A holiday is upon us — I speak of Canada Day and not the NHL draft — and thus we resign ourselves to a spike in the price of gas. Those with foresight benefitted by pennies on the precious dollar by hitting the pumps Wednesday or Thursday. We knew it was coming and acted appropriately. That’s the thing about price-fixing. You can complain about or adapt. Adapting is the more cost-effective method.
Bryan Murray could have used the sort of foresight in mid-winter or even at the trade deadline. If the Ottawa Senators GM had he wouldn’t be in his present fix, namely with a captain and first-line centre who is requesting a trade. We speak of Jason Spezza, of course.
Spezza of course is a commodity with virtues and values. Among his virtues based on the last decade or so is an established level of production (30 goals in a good year, a point per game with a decent level of support). Some might wonder about his defensive play — is it lacking because of ability or commitment? Who knows? Not that it matters. You’d suspect that he could raise it if he landed with a new team, a contender, a winning environment where he’d be pushed to get with the program — pushed not by a coach so much as by his peers.
What a great chip to play when you’re in a teardown and rebuilding with a team like the Senators.
Alas, Murray is finding that rather than spiking the price of Spezza has flattened. This is simply a function of Spezza’s desire for a trade becoming a matter of public knowledge.
There’s no way to suppress the value of a player than letting his unhappiness in an organization get out on the grapevine. When it’s a matter of public knowledge, well, that’s just a measure of how long it’s been on the grapevine.
Say that Murray’s hands are tied. Accuse Spezza of sticking it to the Senators and the GM. Do what you will. This is just a fact of NHL life — actually, it applies across pro sports. The best way to make a trade tougher to pull off is if a player’s desire to move gets out there.
More than we’ll ever know, discontent behind the scenes often impacts trades — if a trade looks lop-sided it frequently traces back to enmity between a player and an organization. If that gets out there, other organizations will look to exploit a GM over the barrel in the worst possible way.
One such example, not so frequently discussed in the media but a matter of fact in the executive ranks, was the trade of James Neal and Matt Niskanen from Dallas to Pittsburgh for Alex Goligoski. The trade thoroughly tilted the Pens’ way, a byproduct of a level of enmity between Neal and Dallas management, then GM Joe Nieuwendyk being the catalyst. Once it was out there Nieuwendyk wasn’t going to get a fair price and could only hope to minimize his losses. Clearly he didn’t pull that off.
No one should envy Bryan Murray at this point in time. If he had been able to work with Spezza, keeping the player’s wanderlust strictly entre nous, he might have found a better market for him and more motivated buyers at the trade deadline. Even now Murray would be far better off if Spezza’s desire to move on weren’t public knowledge.
You might wonder why Spezza would particularly care to play along and not let the cat out of the bag. Fact is, he probably didn’t do himself any favours here. If he was looking for this to be cleared up tidily and a trade made in short order, then keeping all of it on the down low would have been the best policy. It’s already been weeks now and Murray is saying the market is soft, “not good enough,” even with the draft upon us. Fact is, he’s unlikely to get fair value. It was avoidable but it would have required being proactive and having greater foresight.
He should have filled up on Wednesday.