The Minnesota Wild stole Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks

Article content

Article content

Article content

Article content

Maybe a few more than that — depending on your personal view or willingness to argue.

The Edmonton duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are better. Same with Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar on the best team in hockey in Colorado. And the multi-time scoring champ, Nikita Kucherov is better.

And then who?

Maybe his Minnesota teammate Kirill Kaprizov. Maybe David Pastrnak in Boston. Maybe Miro Heiskanen in Dallas. Maybe the old man, Sidney Crosby, in Pittsburgh or the young man, Macklin Celebrini, in San Jose.

A lot of maybes.

Article content

Article content

Such as Hartford trading away Chris Pronger at the age of 20.

Jim Rutherford made that deal in 1995. Thirty years later, he traded Hughes to Minnesota on Friday for a bevy of prospects and a whole lot of hope.

Trading young defencemen is always an uncomfortable gamble. At various times, Hall of Famers such as Chris Chelios, Scott Stevens, Paul Coffey and Pronger changed teams at 26 years of age or younger.

Article content

Minnesota won this one. It should be going Wild over this trade.

Are five more years of Shapiro a good thing?

It’s no secret that I don’t care much for Mark Shapiro. I find him arrogant, occasionally disrespectful, dismissive of the Blue Jays history, with a very ordinary resume over his 30-plus years in Major League Baseball. But after this magical Blue Jays season, where everything but a World Series win fell into place, he had to be re-signed as president of the club. He did make the stadium better. Give him credit for overspending his budget on that. He and general manager Ross Atkins tripped their way into making the Blue Jays a better team. But they did it. Five more years of Shapiro will give him 15 with the Blue Jays. That’s two fewer seasons than Pat Gillick chose to last. That’s a long run for any team president in any sport. Maybe five years from now there will be a World Series win to talk about. Or maybe a personal revelation that he’ll find a way to properly pronounce his last name … The Shane Bieber myth is over. He didn’t choose to stay with the Blue Jays because he loved the team, the city or a combination of both. He chose to stay so that he wouldn’t have to undergo another physical examination had he signed anywhere else. He’s not sure about his arm right now and didn’t want anyone to know about the uncertainty. So he settled on the player option and took the money. And who knows what the Jays get from him, now or in the future… How much does the hiring of Jays coach Drew Butera have to do with Alejandro Kirk’s pitch selection in Game 7 of the World Series? Butera is a former big-league catcher and son of Sal Butera, who had a short stint with the Jays as a catcher late in his career … Most people assume that Edward Rogers is the owner of the Blue Jays — and I have made that mistake — but he is not. He is chairman of the team. The corporation, Rogers, owns the club. Rogers and CEO Tony Staffieri act almost as co-owners of the club. And so far, they have acted spectacularly well in opening purse strings for the Jays, unlike almost any franchise in baseball. Rogers and Staffieri have become the biggest spenders in the American League and that includes the suddenly gone conservative New York Yankees … Now that Shapiro has his new deal, expect manager John Schneider and GM Atkins to get extensions on their contracts as well … The Jays are playing a dangerous game in picking favourites to drop stories on: Some reporters were given a heads-up on the Shapiro signing. Some who cover the Jays were not. It’s never wise to operate that way unless the only people you’re leaking to are the ones who happen to be employed by your company.

Article content

Jeff Kent doesn’t pass the Cooperstown eye test

Dan Shulman has said this more than once: You’ll know a Hall of Famer when you see one. It was easy with Roberto Alomar and Joe Morgan and even Ryne Sandberg. But never once, watching Jeff Kent play second base, did I think Hall of Famer. But clearly a group of 16 voters, including seven Hall of Fame players, saw Kent differently He got 14 of 16 votes from the Contemporary Era committee and will be inducted this summer … Another former Jay, Carlos Delgado, received nine votes or 56% from the committee. He needed 75%. When Delgado was first eligible for the Hall in 2015, he received just 3.8% of the vote and was dropped after one year on the writers’ ballot. Look for him to get elected to the Class of 2029 … Those who didn’t watch Delgado much with the Jays have no idea of his greatness. His career OPS is better than Hank Aaron’s. His home runs per at bat total is better than Aaron, Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Frank Robinson and Reggie Jackson to name a few … Anyone who has covered Olympic sport for a lengthy period of time is familiar with the pre-Games screaming about venues not being built on schedule. They always get completed in some way, some hastily, some barely able to house events, so often over budget, and I expect the hockey rink at the Milan Games will be as ready as it can be. I remember once in Athens at the 2004 Olympics, construction workers were putting down asphalt in the venue about an hour before the Games were to open … The membership of the WNBA can’t seem to help themselves. Caitlin Clark has changed their world and they still can’t admit it. The rather spectacular A’ja Wilson was named Time Magazine’s athlete of the year — which was a bad choice ahead of Shohei Ohtani, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Saquon Barkley — but in their cover story were more veiled shots at Clark and how much she has done, or hasn’t done, for the business of women’s basketball … How much do the Raptors miss the injured RJ Barrett? Put it this way: They’re 12-5 with him in the lineup, 3-6 without him … The thought of the Raptors taking a shot at Anthony Davis is fascinating, considering the state of the NBA’s Eastern Conference. The cost, however, may just be too high.

Article content

Mark Stone belongs on Olympic Team Canada

Article content

Berube deserves kudos if Leafs make playoffs

Article content