+1

Our shootouts have sucked all year, thanks largely to Wolski.

Where do you know Porter from? Whats your take on the kid?

I think fans over-think the forward positions. Centers get move to wing all the time in the NHL. I really don’t think it’s a major transition because by playing center you have to be good at accepting and giving passes with both the fore and backhand. I would agree that moving from wing to center would be more difficult but that’s not the case for us. Also, almost all talented youngsters play center in the juniors ranks. When making the move to pros, there’s a very high chance that they’ll have to play wing because there are only 4 centers per team.

both players play all 3 positions.

on WW’s goals for the next 20 games? Current rate would be five or six.

i think the main thought is that Wolski will get 4m+ in arbitration.

I don’t think they traded with the hopes that Mueller and Porter would simply be 3rd-line hard-working role players. Both of these guys have proven that they can rack up points in the lower leagues and the Avs believe they’ll be good under our system. Porter hasn’t really had a major chance to prove himself yet in the Majors so we shouldn’t shut the door on that yet. Mueller has but he’s been inconsistent like Wolski. However, I do think that Mueller has the potential to be at least as good as Wolski, if not better. The big difference I’ve seen between the two is that Wolski has had 5 years to prove himself and hasn’t been able to do much yet. Mueller has only been in it for 3 years and hasn’t done much either under a Phoenix system. Is the Phoenix system bad for young kids? They sure do have a lot of young talent that doesn’t live up to their potential.

hope you are right

is Mueller really faster? I’ve heard questions about his skating

I agree completely, and think that is the primary reason Sacco wanted to see him go. I don’t know how many times I watched Wolski pull up to avoid contact. It wasn’t the plays he made that were the problem. It was all of the ones that were a stride away that he simply wouldn’t that put him in Sacco’s doghouse. I do believe that Sacco briefly beat some heart into him and Wolski played his best hockey ever for awhile, but couldn’t/wouldn’t sustain it. Hence the lengthy slump which is, most likely, more a return to reality than a pause in the midst of a meteoric rise.

Since we all praised Sacco for not being Granato-like and rewarding underachievers with pt, can’t we agree that it is consistent with his philosophy to ship him out? One guy that doesn’t bring it every night can be rapidly contagious.

Mueller: playing on the 4th line.
Wolski: Playing with Stastny and Duchene.

These are excellent points.

I believe that is exactly what this is, yes.

Except the Avs likely wouldn’t have gotten nothing. Wolski still would have value at the draft and they could have even accepted arbitration and then traded him in the summer, next season etc.

This is exactly why Liles has been riding the bench on and off all season… He’s playing to under his worth.

he’s in Anaheim with the team

Wolski said he brings a “consistent effort” night in and night out. That is a damn lie.

+ 1.

That’s definitely what I was thinking about this trade.

The thing that sucks is we did trade Wolski when his trade value is the highest (so far in his career) and we got a high value prospect and guy who could be an enigma or could be just going through a rocky patch where his value is low (if the latter it could be a very good trade, but doubtful).

The most worrying thing about Mueller is he has been playing against the weakest competition of all forwards this year (last year he was middle of the pack). I do hope he hasn’t fell off the cliff and I wish we’d got a 2nd rounder for him as well, as unrealistic as that is.

He’s the one variable I’m going to wait on for this. I don’t like the trade from a short-term point of view, but He might make it tolerable long term.

That was an amazing frozen four game. Heard Sunday’s game was pretty good too. :D

I just looked at his hockey futures profile and he looks like he could be the sort of player we want. In 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 he led his team in game winning goals, in 2007-2008 he was 2nd in playoff and regular season scoring. Sounds like he steps up when that situation arises.

Sounds like he has the sort of intangibles we want.

Also, I wonder whether there could have been character issues with Wolski and the rest of the locker room that accelerated his departure (in addition to the upcoming arbitration dilemma and the like)?

Do we start calling out “Mueller …. Mueller ….. Mueller” with our best Ben Stein imitation?

Oh please go on Bubs, tell us how you really feel.

Actually I really am curious as to why you don’t like it. I love reading everyones criticisms of trades like this.

Especially with your point about the moves not made.

That is the primary failure of Dwight, PL, Biller, et al. The failure to trade Svatos (I don’t care if Yip is hurt, Svats has proven nothing this year – or last – save for the fact that he is NOT the answer. Not here at least.), Clark or Tucker for something, anything, really is just stupifying. I don’t care if we’re talking about a 7th rounder for Tucker (several of those trades occurred today). We’re talking addition by subtraction.

I applaud the fact that Salei was not traded and understand why Liles wasn’t traded (the market for $4.5M cap hits was not particularly large), but damn!!

i’ve been hoping for a long time to trade svats for mueller actually, and us giving wolski did come as a surprise to me.
but, with everything said and done, i’m happy that mueller’s here if he can find his game with the uber centers that we have.
I guess we wait and see, and good luck to the Baron!