| Subject: Whitehorse shuffles MVP's |
Author:
Sal Trachan
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Date Posted: 09:20:32 11/28/02 Thu
The Whitehorse Warriors have been very busy in the last week. After a very eventful draft, Whitehorse was not done.
GM Steve Gandour shipped out Captain and franchise player Mario Lemieux and young stars Andrew Brunette and Ruslan Salei to the B.C. Huskies for Owen Nolan, Andrew Cassels and Sergei Nemchinov.
Mario Lemieux was a four trophy winner in 2001, winning the Gordie Howe (MVP), Ken Dryden (Three Star Points), 762 Esposito (Most Points) and Bobby Hull (Most Goals) awards. In 2002 injuries prevented him from winning a trophy, but he still had one of the best point per game ratios in the GWHL reaching the 80 point mark yet again. The kicker was his huge salary, at over 11 million dollars.
"This move was entirely a cost cutting move," Warriors GM Steve Gandour said. "Mario was nothing but class in this organization, his skills are beyond compare and his loss to this team is huge. However when looking at our books we realized that we could not afford his salary and hope to resign any of the six big name free agents we are intent on locking up this year."
Those six big name free agents, all Restricted, are all key components to this Warriors team. Michael Peca and Adam Deadmarsh are both crucial to the present and future of this team. Martin Brodeur and Chris Osgood represent the entire goaltending core for Whitehorse and both are free agents. Steve Rucchin and Hal Gill may be mostly depth players but there skills give the bench strength to help in case of injury. There was no question that at least four of these guys could have been lossed just to keep Lemieux a Warrior. Ultimately, the needs of the team won out.
"Mario is a Warrior in our hearts," Steve said at the conference, almost brought to tears, "but now we have to start developing a method to stop him if that is possible!"
Not discussed much in this deal were the departures of Andrew Brunette and Ruslan Salei. Both are great young kids who look to be great down the road, but with the depth already present in Whitehorse were expendable. The big talk aside from Lemieux leaving was the players Whitehorse added in the deal.
"We feel Nolie can be an impact right away for this team. His combination of strength and skill will be crucial in clutch situations." Steve said. "Cassels was a point a game player last year for BC... we feel he can fill in to one of our top two C spots and while he is no Lemieux, he will help fill the void left by his absensce."
The contracts saved Whitehorse close to $6 million in salary allowing for more freedom to resign their free agents. The most interesting question of the conference came when Camien Dox asked Steve why Nemchinov had been specifically requested in the package.
"Sergei is a veteran with solid leadership skills and a wealth of experience. While adding a player who is known to be retiring in the very near future seems stupid, we added him more as a long term move off the ice, we have talked with Sergei who has agreed to be an assistant coach here when he retires. We feel his experience and knowledge will be beneficial in playoff runs... and in developing some of our youngsters."
Owen Nolan was the Jethro award winner this past season, and will be a nice addition in Whitehorse. However Cassels was apparently an interim step for the Warriors team.
This reporter learned only this morning that Cassels and co-recipient of this years Rod Langway trophy, Eric Brewer, have been dealt to Victoria for Calle Johansson and Vincent Damphousse.
I immediately tracked down Whitehorse GM Steve Gandour to get confirmation of this trade.
"Victoria and I came together on an agreement late last night" said GM Steve. "Eric Brewer was very difficult to part with, but we had a chance to upgrade at first line C with the player who beat Lemieux for the MVP this season in the GWHL, and also won the Ken Dryden award this year. We felt Damphousse showed last year he can be more than an adequate replacement for someone of Lemieux's calibre. Johansson gives our defense added Experience and Leadership, and for the short term we feel he can replace Brewer on our defensive core."
Eric Brewer was one of the players thought to be a cornerstone for the future of this Warriors franchise. Moving him is a very risky proposition, but it shows a commitment from this Warriors team to win now... something fans have wanted to see for a while. Losing Brewer means this deal is a loss for the future, but adding Damphousse and Johansson is a definite push to win now.
"I think it's a deal that makes a lot of sense for both teams" Victoria GM Shawn MacDonald said later that day to media. "It should be a great race in our conference this season."
This admission from Victoria is a huge sign for Warriors fans. Whitehorse made a huge run late last year but missed the playoffs. To go from out of the playoffs, to being considered a runner in the race for first in the conference by the GM of the team that ended first last year is a big boost in confidence for Whitehorse fans.
"Brewer will see big improvements this year," Steve said to the media, "and that is saying something when he is coming off a season where he was co-winner of the Rod Langway Award for best defensive - defenseman. We know he has worked hard this off season, and anyone who thinks they know his skills having seen him last year will have to
RE-RATE him for this season. But still we feel the move is beneficial. We liked Cassels but were insecure making him or Oates our number one C. It seemed a far drop from Lemieux. Now with Damphousse we know we have a MVP at first line C again... and Johansson will be a great fit into our veteran movement for this playoff push. Calle is not Brewer, but his skills are as good at this time and he has more Leadership and experience which could be pivotal in playoff matchups. And we still have the salary cap space to secure our pivotal free agents."
So after a very hectic week again, Whitehorse has lost Lemieux (2001 MVP) and replaced him with Damphousse (2002 MVP), lost Brewer (2002 co-winner of the Rod Langway) and replaced him with Calle Johansson, and moved Brunette and Salei and replaced them with Owen Nolan (2002 Jethro Winner) and Sergei Nemchinov. Most importantly, Whitehorse has saved the salary necessary that they feel will allow them to re-sign their free agents... something they were seriously close to not being able to do a week ago.
Finally, as a side bar here is a quick summary of the Warriors picks in the GWHL draft. Ironically, these picks have been forgotten and lost in the waves of deals the Warriors have made the past two weeks. The Warriors did extremely well in the draft and many of these names will become key players in the future of the GWHL.
1st round (10th Overall) Jason Spezza
1st round (12th Overall) Bryan Berard
1st round (14th Overall) Alexander Svitov
2nd round (24th Overall) Petr Cajanek
3rd round (42nd Overall) Andreas Johansson
3rd round (45th Overall) Niko Kapanen
As this article has already become a short novel, I will simply lay out the best quote on the picks by Gandour at the press conference which was held over a week ago.
"Spezza is a future franchise player in our minds, and we can't believe he slipped so low. Berard was maybe selected a little early, but his skill is without question and we had him ahead of Sopel who went third overall. That selection honestly made us rethink our draft strategy a little (we panicked) and passed on Ruutu to select Berard a little earlier then we wanted to originally. However it all worked out well as Svitov (third selection for Whitehorse) was someone we had ahead of Ruutu. Cajanek is an older prospect but of immense skill, one we were glad made it to the second round. Johansson and Kapanen are wild card shots we feel confident will pan out for us."
Covering you Warriors from deals to draft to deals again,
Sal Trachan
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