Brian Burke sure is a wily wheeler-dealer.
Burke pre-empted the NHL trade freeze (Dec. 19 to Dec. 27) — and got the fantasy wire buzzing — by shipping Andy McDonald to St. Louis for Doug Weight and prospect Michal Birner.
Weeks ago, the Anaheim GM had gone on record about his wish to get the NHL trade market flowing. What he did was float an amendment to the CBA (which hasn't been acted on yet) that would allow a portion of a player's salary to be eaten to facilitate movement.
This particular trade, while not a blockbuster, was done specifically to shed salary (McDonald) in order to create cap space for Scott Niedermayer's long-awaited insertion.
Burke also got a player (Weight) who will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this year, meaning he won't have to pick up an option.
It's not quite a sure fire win-win for Burke, but he does get two good players onto his roster with cap room to play with at the end of the year so he can re-sign core players (i.e., Corey Perry).
You should be particularly interested in this deal and its effects on both the teams and the players involved.
McDonald's departure also created room for big winger Bobby Ryan to be called up. Ryan promptly scored his second goal of 2007-08 in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Sharks on Dec. 16.
New linemate Weight assisted on the goal, as did the slumping Todd Bertuzzi. This trio should be a good one, featuring Weight's playmaking skills with the hard-hitting bulk and scoring abilities of Ryan and Bertuzzi.
Niedermayer, for his part, was held off the score sheet in his first game (also the 2-1 loss). However, he played almost 24 minutes, logged eight shots on net and dished out four hits.
Look for the underachieving Ducks to get hot and improve their eighth-place standing in the Western Conference.
McDonald, whose numbers were sub-par in Anaheim, wasted no time getting acclimatized with new Blues' linemates Paul Kariya and Brad Boyes in a 5-3 loss to Calgary on Dec. 16. He scored a goal and added an assist, while Kariya chipped in two helpers and Boyes notched his team-leading 19th goal.
This is not a big line prone to bang and crash, a la Weight-Ryan-Bertuzzi, but a speedy and skilled unit that should score in bunches.
The Blues have overachieved this season and will be nip-tuck to make the playoffs.