The Atlanta Flames made 3 substantial trades this week. The first trade sent shockwaves through the league and the organization. The team sent superstar goalie, Jose Theodore and rookie Ryan Suter out to the Young Guns. This move was done for various reasons. FIrst, as good as Theodore has been in the regular season, he has been average for the Flames in post season. A change was needed. Also, the Flames were able to get a very young defenseman back, Brett Skinner, to compliment their future defense core. Skinner has all the makings to be a top pairing defenseman in the near future.
The second trade sent #6 defenseman Kloucek for Tommy Salo. Klouckek was no longer needed and Salo gave the Flames a legit starting goalie to rent for the rest of the season. Salo gives the Flames insurance if Marc Denis cannot sustain his current level of play.
The last trade sent Marek Chvatal for super star veteran Andy Delmore and rookie Ruggeri. Delmore brinsg that final piece to the backend. The defense was quick young before and Delmore brings a ton of leadership and top notch play. Also, Chvata was overrated by playing on a lethal top Flames line and Grebeschkov made up for lots of his mistakes.
The Flames now have a well balance defese with 3 rookies and 3 solid veterans. Its going to take a bit of time for the team to gell and get rolling but that is why the trades were made this week and not later in the year. It gives the team time to develop together. The Flames defenseman squad is quite stacked. The final reason the trades were made was to ensure the defenseman swuad would remain intact after this season. Before the trades, 4/6 defenseman were due a new contract. Now the trades have balanced out who needs what in the offseason.
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