Between the Lines: Adrian Dater talks Parenteau with TSN 690

The full audio of the interview can be found here, but I've, well, sort of transcribed it below. A lot of the hems and ums and yknows and repeating yourselfs are edited out for readability and I've paraphrased the host questions a bit in places. Let's have a look at what Dater had to say.

host: bullshit... bullshit... bullshit... bullshit bullshit?

AD: Bullshit.

host: OK, what do you make of the story coming out of Montreal that Pierre Alexandre Parenteau was offered to the Canadiens for Rene Bourque?

AD: Not true that the Avs offered him. Are teams talking? Of course they're talking! But not from what I gather, not true.

host: Okay, he was a healthy scratch though, yesterday?

AD: Yeah he's a healthy scratch, he's playing bad, but he also came back three weeks too early, been some frustration on PA's part about rushing back too early to satisfy the Avs' desires for him to play early, and then boom he's thrown under the bus a little bit, and not playing, publicly disgraced a little bit like, yesterday. But he'll get over that, 3 games in 4 nights... I believe Patrick Roy; I take most everything Patrick Roy says with a little bit of grain of salt, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt when he says, yeah, they're playing 3 games in 4 nights, and he's just coming off a knee injury. And they did do the same thing to Alex Tanguay the other night so. The bottom line is, it wasn't as disgraceful a healthy scratch as people may think.

Let's talk about this.

Every guy comes back from injury too soon. All of them. They're professional competitors, they love the game, and they're always playing to earn their next deal. And their teams are professional competitors who don't want to see their assets wasting away on the shelf. So that shouldn't surprise anybody, that such a thing would happen. But when you break it down a little further what does that mean, "he came back three weeks early"? If this is anyone's medical opinion, and PA is really not okay with playing right now, the mighty hammer of the NHLPA would be swinging in a heartbeat. The way I hear this is Dater riffing on the original time frame, six weeks from December 31. Three weeks too early compared with that guesstimate maybe.

Dater casually hints and implies at lots of things with the rest of that. He calls the scratch a disgracing, but not a disgracing, and outright ignores that this was very publicly the plan all along. If PA is really offended by that then lol come on, dude. Get your :D face back on.

You'll notice Dater's exact wording says he was frustrated with trying to rush back. Give it a listen, there's a lot of stammering and distance between that part and the part about the scratch being a disgraceful bus. It's unclear where PA's feelings end and Dater's description of the scratch as being Not A Big Deal begins. I want to put the dividing line right around "but yknow oh well he'll get over that." Maybe Dater will write an insomnia fueled blog (aren't all of everyone's?) to be a bit more clear about it.

However, if Parenteau didn't feel like he was ready to go yet, he shouldn't have gone, end of story. A couple of January games in Florida are not worth hurting his recovery, not when this team is realistically eyeing May again. Whoever's decision it hypothetically was--his, Patrick's, the staff's--a giant nope your way, sir(s).

host: Pierre McGuire on PA: (Pierre sound bite about him being a talented, creative winger who isn't big but can finish and is getting older) You don't think he's gonna be dealt?

AD: (steps away to stop some kind of alarm or something.) I agree with Pierre 100%. I think that PA is a one-way player, and I don't think he would even disagree with that. When he is on offensively he's a very good player, he's a great passer. Much better passer than people give him credit for. But he's not big at all, he's barely 6 feet, and he's not physical. So if that's what the Habs are wanting they're not gonna get it in PA Parenteau.

host: The Canadiens have scouted Colorado aggressively this season. What do you think they're looking at?

AD: I thought they were looking at John Mitchell for a while but again, John Mitchell's a guy that they may have available and would deal, but is that gonna make a difference for Montreal? Probably not. The Avalanche need defense. Who ever might come back from Montreal it's gotta be a defenseman. The only other guy that they could have been scouting that might have made sense earlier is Paul Stastny, but now I don't think he's on the block anymore. That's who I think they were looking at earlier is Stastny. But now I think he's off the block. I don't know who they're looking at now. If it's PA Parenteau that's fine, I think he's available--but not for Ray, for Rene Bourque. If it was Ray Bourque we'd have a deal.

lol'd

That's really solid news about Stastny. I hope it's true. Let me tell ya now, you gotta hold that sucka down. Stastny agrees.

host: Yeah, I'll take McGinn on my team.

AD: Yeah well, McGinn's been available too, he may still be available you know, everyone's available in this league except for MacKinnon, Duchene, and O'Reilly. And Varlamov.

See? See? It turns out "negotiate in the summer" doesn't necessarily mean "maybe trade him before then."

Keeping Stastny and O'Reilly both is seriously the smartest thing this team can do, especially while guys like Landeskog and Duchene are still on pre-incoming-cap-inflation deals. That will give this team a chance to spend to win on defensemen for a few years before they hit Salary Cap Hell. They're both awesome hockey players, and more importantly, I love bofs of dem and they can't leave us.

I included the rest of the interview for completeness' sake only, for the media-imparied commentariat out there. There's nothing more of real interest here. Big takeaways: Some oogy weirdness around Parenteau returning from injury so quickly, and Stastny and O'Reilly are not likely to be traded at this time. And Varlamov even talked about as an Untouchable. How long ago was that guy considered a mediocre, streaky tendy at best?

Fuckin goalies, man.

host: Talk to us about the Roy factor, they started really strong, is it still there?

AD: Well it's there, it's 71 points, they keep getting points. They're winning games, they're not winning very impressively. They got outshot 44-21 last night. But the Avs are still there and Patrick Roy is a tough dude and finds ways to win. That's what so great about him and always has been. Even though they're not playing great they find a way to win. Boy if they could ever get a defenseman who can move the puck--boy, If they could ever get a guy anywhere near the PK Subban level this team would really go places.

host: Well if you want to send one of those guys like O'Reilly to Montreal or McGinn we may have that guy that you're looking for, his name is Raphael Diaz. You watch him play, okay?

AD: I've actually really tried to learn more about him, he really is a good deal? I don't think they're gonna give up O'Reilly right now. But sure I will watch him, that's the kind of guy the Avs need.

host: If the Avalanche want to make a move tell them to give me a call, I'll make it for the Habs. :D