In Two Days the Flames Make Two Monster Trades: Jokinen and Kotalik Analysis

Wow, in two days hockey fans have been treated to three monster trades. It's been a quiet season but it two days, a couple of teams have made a big bang. The Calgary Flames and the Toronto Maple Leafs have made the biggest. Whether or not those trades will help those teams moving forward is the biggest question that only time can really answer.

The Flames have parted ways with Olli Jokinen and Brandon Purst for Ales Kotalik and Chris Higgins. The Flames, who have lost 10 of their past 11 games going 1-7-3 in that period have been struggling to score goals. In order to wake his team up and add ammunition to scoring guns, he's parted ways with two above average players in Jokinen and Dion Phaneuf for a bunch of complimentary players. He's added center Matt Stajan, winger Nicklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers, and Ian White along with Kotalik and Higgins.

The big winners in the trade could be the Rangers as Kotalik has been a healthy scratch in eight of the past nine games and Higgins has only six goals and 14 points in 55 games. The Rangers have shredded Kotalik's contract to give them some breathing room against the cap ceiling for this season and the next two seasons.

Kotalik was once a 20 goal scorer but has fallen out of favor with every coach he's had, as has Higgins. If Jokinen and Gaborik find some chemistry together then the Rangers will have won this deal. Jokinen is a center whose very capable of scoring goals, he has four 30 plus goal seasons.

If a line combination of sniper Marian Gaborik, playmaking winger Vaclav Prospal, and enigma center Olli Jokinen find chemistry with each other, the Rangers might have some more offense, and could lessen the burden on Gaborik to score for them every night. However, if Jokinen doesn't find a scoring touch, the Rangers can say goodbye to him after July 1st.

In all their trades, the Flames have added four top six players, that's being generous counting Higgins and Kotalik as top six players. Kotalik will get his chance coming in to show if he can help the Flames offense but if he doesn't produce, it's more than likely he'll find himself in the dog house of another coach and Daryl Sutter will get heat from management, fans, and the media about adding a useless three million a year contract with Kotalik for two more seasons after this one. Higgins on the other hand will have to prove himself in order to get another contract from the Flames or another NHL team if he wants to play in the NHL beyond this season.

None of the players the Flames have added are difference makers, realistically only Hagman and possibly Stajan out of the new players coming in will have an effect to the Flames horrendous offense. On paper Matt Stajan is an upgrade from Jokinen, Stajan has 16 goals and 41 points in 56 games, while Jokinen has 11 goals and 35 points in 57 games.

The Flames currently sit in 9th place and desperately need to earn some points to make the playoffs. They also need to try and get themselves into at least the 6th seed to avoid facing San Jose and Chicago in the first round. Can these players help them? We'll find out soon.

On the other hand, the Rangers have a much easier hill to climb in the East than the Flames do in the ultra competitive West. The Rangers sit in the 7th seed right now but have played two more games than the Thrashers who have 56 points and three more games than the Bruins who have 55 points. Jokinen will need to make an impact immediately to help the Rangers earn some points before the two week break for the Olympics.