First of all, where were all of you bashers during the past few seasons when Pogge was, for the lack of a better term, less than stellar in the minors. His struggles were well documented (by both Leaf haters and Leaf fans) but the majority of Leaf fans seemed to think, “Oh he’ll turn it around” or “You’ll see, he’s still our goalie for the future.” As soon of news of the trade broke, these same people seem to have flipped their position entirely, and now his is magically considered a bust, because they say so. Yes, a goals against average hovering close to 3, and a save percentage barely over .900 in the minors is weak, maybe even bad, but as much as it pains me to say this, the statistics don’t tell the whole story.

Over the course of his 3 years with the Marlies, I watched him. Although many nights he was off, he DID show improvement. For some reason he had the immense pressure of a high first round draft pick, even though he was a late 3rd rounder. There is a reason why he was drafted in the 3rd round, folks. He is still currently improving his game, and adjusting to the professional game. Yes it has been 3 seasons, but he still needs more time. People seem to forget that he is barely 23 years old. Goaltenders take a lot of time to reach their full potential. His potential is still there, which leads me to my second point.

HE IS NOT A BUST. Justin Pogge is still fully capable of being a starting goaltender in the NHL. I stick with the position I took in a scouting report I did on him a year ago. He was traded because he does not fit into the Leafs’ plans anymore. With Toskala and Gustavsson there for the time being, and Brian Burke very high on the other young Leaf netminder James Reimer, it was Pogge’s time to go. He was not traded because he is a bust (despite what people seem to think all of a sudden) he was traded because he wanted to get a fair crack at a starting NHL job, which he wasn’t going to get in Toronto.

Unfortunately for him, he isn’t going to get that crack in Anaheim either. Anaheim is absolutely loaded with depth at the goaltender position. Giguere and Hiller are going to be around long term, and according to HockeysFuture, there are at least 4 other goaltenders in Anaheim’s system that are ahead of Pogge in the depth charts.

Another small problem? Anaheim has no AHL affiliate. The Iowa Chops and the Ducks cut ties, and it has left the Ducks affiliate-less. That means Pogge will have to settle for playing maybe 20 games with some random AHL team that will take him aboard (seriously, who wants some other team’s goalie starting all the games for their AHL affiliate?) or accept a job playing in the ECHL for the Ducks affiliate in Idaho. It will be a trying year for Pogge.

If you can take one thing away from this article, it’s that Pogge is definitely not a bust, and he was traded because of the situation he was in didn’t allow for him to move up the depth chart.  Anaheim isn’t exactly the greatest situation for him either, though.

Now while Pittsburgh soaks up the next few days, you can guess what the other 29 teams will be thinking about. Next season, starting with the Draft, then the opening day of free agency. You can tell that’s what they’re thinking about just by looking at some of the stories that have been reported in the past few days.

Lets start with the Flyers and their goaltending situation. Earlier this week the Flyers announced the signing of Ray Emery to a one-year $1.5 million contract. Many see it as a low-risk, high-reward kind of deal. I think any time you deal with Ray Emery, the situation is high risk. I’m not saying he’s a bad guy, but he has the capability of bringing down a team from the inside. What’s the best scenario? He has a stellar year, the Flyers go far in the playoffs riding his play, and he asks for major bucks in the off season, or leaves the team. That being said, this is Emery’s second chance at an NHL career, so to speak. He blew his first chance in Ottawa, so you can bet he won’t want to screw up his second chance in Philly. I really hope he stays on his best behaviour and succeeds, I really do. Then today we are hit with another shocker. Darren Dreger of TSN reports that the Flyers are interested in bringing Robert Esche back! He had a stellar year playing in the KHL, posting a 1.87 goals against average and .912 save percentage. If that report turns out to be true, you can kiss Martin Biron and Antero Niittymaki’s butts goodbye.

But then we’re forced to wonder, is a Emery-Esche tandem that much of an upgrade over a Biron-Niittymaki tandem? Is it even an upgrade at all? Sure they save a few bucks under the cap, but is it really worth taking such a risk with your goaltending situation? Only time will tell.

Then there was the Score’s report of Pronger being traded to LA for Jack Johnson and the 5th overall pick in this year’s draft. I saw that as soon as I turned on my TV and sat back, thought about it for a second, then muttered “What the hell is Los Angeles thinking??” Sure, lets trade away the 5th overall pick (Who I have as Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson in the Everything Hockey mock draft) and Jack Johnson, a former 3rd overall pick, for an older Chris Pronger, who has 1 year left on his contract and makes just over 4 million dollars more than Johnson. I really really hope LA has some kind of plan for this, like signing him to an extension and naming him captain or something. Seems to me like they could have just kept Rob Blake, a much cheaper leader.

I said that 29 teams will be thinking of next season already, but one team has a very unique situation. The Phoenix Coyotes aren’t just worried about their product on the ice, they are also worried about where the ice they will skate on will be located. Let me begin by saying I am a completely biased Hamiltonian. I have refrained from writing about the deal because of my bias. I would thouroughly enjoy having an NHL team in this city, as would hundreds of other people I know, but especially me seeing as how it would open all sorts of doors for jobs, especially in the media. So when you make the argument about how moving the team out of Phoenix will take away hundreds of jobs, think of all the jobs it would open up, especially to people like me! We all know what’s happening in terms of the court preceedings and so-on, so I won’t bore you with that. I just want you to know that the fan support for an NHL team in Hamilton is very real. The team will be immensly popular, and the area is a hockey gold mine. Oh…and Jim Balsillie for Prime Minister!