Today saw disgruntled, stagnating forward Rick Nash traded from the Columbus Blue Jackets (yes, that's really their name) to the New York Rangers. Arguably the best performer on the Canadian team in the gold medal game at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the perennial 30+ goalscorer finally grew fed up of an organisation seemingly incapable of building a team around him.
The trade wasn't really a surprise, it had been coming, but the amusement in Calgary today stems from one of the players sent to Columbus in exchange. Swedish defender Tim Erixon was the Flames' first round pick in the 2009 draft. He spent two whole years not signing a contract whilst starring in the Swedish league against men as a teenager. When the deadline for contract signing came, he proffered a list of really very flimsy excuses why he didn't want to sign. One of which was that he'd not get in the team in Calgary. He was actually born in upstate New York since his dad Jan played for the Rangers in the 1990s. How convenient it was when the Ranger$ came calling the day before the deadline, "we hear he hasn't signed yet. Do you want to trade his rights?". Very convenient.
The Flames obtained young Czech forward Roman Horak and two second round draft picks in return. About the best that could be done in the circumstances. Fast forward a year. Erixon spent most of the season in the Rangers' minor league side (I thought he didn't want to play in the minor leagues?) and is now no-longer wanted by the team he seemingly connived to join, and parcelled off to arguably the worst team in the NHL, far from the bright lights of Manhattan and his dubiously-engineered dream. As someone remarked on twitter, "Tim Erixon learnt a hard lesson about the business today"
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