This Doesn’t Make Any Sense (UPDATED)

I know I just alluded to this in the post below, but I needed to expand upon it here. Heatley talk aside, this Gomez trade simply makes no sense from a Montreal perspective. Were they so desperate to land a first line center that they simply gave Glen Sather a blank check and said, “Take whoever you want!”?

Chris Higgins is a nice player in his own right. He was hampered by injuries last season, but is a former first-round pick who put up 23, 22, and 27 goals in each of his first three seasons. His cap hit was only $1.9 million last season and if I was Glen Sather, I’d be more than thrilled to swap Gomez for Higgins.

But Sather got more…a lot more.

This whole Ryan McDonagh aspect of the deal has me scratching my head. This is no small-time prospect the Rangers got here. McDonagh was considered to be the top prospect in the Canadiens’ system and is now probably the top prospect in the Rangers’ system. He’s the type of player generally included in a salary dump to sweeten the pot for the team taking on the dough…not the other way around!

Either Glen Sather is a genius or Bob Gainey has lost his mind. I’m going with the latter.

Update 8:04 p.m.: Carp’s now saying he was wrong about the Heatley deal. Looks like he may be going to Edmonton. Even if the Rangers don’t make the swap for Heatley, this Gomez trade opens up a lot of options. As usual, you should now expect the Rangers to be major players tomorrow. With Sather at the helm that’s a little scary. I have the utmost confidence in him pulling off a steal in a trading scenario and next to no confidence in him doing the same when signing free agents.