It was a virtual certainty that the Calgary Flames were going to trade defenceman Kris Russell prior to the 2016 NHL Trade Deadline. The playoffs were out of sight, Russell was on an expiring deal and there really weren’t a lot of other defensive rental options out there.
The trade was expected. The high price the Dallas Stars were willing to pay was not.
Before we get to the richness of that return package, we need to spend some time on Russell to explain why the collection of assets the Stars parted with represented an overpayment as well as the reasons why Dallas should not have prioritized him in its search for defensive help.
Maybe the best way to highlight Russell’s problems is to look at the defencemen he played with this season. There’s been injury and upheaval on Calgary’s blue line, so the coaching staff has tried a lot of different pairings. In all, Russell has played at least an hour at five-on-five with four different partners.
That’s helpful, because we can scroll through the quartet and see how each player has done with and without Russell. Our chosen me ...
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Article written by Jonathan Willis
Dallas Stars’ Unnecessary Move for Flames D Kris Russell Comes at Steep Cost
February 29th, 2016 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
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