Wings acquire Cory Cross
The Wings made two moves before the 3pm trade deadline today: sent Jamie Rivers packing to Phoenix for a 7th round pick and acquired Cory Cross from Pittsburgh for a 4th round pick.
Cross to Detroit from Pittsburgh
Holland acquired Cory Cross making it his third NHL team in six weeks (Edmonton, Pittsburgh, and now Detroit). He has an $847,000 price tag and also cost the Wings our fourth round pick in 2007. I don’t know much about him so I don’t have much to say although he is a big guy, 6′5″ and 225 pounds (Rivers weighs 190 and is 6′0″).
“We’re very pleased to have Cory,” Wings general manager Ken Holland said in a statement. “He’s a veteran NHL defenseman that brings size, strength and depth to our blue line. He moves the puck well and will fit into our style of game.”
The Detroit Red Wings website has a poll asking fans, “Does the addition of Corey Cross firm up Detroit’s blueline for the upcoming Stanley Cup run?” Out of the 401 votes so far, 37.4% said yes he provides good depth, 34.7% said no, and 27.9% said yes he provides grit.
ChicagoSports.com has the most direct quotes from Holland that I’ve seen all day:
“We didn’t want to do anything significant because our team has performed pretty well,” general manager Ken Holland said in a phone interview Thursday. “A lot of our players are playing well, and some could be better, so we didn’t think a major trade made sense. We made two deals to add a player to compete for one of the last spots on defense.”"Things just didn’t work out with Jamie Rivers and the new coaching staff, and that seemed to start in training camp,” Holland said. “That led to him not playing as much or producing like he did two years ago.
“Cross is a veteran that adds some size (6-foot-5, 225 pounds) to our defense, and while he’s not really physical, he’s not going to get pushed around. Nothing is guaranteed for him, but he’ll get a chance to compete for a spot.”
Thoughts regarding this deal
I’m not sure how much of an upgrade Cross is over Jamie Rivers. He obviously offers a much bigger presence and a different element, but both are, obviously, depth players on a team like the Red Wings. That said, Detroit has played so well this season and gotten such great contributions from players like Andreas Lilja and Niklas Kronwall on the backend that they don’t really need any parts for an extended playoff run. You can’t lead the Western Conference this season and not be a Stanley Cup contending team. (So much for the dire predictions made at the start of the season for the Red Wings.)
Cross has to be praising the hockey gods (offering up incense, sacrificing his new pair of hockey skates or whatever those guys do) he’s no longer in the lower ring of hockey hell and has moved to a legitimate and serious contender for the Cup. “Aww,” you say. “He won’t be able to play with Syd the Kid any more!” No, he’ll just get to play with Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom Mathieu Schneider, Chris Chelios….. you get the point. I think he can find a way to be happy, despite no longer being on the same roster as hockey’s Annointed One.
And the reaction is not good. Glance at the Wing message boards and the opinion ranges from Holland traded for trading sake (absolutely ridiculous based on Holland’s track record) to just outright stupid considering Rivers and Cross are similar, low-impact players with the advantage to Rivers based on his knowledge of the Wings system.I’m a little more reluctant to fry Holland because (a) there is still time, about 90 more minutes for a deal to be announced and (b) we have no idea what happened today. The Rivers deal was announced about 35 minutes prior to the Cross trade. In the meantime, Witt went to Nashville.
Wings give up a 4th and Cross was just on the Fan 590 and said he is at the hospital now, wife just had a baby. He talked with Holland and he will be a depth player. He will be with the Wings on Saturday for the morning skate.
Rivers to Phoenix
Rivers seems to be disappointed about leaving a Cup contender, but looking forward to a chance to no longer be a depth player.
“It’s tough to leave a contender, but it’s not a secret that I’ve been more of a depth guy this year and haven’t really contributed much in terms of games played,” Rivers told TSN. “I just think it’s an opportunity to show that I can play more minutes in this league and maybe play a bigger role. You never know where the Coyotes might end up in a couple of years.”
The 30 year old has only played 15 games this season earning one assist in that timespan while making the league minimum of $450,000. This gave GM Holland an extra roster space to bring in someone else (originally thought to be Brendan Witt before he went to Nashville) and a seventh round pick in 2006. IwoCPO at Abel to Yzerman has some thoughts on Rivers being sent to Phoenix:
Did Holland deal Rivers, clear space, in anticipation of a pending Witt deal that fell through? Or maybe he was angling for Willie Mitchell, who just went to Dallas? If so, he obviously has to take some blame. But, if that was the case what did he lose by taking a chance? Jamie Rivers, who wasn’t going to see the ice in the postseason, in exchange for Cross who may not either?
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December 31st, 2006 at 3:42 pm
[…] Fortunately for Oilers fans everywhere, the Red Wings acquired Cory Cross at the trading deadline providing plenty of fodder come playoff time. The Wings also sent Jamie Rivers to Phoenix in exchange for a seventh round draft pick. […]