Personally, I probably would have overpaid to get one. 

As I said in a post back at the beginning of the season, I feel with this team, it is built to win now.  With this many 19 and 20's, they are bound to take a step back next season.  Swapping out an 18 year old goalie for a 19 got the team a little older.  Swapping out a 20 for a 19 got a little younger, but not much because of the level of experience.  So marginally improving for this season didn't go to the level I expected. 

Seattle really had the chance to put some ground between them and Everett and Spokane (and further from Tri) talent wise.  Both of those teams made smaller trades.  With the trades Seattle made, all I feel we did was stay equal.  With another move for a veteran player, I feel Seattle would have been in a rung above those two teams, and below Kelowna and Portland.  Now maybe everyone says that with the talent of those two teams, Seattle doesn't stand a chance anyways.  As we have seen, when this team is healthy and rolling lines, they are very hard to beat.  This season, Seattle had played virtually .500 against Kelowna, and well, not so much against Portland.  Add in Victoria whom Seattle has played very well against.  So there is nothing to say that with hard work, determination, and some luck, Seattle couldn't match up against any of these teams in a 7 game series.  So I say we should have built up, sacrificed some future for a better position this year.