LOL Steve Fucking Simmons. Seriously.
https://twitter.com/TSNBobMcKenzie/stat ... 2744042496Quote:
CBJ initiated trade proposal with TOR. They wanted to lose Horton's financial commitment for player who couldn't play. CBJ wanted Clarkson.
7:00 PM - 26 Feb 2015
http://www.torontosun.com/2015/02/26/le ... on-mistakeQuote:
FIRST POSTED: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015 08:46 PM EST | UPDATED: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015 08:50 PM EST
The Maple Leafs front office was meeting the other day, as they do most days, talking about trade possibilities, kicking things around, when a stroke of genius was spoken aloud.
And everyone paused for just a moment to comprehend what was said about the seemingly impossible.
About finding a way to trade David Clarkson.
What about finding a team, it was suggested, that wasn’t up against the salary cap, that had a need to justify all its dollars, that had a player of similar contract being paid for not playing because of injury?
The concept was brilliant: Trade bad contract for bad contract — with a catch. Could they actually pull this off?
Was there such a team with a match?
They began their due diligence at that moment, going team-by-team, payroll-by-payroll, contract-by-contract, trying to find a home and a fit for a player who didn’t fit and couldn’t find a home with the Leafs.
They stopped at the Columbus Blue Jackets. Perfect, they thought. The Jackets had Nathan Horton not playing. His contract wasn’t insured. Money is tight in Columbus.
Then the phone calls began.
“We started discussing this with Columbus in the last couple of days,” said Dave Nonis, the Leafs general manager of the moment — and maybe longer after this heroic deal. “Internally, we knew this made sense for us. It turns out they were interested as well. (Some other teams were interested, but not in the same kind of way.)