Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Tavares to London?

From this mornings London Free Press.

The Knights have discussed an offer with Oshawa general manager and head coach Chris DePiero for the team's 18-year-old all-time goals king.

But the Knights are trying to add him without subtracting much off their current roster.

"Mostly draft picks," Mark Hunter said. "I have a ton of them. They can have all the draft picks they want. But I don't know what (DePiero) is going to do.

If the Knights can just basically trade away draft picks, that will be highway robbery. I believe there will be a second round selection in 2009 and 2011. Maybe that's why they didn't trade away the 2009 2nd round pick when they acquired Trevor Cann? The Hunters knew if they wanted to be in the Tavares sweepstakes, they wanted to hold onto the 2009 2nd round pick.

The report also said the trade will happen after the World Junior Championships because of the new Steve Mason rule.

It's unlikely Tavares will move before he departs for the Canadian world junior selection camp in Ottawa on Thursday. At that point, there's an OHL-mandated trade freeze until the end of the world juniors -- the so-called Steve Mason Rule -- so he won't find out he has a new address while trying to win this country a gold medal.

This is what John Tavares had to say about the Steve Mason rule.

"I told Chris, 'while I'm there and if all goes well and I'm on the Canadian team, let's talk about this when I get back and let me focus on what I have to do,"' Tavares said Wednesday.

"I think in the end it's best for everybody that's there to not have to worry about what's going on back home. They can think about what they have to do there to win and do what it takes to be successful."


I like the rule it allows the players to focus on the task at hand. The NHL has a similar rule. I find the irony that the QMJHL actually opens their trade window during the World Junior Championships. Well there might be no QMJHL players on the Canadian roster.

That's My Take

(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

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