The Cheap Seats Award for Dumbest Idea Goes to...

In the latest chapter of insane analysts we get today's entry by THN columnist Mike Brophy. His premise? The Caps should trade Ovechkin.

Before I get into this - show of hands, how many people would cancel their season tickets right then and there should GMGM pull off such a trade?

Brophy is saying that basically the Caps are floundering. They aren't drawing crowds. They're not a contender nor is there any proof they will be in the near future. So clearly the thing to do is trade the superstar Russian for some obscene package of players, the way Quebec did back in the days of Eric Lindros.

That's his theory, based on one phenomenally lopsided trade in the annals of NHL history.

But actually it's not.

Pay close attention to the following line: "What if the young superstar tells the Caps he’d prefer to play someplace a little more cosmopolitan than Washington?"

This isn't an op-ed piece on making the Caps a better team, although it is certainly doing a great job masquerading as such. It's a deeply veiled attempt to say that Ovechkin would be better served playing in a more cosmopolitan city, a city that clearly will treat him better than DC ever could.

First of all, I've lived in and around DC all my life - it's a pretty cosmopolitan city in it's own right. So is Brophy suggesting a move to Toronto or Montreal on the basis that hockey love makes a city cosmopolitan?

No, I'm thinking he's referring to a different city, a city that they say never sleeps - a city like New York. Shocking that someone would again suggest that one of the best players in the league should go to what everyone has decided is hockey heaven. Never mind that New York is notorious for being unable to grow their own young talent, or that they are captained by someone who despite being among the greatest hockey players in the league has managed to do little more than lead them to stunning mediocrity.

But okay, we'll pretend for a minute that Brophy actually does care about the state of the Caps (and ignore the fact that in the last month the Caps have played like more of a playoff contender than a number of teams already in the top 8). We'll grant him the notion that this is actually a piece about the future of the Caps, the darlings of the NHL and all media types as we well know.

"Because it worked for Quebec/Colorado" means nothing to me. Eric Lindros in his prime was no Alex Ovechkin - character-wise, talent-wise and personality-wise. Their impact on their respective teams could not be more different. And I'm thinking the knowledge that Lindros did little to increase the number of Cups in Philadelphia probably would give some GMs pause about pulling the trigger on a lopsided trade like that anyways.

And his argument that Ovechkin being a Cap is no guarantee of success also holds little water because...well, what is the guarantee? Signing Scott Gomez to an obscene amount of money? Hiring Wayne Gretzky to coach your team? There's no such thing as a guarantee in sports and I'm betting our chances are slightly better with a talent that only comes along so often among our ranks.

But more importantly, trading Ovie would be disastrous to this team right now because the team has been built around him. Players have been drafted to complement his skills, players have been signed to create plays just for him. Trade Ovechkin now and you've got a shell of a team but no core - and in a town that has merely a passing interest in hockey as it is, trading the flamboyant superstar player would be far more catastrophic for DC hockey than even I can imagine.

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Replenishing, Not Rebuilding

Something needs to be addressed about this Sutherby trade, because this has been bugging me. A lot of people have been questioning the terms of the deal, saying that if the rebuild is over we should have gotten more than just a draft pick that we won't even use until 2009.

First of all, what makes people think that a player whose numbers went down last year and whose minutes have been limited this year would warrant anything more than a second round pick? If anything that's more than I think we could have expected.

Second, and this is important - the rebuild is over. We may not be seeing the results just yet, but it is, and just because we pick up a draft pick does not mean that ceases to be true. The next step is and has to be creating a sustainable farm system that will continuously provide quality players for years to come. A hockey franchise is not stagnant - you have to keep stockpiling picks and adding fresh talent to the mix. That's how you create depth and longterm success, and you only have to look at the successful franchises over the last 5-10 years to see that it works.

This deal works out well for both sides; Anaheim gets a gritty, hard-working player in Sutherby who can fill gaps when needed and the Caps get a chance to add even more young talent to the organization in the coming years. Hard to argue with that.

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