Why trading for Marty Turco is a horrible idea
The Stars recent acquisition of former Thrasher goalie Kari Lehtonen almost certainly means the end of Marty Turco’s career as a Dallas Star. The end of Turco’s tenure in Dallas instantaneously jump starts the rumors of Turco being traded to Philadelphia.
Marty Turco is 34 years of age and is clearly on the downswing of his career. It’s clear that Turco still has the ability to be an effective goalie in the NHL, but he has Marty Biron syndrome. Turco lets in some terribly soft goals and doesn’t have the best positioning I’ve ever seen. He’s become disliked in Dallas and fans are ready to move on from the Turco era.
Dallas/Atlanta still waiting for trade call to complete Kari Lehtonen deal. Dallas/ Philly talks ongoing for Marty Turco.
On the other hand, you have TSN’s Bob McKenzie who is reporting that the Flyers aren’t as interested in Turco as the Chicago Blackhawks are.
Whichever way you look at it, this is a terrible idea. Why?
Marty Turco comes with a $5.7 million cap hit which is absolutely insane for a goalie of his skill level. He doesn’t deserve that kind of money and he flat out will not be able to fit here unless the Flyers move a big money maker. Namely, Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell, Simon Gagne, or Jeff Carter. Briere and Gagne have NTC’s, and Jeff Carter has already been deemed untouchable by Paul Holmgren.
In order for this to work, the Flyers would have to do several things that they’d end up regretting, one of which includes trading for a 34 year old goalie who can barely play anymore. That, and the Flyers don’t need a goalie.
Our first and last article on the Kovalchuk Sweepstakes
There’s a guy who plays for the Atlanta Thrashers and you may’ve heard of him lately. His name is Ilya Kovalchuk and Atlanta GM Don Waddell is looking for a trading partner to dish the highly skilled superstar. The problem here is, if you remember the whole Jay Bouwmeester situation of yesteryear, Waddell is asking for entirely too much in return.
Eklund has been going rumor crazy as of late saying that there are several big name hockey markets in on the Kovalchuk deal, and a select few “mystery teams”. That’s probably just Eklund being a downright retard, as usual, but we can confirm that the Flyers are one of the big market teams in the deal. The Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, New Jersey Devils, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers are teams suspected to be involved in the trade talks for the Russian sniper.
If the Flyers were to be involved in a deal for Kovalchuk, they’d have to trade a lot of talent and salary; about $6.5 million worth. Names that are being thrown around the hockey world are Danny Briere, Simon Gagne, Claude Giroux, James Van Riemsdyk, Jeff Carter (even though Homer’s already said he wouldn’t be moved), Scott Hartnell, Braydon Coburn, and Matt Carle on top of some other prospects and players from the Phantoms. Briere, Gagne, and Hartnell all have no movement clauses, so they would have to waive those clauses in order for any of this to come to fruition, and there haven’t even been rumors of Paul Holmgren asking any of them to do so.
I, personally, wouldn’t want to see Simon Gagne waive his no trade clause and be sent away to a terrible hockey market such as Atlanta. It’d be terrible to see a guy who’s been a Flyer his whole career just shoved away like that. Gagne’s always been my favorite hockey player, but if I had to send him away along with one of Carle/Coburn, I’d do it in a second. Gagne wouldn’t do that, though. His family is growing and developing here in Philadelphia, and he’s on record a number of times saying he doesn’t want to leave.
Kovalchuk would likely be acquired as a rental player since it’s rumored that he’s going to be asking for anywhere between $9-9.5 million next season, but that could just be Waddell trying to up his value. NHL.com broke a story today that states Kovalchuk turned down, what would have been, the biggest contract given to any impending NHL free agent player ever.
Waddell said the club offered Kovalchuk a 12-year, $101 million deal, but it was rejected. Waddell said it would have been the highest contract ever signed by an impending free agent in NHL history.
In a nutshell: While it’d be great to have a guy of Kovy’s offensive capabilities on your team, he is too much of a defensive liability on the ice. And for as much money as he wants, it just wouldn’t be worth giving away your future stars for someone who may not even get you to a Cup final. Hockey is a team game made not of one player.
At this moment, it’s hard to say what’s going to happen. Yesterday, Kovalchuk was told that he would indeed be moved within the coming hours or days, but nothing has developed since then. Is Don Waddell asking too much for Kovalchuk? Is Kovalchuk being a greedy NHL player, or do you think he’ll take a paycut just to play in a big hockey market? What do you think the Flyers should/will do? Leave us your opinions in a comment down below. It’ll be good to get some discussion going on here!
According to Paul Holmgren, Jeff Carter isn’t going anywhere
Get off of HockeyBuzz, because Eklund is wrong again.
According to ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun, Paul Holmgren has put all of the Jeff Carter rumor buzz to rest.
“We’re not trading Jeff Carter,” Philadelphia Flyers GM Paul Holmgren told ESPN.com on Saturday.
The 25-year-old forward is earning $5 million this season and $5.5 million in 2010-11, the last year of his deal. He’s basically been a point-a-game player for two years now, and that’s good production for his salary.
But when the Flyers struggled in the opening three months of the season, no player had his name dragged through the trade rumor mill more than Carter.
“I don’t know where all these rumors are coming from,” said Holmgren. “We are not trading him, I can tell you that.”
Jeff Carter’s production this year, compared to last, is painful to look at. It’s clear that he is not the same confident player he was last year, and since opposing teams have figured out his style of play, they have been shutting him down easily. 
It’s been rumored that Carter’s name was the lead name in a trade proposed to Philadelphia by Montreal which would send the Flyers goaltender Jaroslav Halak. However, with the strong play of Michael Leighton and Ray Emery’s progressing health, as well as veteran back-up Brian Boucher, all of those rumors just seem ridiculous at best. Jeff Carter’s name has also been included in Ilya Kovalchuk talks, but those have since simmered down.
Anyway, Jeff Carter isn’t going anywhere, so don’t believe anything you read.
