The Salary Cap Trade: Unloading the Expensive and the Unwanted

The NHL's first salary cap season has its first major trade.

It is generally understood that the blockbuster deal will be a rarity in a cap-controlled NHL. To stay under the $39 million payroll ceiling, most teams can't pick up a big salary unless they dump players earning at least an equal amount.

But the Columbus Blue Jackets took on Sergei Fedorov and his fat contract today. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks get forward Tyler Wright and defenseman Francois Beauchemin in return.

Several ways to look at this one:

1. The Blue Jackets exchange a couple of nobodies for a six-time All Star and 1994 NHL MVP, a guy who has been called the best two-way centerman in the world.
2. The Ducks dump a fading 35-year-old star who has one assist in five games.
3. A mediocre, expensive team with too many highly paid underachievers, Anaheim creates some badly needed cap space by dumping over $6 million in salary and taking just $1.5 million in return. In Columbus, the Ducks find one of the few teams with both the depseration and the cap room to go for the deal. With scoring star Rick Nash injured, the Blue Jackets can't beat anyone this year. Time to roll the dice.

On the ice, the Fedorov trade might turn out to be a timely move by the Ducks or a steal for the Jackets. But it's the dollars that make the deal in the new NHL. The dollars drove this trade, and will drive many more for years to come.

Postscript: Having acquired Fedorov, the BJs are looking to do some salary dumping of their own. Todd Marchant has been put on waivers while the team tries to deal him. A fast, decent centerman, Marchant makes $2.47 million, with another three years left on his contract.

In the midst of all this, has anyone stopped to consider whether GM Doug Maclean knows what he's doing in Columbus? Aside from lucking into Rick Nash with the top draft pick in 2002, what has he done to move this team forward?