With the trade deadline less than twenty-four hours away, talk around the NHL has (understandably) been focused on trades. The same is true in the nation’s capital where, for the first time in recent memory, the Capitals are not sellers at the deadline. But does that make them buyers?

Not necessarily. George McPhee has said that he may try and bolster the Capitals depth if he can acquire a player he thinks is worthwhile without giving up too much in the way of assets, be them players for future draft picks. While McPhee certainly has his supporters in this approach, there are more than a couple playoff-hungry Capitals fan who want to see McPhee make a big move to help lock up a playoff spot, and the names Brad Richards and Adam Foote are popping up way more than they should (which is to say, more than just in passing).

To understand my, and I suppose McPhee’s, aversion to making a big trade at the current deadline you have to look at the NHL’s general managers, the frameworks they use and what it takes to be successful versus what usually ends up with the GM getting the boot and a franchise in disrepair.

The best-run NHL organizations have one underlying factor: the interests of the general manager are aligned with the interests of the franchise in the long run. When this is the case a GM can make decisions with the long-term heath and competitiveness of the club in mind which, if the GM is decent at his job, means holding on to high draft picks and prospects while refraining from making unnecessary trades involving headline-grabbing names and overpaying for free agents. Provided such an organization is not hit by injuries and does a halfway decent job of drafting, it should remain competitive year in and year out, while still retaining a deep enough prospect pool that they can make a landscape-changing deal when they need it. Examples of such organizations in recent years include the Ottawa Senators, the Buffalo Sabres and the Montreal Canadiens.

The antithesis of these organizations are those that have general managers who are influenced by something other than the best interests of their team, be it a clamoring fan base, intense media scrutiny or an overbearing owner. These situations almost inevitably breed failure, as GMs continually look for the all-but-unattainable: a solution that will fix all their problems and in readily available (a combination of “fix-all” and “quick-fix”). The results are ugly as teams wind up mortgaging their future, oftentimes to get only marginally better. Caps fans don’t need to look at further than Southeast rival Atlanta and Caps Blue Line’s least favorite currently-employed GM, Don Waddell to find an example for how easily things can go awry for an organization in this situation. Another recent example would be John Ferguson Jr.’s tenure in Toronto.

General managers like Waddell and Ferguson only win as a happy accident and subsequently simply do not win consistently. Rather than being the ones who steer their teams to glory, these GMs are the ones who are taken advantage of by their more savvy peers. As an aside, Paul Holmgrin, in Philadelphia, has proven quite adept at this, taking advantage of David Poile and Craig Leopold’s initial drive to make noise in the playoffs and then to cut costs in Nashville, Waddell’s desperation to make the playoffs and keep his job and Kevin Lowe’s general insanity and embarrassment at not signing Ryan Smyth. Holmgrin was in turn able to spin (1) Peter Forsberg for Ryan Parent, Scottie Upshall, a 1st round pick and a 3rd round pick (2) Alexei Zhitnik for Braydon Coburn (3) Joni Pitkanen, Geoff Sanderson and a 3rd round pick for Jason Smith and Joffrey Lupul and (4) a 1st round pick for Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell.

Back to the matter at hand: this is why I think McPhee has the right approach. I’d rather the Capitals organization be talked about the way Buffalo or Ottawa has been in recent years, not the way Atlanta and Toronto are.

Leafs GM Ferguson Fired

TSN reports that Maple Leafs President Richard Peddie has called the hiring of Leafs GM John Ferguson Jr. “a mistake”.

So there you have. Hiring Ferguson was officially a mistake. In other news the sky is blue, the Pope is Catholic and just about everyone on the Leafs blueline is overpaid.

According to TSN the Maple Leafs are trying to acquire junior star John Tavares. The plan apparently is to have Tavares sign a contract with the Leafs’ AHL affiliate (also based in Toronto), and not sign with whichever NHL team drafted him. Then after two years, when the team that has drafted him saw their exclusive rights to Tavares expire, Tavares would sign with the Leafs. TSN’s Bob McKenzie sums it up:

It’s said the Leafs’ plan was to sign Tavares to a three-year AHL contract, suggesting he could play a year in the AHL, get drafted into the NHL, play two more years in the AHL and then become an unrestricted free agent in the NHL and sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the summer of 2011.

A sneaky move no doubt but it’s not really feasible. People are talking about Tavares like he could come into the NHL and have the same kind of impact as Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin. Given this it’s unlikely Tavares would want to put off playing in the NHL for two years (and signing his first NHL contract) in order to play for the Leafs. I suppose it’s worth a shot but with how poorly his team has been performing the last few season and his job unquestionably in danger John Ferguson Jr really ought to be worrying about more practical things.