Make New Friends, But Keep The Old

Okay, everyone, let's all sit down and take one massive deep breath, shall we?

I started out with news of this trade feeling extraordinarily distraught. We've gotten used to guys like Smith and Jokinen, who we drafted, and we've gotten to know and like Jeff Halpern quite a bit after he signed with us. We learn a lot of random little factoids about these guys through game-day interviews and the like, like Mike Smith's affinity for Ping-Pong and Guitar Hero, Jussi's not so great English and Halpie's affinity for injuring members of his own team.

More than anything, they're talented players who have worked hard for the team and did quite a bit for the community, whether it was visiting sick kids or volunteering their time, or making extra time to sit and talk with a little kid at practice. In short, they were professional athletes that the city of Dallas and any Stars fan took pride in. Now, they're gone.

I sincerely hope they do well. Jeff Halpern had a two-point night in Tampa Bay in their last game against the Wild. While Smitty was the losing goaltender, everyone raved about his performance and he's getting the chance to be a starting goaltender, something that was not going to happen for him here in Dallas. Jokinen's playing on a line with Lecavalier and St. Louis, and frankly, there's far worse places to be. I hope Tampa treats every single one of them well.

Given the fact that Richards played for a cellar-dwelling Eastern Conference team, I knew relatively little about him. The absolute shock I had at pulling up his stats and verifying that his contract totals were correct and were not typos was half-like getting sucker-punched in the stomach.

Why? Okay, let's be generous here. Let's use Richards' stats from last night for the season, even though he earned five assists and a plus rating.

Games Played: 63
Goals: 18
Assists: 38
Points: 56
+/- Rating: -23

Now you tell me "We are going to pay this guy $7.8 million a year." Well, part of what we're paying him for is his proven playoff experience, which granted, is impressive. A Conn Smythe winner, the dude's already got his name on the Stanley Cup. But woah, those numbers?

That much? For those numbers? Wait a minute, we've got a top eight scorer in the NHL on our team already? What's his name? Blibs? Ribbons? Ribeiro, that's it!

At this point Ribs has:

Games Played: 65
Goals: 26
Assists: 48
Points: 74
+/- Rating: +23

Huh. Wait, we're paying Ribeiro $5 million a year.

So, I think it's understandable that I was confused. Lost. In a sea of disarray and searching for an answer here. Richard is a center and we were told Hullie was going to go out and buy the best wingman he could for Modano. While Richards is versatile, I don't think he's what most fans envisioned as a pickup. Marty's making $5 million plus a year, we just upped Ribeiro's contract. Mike Modano did us a huge favor and gave us the hometown discount by front loading his contract extension as well as discounting his price tag.

Woah. I mean, that's a lot of money. And in addition, we'll probably need to resign some guys who are having record seasons. We should resign Miettinen. We definitely should resign Hagman.

So it made me twitchy and nervous. Given the fact that myself and other Stars fans felt the best idea was not to mess with a good thing, the Richards trade felt like someone had dropped a piano on your head.

We gave up three much beloved players (plus a pick) for a guy we'd never really heard of, nor had any major dealings with. Pardon us Stars fans our cynicism, but there have been some guys signed who never delivered as promised. Those first-round playoff exits are crushing fans. Given the fact the Stars were coming off of one of their best months ever, I don't think many fans seriously felt we needed a trade.

You have to give Richards credit though; he's a Stanley Cup winner who was on a team that obviously was rejecting its coach, had terrible defense, virtually no goaltending to speak of and a complete and utter mess in the front office. The whole team seems to sag with the weight of that craziness on its proverbial shoulders. So you have to think that part of Richards' numbers is the sheer situation he found himself in Tampa.

Brad Richards hit the proverbial home run in his debut against the Blackhawks.

At this extremely limited point, we've gotten the slight edge over the Bolts in the trade, that's for sure. I feel better about Richards playing for us. Now, there is no way whatsoever that a good trade and a five point night justifies everyone and their dog calling this THE BRAD RICHARDS ERA. Get over it, MSM. Please stop calling this trade the beginnings of the Richards era in Dallas. He's played one game.

I like the trade more and more as we get farther down the line, but I have few doubts that there will be some bobbles along the way and that we shall have to mess with the numbers to make the cap work, most notably getting rid of Matty Norstrom.

It's a good thing for us, it just certainly didn't feel like it at the time. The closer we inch to the end of the season, though, I feel as if playoffs will really be the litmus test for Mr. Richards, and then we can go from there.

Welcome to Dallas, Brad. I sincerely hope you like it here.