EHM The Blue Line

After releasing his eighth coach in nine years with the firing of coach Steve Sterling and not winning a playoff series with any of those coaches Milbury has announced he too will step down to the classic "other job within the organization" but not one that deals with asessing and/or bringing in talent and coaches.

They don't call him "Mad Mike" Milbury for no reason, as you don't need to look far to find that's he's always been willing to take big risks, unfortunately time usually ends up point out to him that he should have just stayed the course. His latest mis-step would be not buying out Yashin who is among the leagues highest paid players at 7.6 million dollars and then using that room for other moves. Though I'd have a hard time dealing a guy I gave up Zedno Chara and a first round pick which became Jason Spezza for too.

Instead Milbury not only keeps Yashin, but makes him Captain... what exactly in Yashin's attitude could ever prompt someone to name him leader of a team I have no idea. Were I to make up a list of 25 thing I want in a team leader I don't think Yashin would fit any of the 25. Compounding problems as he also tends to do, he traded a true leader (albiet a bit overpriced) in Mike Peca instead, leaving him with the tempramental Yashin who has been continually in the doghouse over taking bad penalties and his usual not giving a quarter as much effort as he has talent. Yashin is all but untradeable at this point; who is going to sacrifice 7.6 million of their $38 million in Cap room for a player with Yashin's baggage? Beside Milbury that is...

You don't have to look much further back to see Milbury's next move that shouldn't have been made as he fired Peter Laviolette to bring in Stirling after a good year coaching in the minors. Now neither he or Stirling have a job in hockey and Laviolette is a very stong candidate for Coach of the Year given the way he's gotten his Carolina team to perform, becoming one of the best teams in the league under his guidance.

Then you can of course go to the famous hits and missses of the Milbury Era:

Betuzzi, McCabe & a 3rd Rounder for Trevor Linden

Jokienen and Luongo for Parrish and Kvasha to then select Rick DiPietro with the first overall pick.

Ah but aren't the Sens fans begging for a "legitimate 2nd line center" to replace Smolinski? I'm sure the Sens will give up Chara and Spezza to get the whiny russian bear back...*chuckles*

Ok seriously...the guy isn't that bad but he's certainly not worth even half of what he's getting, nor is he captain material, like you already said.

As for that Jokinen & Luongo for Parris and Kvasha deal, well Jokinen was pretty much lost before he was dealth to Florida so can't blame Mike on that. As for trading Luongo, that was dumb but considering how young Luongo was back then, it was a gamble he took, same with DiPietro. Who'd be complaining now if DiPietro had climbed into stardom instead Luongo? Besides, DiPietro still has time to prove that he was worth that 1st pick, even though currently it looks the opposite, especially considering some of the names picked after him.

Who's trades can we laugh at now

I guess my reasoning for calling the Luongo trade a boneheaded move (outside of the hindight view that Jokinen has become a big time player) is that he already had a young talented goaltender with a solid rep and potential on his squad and by making the trade and then taking another young goaltender with the same kind of credentials/potential he didn't really improve the team at all. If he'd kept Luongo he then could consider that area covered and take for example Dany Heatley with the first overall pick instead of using it to cover something he already had but traded away. It's the cost of a missed opportunity more than anything I guess.

I agree with you minty...

at the time I couldn't figure out the rationale for the Luongo move...

it didnt make a lot of sense...

it makes even less now

The only thing Nhl fans ever seem to agree on is making fun of Mad Mike .
Buying out Yashin would have cost a fortune and not sure the owner would have allowed it, but on the other hand the team is crippled for many years too come (4-6?). Almost feel sorry for Islands fans.

Yeah, it would have cost a fortune but it's a bullet they should have just taken acknowledging that times have changed and they just can't have 7.6 million which is right around twenty five percent of their Cap invested in one player who has always been a questionmark in attitude and effort.

Now they don't even have that option, at least then they could have done it at some kind of discount. The thing it reminds me of is Washington giving Jagr that what was it like 10 mil a year for three years deal? But now there is no Rangers who will say "who cares if our payroll is 90 million? We'll take him."

As I understand no player can exceed 20 percent of the teams cap space in salery, which is 7.8.
However they can still buy out Yashin, but they would suffer a cap hit for severel million for every year he has left of his contract, so that really isnt an option yet.
As for Yashin in generel always hated his soft no hearth ass, the way he treated the sens didnt help either.