my cut on the McLaren trade…

I like the McLaren trade. I think it works for everyone.

San Jose drops most of Sundstrom’s salary and uses him to turn Jillson into a finished player overnight.

Montreal gets depth at forward (and I think Sundstrom gets a fresh start, which he seems to need. How he’ll do will have to wait for 15 games…), and gets rid of about $2million US in salary they can use for something else, instead of paying way too much for an increasingly unhappy backup goalie.

Boston gets the goalie they wanted (who is thrilled to be able to play again), and a top prospect for a guy who told them to go to hell.

Hard to find a loser in this deal, IMHO, player or team. Montreal’s success here depends on what they do with the money they won’t pay hackett, but even cutting costs in today’s NHL isn’t a bad idea…

This is the kind of trade I like. Everyone feels they benefitted in some way. It may be more fun for fans to feel like they ripped off some other team, but it just doesn’t happen all that often.

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