As much as I dislike pre-season polls in college football, I dislike on a much larger scale the talk of end-of-season awards twenty-five percent of the way through said season. There's a reason why the NHL (@NHL) awards their players at the END of the season. As much as Toronto would appreciate their own Phil Kessel winning the scoring title in November, I'm sure the likes of Ovechkin (@ovi8), Crosby and Corey Perry will possibly score more than sixteen goals by the time April comes around.
With that said, I would like to go ahead and just have the award for GM of the year shipped down to the Lone Star State now. Honestly, who has done as much with as little as he's had than Hall of Famer, Joe Nieuwendyk? Granted, he started his GM duties by letting the identity of the organization leave and sign a one year deal with the Red Wings, his starting goal tender to leave for Chicago and one of the best two-way forwards to ever lace up the skates to retire. Then, several attempts to move the high-priced, Brad Richards (@brichards_1991) failed and in July of 2011, Richards left in free agency to the "Blueshirts" in New York.
With the money saved, Nieuwendyk went out and signed Michael Ryder, fresh off a Stanley Cup run with Boston, gritty vets like Radek Dvorak and Vernon Fiddler. There's also a defenseman who according to the so-called experts who reside in Edmonton, was done playing in the league in Sheldon Souray (@SSouray). How great these signings were, there's one signing that will go relatively unnoticed in the grand scheme of things, no matter how well the team fares in the end.
In mid-October, the biggest spare of them all, Sean Avery (@imseanavery) was sent down to the AHL by the NY Rangers. This normally would have very little to do with the Dallas Stars (@dallasstars), however, because half of Avery's contract is being paid by Dallas through the end of this season, it took on greater importance. Because of his half of his salary going down to the AHL with him, though he was still being paid, the amount no longer counted against the salary cap (or floor in this case). With his salary no longer hitting the Star's books, the Stars fell below the salary floor and were "required to go pick someone up and spend money to get above the floor." So, Nieuwendyk went out and signed Eric Nystrom (@enystrom23). You talk about a change of scenery being key for a player, Nystrom has found something magical here in Dallas. Previously, his career high in scoring came in 2009-10 when he was with Calgary (team who drafted him 10th) when he netted 11 goals, 8 assists while playing all 82 games. This year, through 19 games, he's three goals and nine total points behind his best season. Let me rephrase that to make sure this is expressed properly: through a full season, 82 games, Nystrom scored 11 goals. Through 19 games, he has 8. In 2009-10, he scored a total of 19 points. He currently has 10 points, and he just played 25% of the season thus far.
Toss in the fact that he interacts with the fans through his twitter and even re-tweeted this spare's hockey blog, and you've got the making of a player who is destined to not only do great things for this organization, but to do them for a long time (I didn't realize he's just a kid at 28). They always say you have to do what you love. Of course these guys love what they do...and their contracts help their love as well, but you put someone in an area that they enjoy geographically in a system that suits their game and it seems to elevate their game. I know I have a tendency to ramble...A LOT, and today's entry is no different. I started with the GM resume of Joe Nieuwendyk, but today, the important thing I wanted to stress is that Eric Nystrom is just a bad ass. Never mind the fact that he'll drop some knuckles on a division foe as well. Number 24 (I think Wandell should give up his 23 to Nystrom...or get a twitter handle with 23, cause right now, it just makes more sense for Nys to have it) is just a great guy, and what I would do to have the opportunity to do an actual interview as opposed to just rambling my opinion. We, as an organization and a city are lucky to have him. ***Sigh*** I guess a small thanks should go to Sean Avery for being a moron is in order too.
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