Darryl Sydor vs. Philippe Boucher

On Sunday news came out of a trade as Pittsburgh and Dallas swapped defenseman.

Dallas gets Darryl Sydor in this deal where as Pittsburgh gets Philippe Boucher.

This trade would not have been made a couple of years ago, since just two seasons ago Boucher was a 19 goal man and Sydor has been a 5th or 6th d-man for the last few seasons but injuries to Boucher have made this deal possible. Darryl Sydor has barely been playing for Pittsburgh, and with the injuries to Boucher, this deal is taking two defenseman who haven't been contributing much to their respective teams and seeing if a new face in the locker room can inject some life into each team respectively.

Pittsburgh really appears to be the winner of this deal even if Boucher becomes injured again. For a defense that hasn't been using Sydor, it's not as if they will miss him. Though there is some suggestion that Sydor's veteran leadership and presence in the locker room will be missed, Pittsburgh is a team with enough drive, determination, and experience from last years playoff run, that the need for veteran leadership appears to be less than their need for a a powerful shot from the right handed point. Pittsburgh's power play has been alright this year, but with the offensive talent that they possess, it appears that Ray Shero is expecting more from them. Pittsburgh did lose some significant players during the off-season (Hossa and Malone) and from injuries (Whitney and Gonchar) and so it makes sense that the power play would take a hit but Shero seems to expect more of them than their currently 11th ranked power play is showing. As such, Boucher seems to fill a significant hole in Pittsburgh's game. A top power play unit of Crosby, Satan, Sykora, with Malkin and Boucher on the point seems to really make sense, and though Alex Goligoski has done a good job, he's not an all star yet, nor a real power play quarterback like Gonchar or Boucher.

As for Darryl Sydor, perhaps he will be able to right some of the problems in the Dallas Stars locker room but I would not be surprised if we see more moves from Les Jackson and Brett Hull, the co-GM's of the Dallas Stars. Sydor seems only to be a 5th or 6th defenseman at this point in his career and so his impact will probably come in the locker room or as a mentor to a young Stars defensive corps. Dallas was expected to contend for the division lead with Anaheim and San Jose, but currenly has only 15 points in 17 games, where as San Jose is leading the division with 31 points in 19 games. Dallas is already 16 points behind with only two games at hand. You can't usually win your division in the first quarter of the year but Dallas may have already lost it. Consequently I foresee more changes to come in Dallas, and they will be more signicant than picking up Darryl Sydor. There have been rumors of Dave Tippett losing his job as head coach and that could easily happen, or we could see other significant deals taking place.

Either way, this seems like a desperate move by a Stars' team needing to kickstart their players and I for one don't expect it to be successful. By trading away one of there better defenseman and getting less in return, it seems as if they are moving further from elite in the Western Conference rather than further. We shall just have to wait and see.

Aidan.