from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,

- ... A year ago, the lead trade suspect around the NHL was Rick Nash, and Sweeney outbid all suitors with a package that included a first-round draft pick, defensive prospect Ryan Lindgren, along with Matt Beleskey and Ryan Spooner. A year later, from Boston’s perspective, the art of the deal was offloading Spooner and Beleskey, a pair of wingers once thought to be essential offensive elements (they combined for 59 goals while wearing the Spoked-B). Today they are Exhibit A: addition by subtraction.

Nash was the real deal and, by market standards in recent years, worth the goods that Sweeney yielded. For about two weeks. Until Nash was dealt yet another concussion, this one ultimately proving to be his express pass to retirement. So it goes in the caveat emptor world of deadline deals. Right deal, wrong outcome, reminiscent of the 1994 deadline swap that had then-GM Harry Sinden plucking Al Iafrate from Washington for Joe Juneau....

- ... What happened? By Murray’s eye “lack of emotion” has been the culprit. By an outsider’s eye, the Ducks’ Big Three look like toast.

Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, and Ryan Kesler are all age 33-plus, each closing in on 1,000 games, and each with high-priced, no-move deals for at least two more years (three for Kesler). To be fair, Perry has just returned, post-surgery, after tearing up a knee in the preseason. If he can get back in gear, Perry can move the needle.

But overall, the Ducks are hurting for speed and also lack the talented youth corps that virtually every team now tries to have in on-the-job training. Without the developing ride-a-long component — witness Boston last season with Jake DeBrusk and Danton Heinen, and this season with Matt Grzelcyk — aging, heavy rosters such as Anaheim’s are destined for a slow roll to nowhere. The Ducks look like they’re getting nowhere even faster.

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