Detroit Red Wings trade Andreas Athanasiou at the NHL trade deadline and pick up 50-yr-old enforcer, Tonya Harding off waivers. While Tonya has never played professional hockey before, neither has AA - And the Wings needed to add a little muscle to take the heat off there flying Frenchman, Anthony Mantha.
While Mantha's willingness to throw down and stick up for his team mates is admirable, he always seems to break a hand or puncture a lung in every single simple dustup and then is out of commission on injured reserves for another 6 weeks. By picking up Tonya, she can be the one to lay the club to the knees of any opponent who gets out of line.
ok, that Tonya part is fake news and just a case of wishful thinking. Other than that, it was a good day for Wings fans who have had little to celebrate this year. When a team is contending for a playoff spot, they are 'buyers' at the trade deadline. When they are rebuilding like the Wings - sell, sell, sell! They unload aged veterans or entitled youngsters on expiring contracts for future draft picks - sort of like using Kroger's clicklist when buying groceries - We'll just swing by in June in order to stock our 'fridge.
Andreas Athanasiou is a highlight reel speedster, so if AA works out for them - the Edmonton Oilers may become known as the "Edmonton Greecers". I hope so, but he needs to grow up first. He obviously had no desire to play actual defense with the Wings, and more often than not he appeared he is wearing oven mitts at the net and not able to finish his breakaways (but the cookies looked delish!). The Wings receive two second round draft picks in return, and this is twice as much as I expected Yzerman would get for him, due to AA's league-worst plus/minus that is spinning down like a depth guage on a WWII submarine with a hole in its side.
The Red Wings also trade defenseman Mike Green to the Edmonton Oilers for forward Kyle Brodziak and a conditional draft pick in either 2020 or 2021. Green is at the end of a nice career and this move is definitely a win-win for both organizations.
This was Steve Yzerman's first trade deadline as the Red Wings GM, and I give him a grade of AA!
I'd comment but unless we're talking about Roberto Clemente' baseball cards, I'm lost in the endzone without a baseball glove or badmitten racket.
ReplyDeleteLOL. Not even a Columbus Blue Jackets fan? Hockey is all I can watch. Even when my home team is in a rebuild.
ReplyDeleteNo, I stopped watching everything beside golf decades ago. I liked golf because I played and it was real fun watching Tiger chew through the record books. After he screwed his wife over I lost interest in that too. Bunch of young people in yellow pants w/white belts that are just not particularly exciting.
ReplyDeleteHeard a couple of former MLB players on the radio saying the game is just unwatchable anymore.
Lived in Pittsburgh in the 70's so I watched football then, but moved to Arizona in 79 and lost interest in that within a couple years. I definitely couldn't watch the recent thug ball even if I had stayed interested.
Never watched hockey.
yep I used to love watching the Pistons back in the 80s and 90s but haven't watched any NBA in a while. Same with Baseball. When the Tigers were good, I watched. I guess I'm just a homer with all the other sports except hockey. I'll watch the Wings, rain or shine. I hope it shines again some day!
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