from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,
A few years ago I was in a press box in Los Angeles, kibitzing with an executive from a team that employed Daniel Carcillo. He, like Kaleta (and you can insert Raffi Torres in here as well), is 10 times more dangerous than any fighter—at least you know when the fighter is coming. The exec said, and I paraphrase because it was not a conversation to be written down, “I’d be happy if Carcillo wasn’t in the league. But if he is going to be, I want him on my team instead of having to play against him.”
Over the weekend, 29 GMs had a chance to snap up Patrick Kaleta under those same pretenses. Vancouver GM Mike Gillis could have replaced Tom Sestito with a swifter, harder-to-play-against Kaleta; any number of soft, push-over teams could have seen him as an inoculation against being too easy to play against; Ottawa, in need of a spark, could have found one in the rambunctious, totally unpredictable winger. But 29 GMs looked at the waiver wire, and passed. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the biggest sign of progress against on-ice violence that we have seen in some time.
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