Perhaps the biggest swap of the 2008 trade deadline took place between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars.
The Lightning shipped forward Brad Richards and goaltender Johan Holmqvist to the Dallas Stars in exchange for goaltender Mike Smith and forwards Jussi Jokinen and Jeff Halpern.
This move was made by the Lightning due to a change in ownership, a need to free up cap space as well as both improve between the pipes and add depth elsewhere in the lineup.
For the Stars, they wanted to make a splash heading into the deadline and by acquiring Richards they’ve certainly done that.
Richards won the Conn Smythe trophy in 2004 helping the Lightning win the Stanley Cup, and it was because of his playmaking efforts and smart play that garnered him a whopping $7.8 million per season contract.
Unfortunately his large contract combined with those of Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis tied up too much of the Lightning’s money in three players, giving them little room to bring in much-needed depth.
As a result Richards play suffered this season as he lacked quality linemates to receive his slick passes.
That’ll change on a much deeper team in Dallas, which were looking not only for more scoring but also have an eye on eventually replacing long time Stars center Mike Modano when he retires in a couple of years. Richards certainly has the talent to step in and replace him down the road.
Holmqvist also gives the Stars a seasoned backup for Marty Turco.
In Smith, the Lightning are gambling that this time they’ve landed that promising starting goaltender they’ve lacked since Nikolai Khabibulin left town three years ago. He played well over the last two years in Dallas, and earlier this season split the duties fairly evenly with Turco when the latter got off to a slow start.
He’s also a very affordable acquisition salary-wise so if he doesn’t work out his salary can be easily moved to the minors.
Jokinen is a slick playmaker and shootout specialist and should be a good addition to the Lightning, and could end up seeing playing time on the Lecavalier line. Halpern meanwhile is an experience veteran forward who should be a good fit on the Lightning’s checking lines. Halpern is signed through to next season, Jokinen is an RFA this summer and should be an affordable re-signing for the Lightning.
Bolts management probably didn’t want to make this trade, but they get back some affordable assets that could provide the depth they’ve lacked this season.
Solid pickup by Dallas. This will make them a tough team in the playoffs, although I think they may have traded future offense for future goaltending. I'd still have liked to see Richards wind up playing along side Nash in Columbus, but at least he didn't go to Vancouver.
I will miss Richie and Homer. Homer is going to look real good in Dallas, because they have a GREAT defense. Our Coach Torts knows nothing about defense and our GM is an ####! This trade is a prime example. I hope the new owners fire our coach and GM!!!
Feaster was handed a very good team that won the Stanley cup and traded it into the ground!!!
Last edited by exlightingfan on February 26th at 11:24 AM.
The prospective owners( which do not own the team ) were the ones who made the descision to trade Richards. They were given that authority by The ownership in Detroit. This is a straight salary dump. Tampa fans should be upset with the potential new ownership for this choice, not Feaster, or Torts. As far as Torts "getting his hands on another goalie", He does not coach the goalies. Please know what you are talking about before you post dumb comments. Also, for the fans that wanted him gone, Did you forget what he meant to us in the Stanley Cup run?
Ron Campbell is the one who wanted to trade away Vinny Lecavlier. Feaster made it a point to keep him. Yeah, let's fire a coach and GM that were instrumental in bringing us a Cup. man, the Big Dog is right. This really is GOOBERVILLE!
Good report on this, Spec. I must admit to having egg on my face as I did not see much happening at the deadline. I believe the Stars have to feel they came away with the best deal during this big day in Hockey because they did not mess with the team chemistry by acquiring Brad Richards.
San Jose I think was a winner as well - getting Campbell from Buffalo for pretty much nothing in return.
Don't understand what Pittsburgh was doing with the Hossa deal. I think Erik Christensen is going to be a stud in this league.
Under the current coaching staff Mike Smith does not stand a chance. Even though he does not coach the goalies, he sure does a great job handling them! As far as Feaster name one trade he made that the Lightening came out on the positve side. As far as the new owners, I hope and pray for an new coach and GM! You can balme everything on the new owners, but the pattern of bad trades began long ago! We have no minor league players ready to come up, etc, etc etc
im glad your an ex-lightning fan, because you have no clue. a coach who doesnt know defense? is that before or after our cup run? a coach can tell players what to do, but they have to ulitmatly execute. not to mention we lost good talent at D after the cup. and a solid goalie. homer will be starter quality after he possibly gets more time under his belt. but we need to win now while vinny and st louis are in their prime.
what do you mean "how to handle them"? you obviously dont know how much input or "coaching" goes into the goalie from a head coach stand point.
we havnt had a pattern of bad trades. ppl left because they wanted more money and with the new salary cap we couldnt keep them all. feaster actually was thinking ahead BEFORE we won the cup. he had everyones contracts signed and staggered (the big name players) so they wouldnt all come into UFA in the same year. he was very smart in how he handled it. BUT THE LOCKOUT ruined it. not feaster. did u forget about the 05 season?
and YES we have minor league players ready to come up. RAMO was in our system as a future goalie prospect but got the call early due to Denis' inability to perform. we also have 2 big D waiting in the wings to name just a few. one saw limited ice time this season already.
you flame about things you obviously havnt bothered to look into. your the reason fans up north say we dont deserve competitive hockey down south.
trying again jay feast(on pork)er? oh not that the 4+ million you spent on marc denis was enough? now trade for what....another goalie? guess if you would have got it right the first time we lightning fans wouldn't be saying later to homer and brad. new owners PLEASE fire this #### feaster and tortarella are killing us!!! they did a good job in 04', but look what they had then, a stellar goalie and a decent d...both gone,traded,retired and for as exciting this team can be, they cannot stop anyone else.
if blasting your goalies in the media, throwing your arms up in dicuss after giving up a bad goal,
being pulled to be shamed and blamed not because of an off night is handling your netminders correctly then torts is tops.
feaster and torts deserve some of the credit for the banners and they also deserve a good portion of the credit for the existing team.
you know what's sad about this season, had boyle not missed most of it and a little help on the blue line the bolts could have easily won the south east.
you bad #### experts out there that like to make tough boy comments know what you can do with them.
CCR, you are correct. Torts holds all players "accountable" and makes it clear he doesn't care how much they make! Since when does that make him responsible for their play? As a goalie you know, if a player skates thru the team and beats u all anyone remembers is that lousy goalie.. not the D or hanging forwards. Homer said in his exit interview, Torts was always great with him... and (imagine this) he was given several chances to take the #1 spot and failed.
I do know that coaches like Torts,Keenan have a shelf life. You can only scream so loud & often B4 its effects are gone. As to the Feaster bashing, he is the guy that everyone laughed at when he brought in unknown Fedotenko and Lukowich B4 the '04 cup run. The news on not getting Bryzgalov, was that Bryz didn't want to leave the West. Feaster couldn't have re-signed him. Same re-sign problem w Huet. He will be big money this summer.
thanks for the memories brad and best of luck. hope you and modano score bushels! now my signed lightning jersy by you may fetch xtra $! got it in the cup year too! great run that year.... tampa will miss you, dallas will embrace...
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
