Jim Kelley

Jim Kelley writes regularly on the NHL for Sportsnet.ca and can be heard on Primetime Sports on the FAN590.

Dissecting the Halak trade, Edmonton's No. 1 pick and Burke's proclamation on Kovalchuk.

Some news and views as the NHL prepares to wrap up what, overall, was a very good season while heading into the draft, free-agent signing season and what's likely to be an unusual collection of trades and player signings.

Let's start with a most remarkable trade.

News: The Montreal Canadiens trade goaltender Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues for forwards Lars Eller and Ian Schultz.

Views: I want to say nothing surprises me in a salary-capped hockey world where deals are often based on cap considerations rather than a pure swap of talent, but this one is difficult to comprehend. It was a given that the Canadiens would have salary cap problems heading into the start of next season and with both Halak and Carey Price in the slots of restricted free agents it would be wise to move one. The logical betting, however, was on Price as Halak moved past him late in the regular season and shone in the playoffs with key upset wins vs. Washington and Pittsburgh before falling in a tough series with Philadelphia.

The early thinking is that though restricted free agents don't have a great deal of leverage, Halak had real appeal and that for Montreal to re-sign him might require an outlay in the $4-$5 million range. Price, on the other hand, wasn't likely to draw a great deal of interest and might be re-signed for a bargain rate. With the thinking in Montreal at least that Price's career is still salvageable, even in a city where the pressure on players -- and especially goaltenders -- is enormous.

This is by no means a safe bet and clearly general manager Pierre Gauthier is going out on a limb here even though he is also backing the belief of mentor and former boss Bob Gainey that Price is the better prospect.

However, the view from here is that the Canadiens learned a lesson from the Buffalo Sabres when that team was boxed in via an offer from the Edmonton Oilers for Thomas Vanek. Buffalo, having lost Daniel Briere and Chris Drury to free agency, matched an offer that pays the somewhat underachieving Vanek an average of $7 million per season. It set the Sabres up for an unbalanced salary structure that has Vanek making more than team MVP Ryan Miller and has handicapped the Sabres in signings ever since.

In this case it appears Montreal took a deal it could live with rather than risk having to match an outside offer that would upset its salary structure. Price is a first-round pick, the fifth player taken in 2005, and the Canadiens still have hope for a breakthrough even though Halak was a ninth-round pick, the 271st player taken overall in 2003 and has outplayed him.

The Canadiens are getting two decent prospects and neither is likely to get NHL money immediately, but in the big picture this was about not paying Halak an inflated market price, the better to manage the rest of its assets and needed signings.

It remains to be seen if they made the right decision, but even if they did, it's a safe bet that a second shoe could drop here. There's a good deal of free-agent goaltending talent available this summer and no reason to believe the Canadiens have to go exclusively with Price. Quite frankly, Price would be better off with a veteran mentor rather than having to sit behind Halak.

News: Attendance said to be down two percent overall during the regular season despite spectacular growth in Chicago and some other NHL markets.

Views: There is the usual rumble of "woe is the NHL" among media members regarding the drop and the fact that the NHL actually might acknowledge the same (something it rarely does in the never-ending stream of press releases touting all that is good about the business of hockey), but I say "so what!" Down two percent in a recession economy with joblessness at double-digit numbers in the U.S. and not substantially lower in the areas of Canada where manufacturing and mineral resources are in play is not all that bad. I would suspect that the number might actually be higher in the NBA and there's reason to believe that the all-sainted National Football League might even be feeling some pain (how else do you explain scheduling a Super Bowl in the New York market in February?).

Attendance is going to be a problem in pro sports for several more years to come and in the NHL, which is gate-sensitive, it bears watching, but by most any respects the league had a very good year in a recession-based economy, especially regarding the outdoor game, the playoffs, an uptick in television ratings in the U.S. and Canada and some real strides in marketing and growth in new media venues.

There are bad years in the history of the NHL, there will be some more in the future, but the 2009-10 season, when measured against all factors, was not one of them.

News: The "celebrity" list for the NHL Awards Presentation in Las Vegas is out and it's by and large every bit as weak as last year’s.

Views: Look, everyone has fun with this, me included. If you think host Jay Mohr is an A-list celebrity then you probably think Alex Trebek writes the questions to all those Jeopardy answers and golfer Mike Weir is not only still a threat to win a major but that he and Wayne Gretzky are neck-and-neck for winemaker of the year awards in Ontario. But what does it matter who "hosts" this thing or what kind of "entertainment" is on the lineup card?

This is the time of year when hockey fans in general and Canadians (particularly Toronto placed media and fans) get in a pout about the league running out on Toronto in favour of ‘Sin City.’ Hello bumpkins, it's not about media or even about fans or celebrities, it's about the players.

What player hasn't been to Toronto and which one won't at least contemplate passing up a weekend of their "off" time especially if he's relatively certain he's not going to be called to the stage to make a "thank you" speech? Even the ones who do get the call for top honours might be thinking twice regarding making the trip from say Russia, Finland or some even more remote hockey outposts like Florida or Southern California.

This was beginning to be a problem for the NHL. The awards show used to be one of those occasions you skipped at great peril, but in recent years, players had started to make excuses and run the risk associated with a skip. Ah, but put that up against a weekend in Vegas on someone else's dime and suddenly you have a hockey player's attention even if he wouldn't know Chaka Kahn if someone stuffed her entire CD collection in his swag bag .

Seriously, the awards presentation in Toronto was beginning to have the same tired feel of the promise of a Leafs playoff run or the idea that goaltenders were going to have their equipment curtailed and it was getting close to the same kind of coverage.

It's different in Vegas where everything is an event. The truth is the players are still the stars of this show no matter how much Mohr professes his love for hockey or how much the league wants to court Jerry Bruckheimer (a presenter, really?). To get their interest you've got to give them inspiration and a weekend in ‘Party Town’ isn't a bad way to go about it.

News: Leafs General Manager Brian Burke professes to have no interest in soon-to-be unrestricted free agent Ilya Kovalchuk and is quoted as saying: "We are not going to be involved in that race."

Views: That may be true, but Burke has long been on record as saying if lying to the media gives him a chance to improve his team, he has no problem lying to the media. I happened to be there the day he made that remark and I've: a) never forgotten it, and; b) always believed he meant it.

So when he says "no" it doesn't necessarily mean "no." It could well mean "no, not right now, but I might well change my mind later." Or "no, I'm going to try and divert attention on this one so you guys aren't making it a public issue, but I'm going to be a player behind the scenes."

In this case, I would put forth a guess that Burke means "no" now and right through to the time Kovalchuk signs with a team perhaps the Los Angeles Kings or maybe even the Devils who still have until June 30 to get him re-signed.

Kovalchuk with Phil Kessel would eat up a great deal of cap space and even if Burke moves Tomas Kaberle, he would still like to have enough room for a deal that solves his need for a No.1 centre and at a salary that isn't inflated by the free-agent market. And by the way, is there an in-house replacement for Kaberle and if not, doesn't he have to pay for that as well?

News: Newly-minted Florida general manager Dale Tallon has gone on record saying it is not in his plans to move goaltender Tomas Vokoun.

Views: That's not the same as saying he's not going to move so, in essence, the door remains open despite the perception that he closed it. Chances are Tallon is simply buying time. He's in no rush to move a prime, albeit, expensive asset. Given the state of the Panthers and Tallon's newness in the job it behooves the GM to wait and see what he has in the goalie pipeline before making a major move that might doom the team to yet another year without a playoff appearance. However, if the right offer comes along…

News: The Edmonton Oilers continue to listen to offers for the first overall pick in the upcoming draft.

Views: Of course, it would be political suicide not to, but who are we kidding here. The first-round pick isn't just a tough choice between Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin, it represents a rebirth of the Oilers and that's huge on both a talent level and a marketing level. Did Tampa Bay pass on the opportunity to draft Steven Stamkos? Did the New York Islanders pass on the opportunity to grab John Tavares? Sure they listened to offers, but there's a cache with having the No.1 pick and a kind of buzz that comes with the anticipation of the fan base regarding the selection.

To pass on that to move down in the draft, even if the deal presented is a good one, takes away a lot of that cache and dampens a good deal of the pre-draft buzz. GM Steve Tambellini has been around long enough to know that. The betting here is that he listens to all offers and then keeps the pick and markets the hell out of either Hall or Seguin.