No trophies for this Calder

By Eric Redner

Ok, I'll admit it.

When I first heard that Philadelphia shipped 'Zeus' (Michal Handzus for those of you that forgot about hockey by now) to Chicago for Kyle Calder, I was thinking that this was a good move.

At the time of the trade this team had more centers than New Jersey had crooked politicians. They were in need of a good left winger.

Calder seemed to fit the bill as he was coming off a banner year and finished with a career-high 26 goals for a rebuilding Blackhawks team. At 27-years-old, he should have fit in perfectly on a second line with the potential to move to the front line should something befall Simon Gagne.

Sadly, that has not been the case.

Calder has exactly three points, all assists, in 26 games this year. Also, he is tied with the now-waived Petr Nedved with a minus-20, dead last on the team. This from a guy who had 59 points last season, maybe it's the water in this city.

Handzus, on the other hand, has three goals and five assists on the season, almost triple the amount of Calder. While this might not seem to be much considering the season is a little over one-third done, keep in mind that Handzus has played eight games compared to 26 for Calder. Sadly for Zeus, he tore his ACL less than a month into the season and will have to sit out the rest of the campaign.

You know what? I think I'd still rather have Handzus on the team,even with the injury.

The speculation in the city before the trade was that it was a big "IF" that Keith Primeau was going to be able to play again this season. Well, a little over a month later Primeau announced he was calling it quits due to post-concussion syndrome. The smart move, in my humble hindsight opinion, would have been to keep Handzus and see how Primeau worked out. If the captain played fine, then they could have dealt Handzus.

Now we are missing what could have been three top centers since Primeau and Handzus are gone and Peter Forsberg has been limited to 22 games and just 16 points due in part to an ankle problem and difficulty finding a skate that allows him to play comfortably.

Handzus is one of those gritty players who might not be great at anything, but he can do all things well. Just about any situation he could be called upon to do his duty and in his three seasons with the Flyers he missed just nine games.

What has Calder done? Well, I already mentioned that. Oh, and the three games he was benched, partly because he skipped an optional practice, the Flyers went 2-1. Included in those games was the Flyers best offensive output of the season, a 7-4 stomping of the stingy Anaheim Ducks.

I'm not trying to say that everything that is wrong with the Flyers is Calder's fault, he is just symptomatic of the franchise, it's probably too late to trade him for anyone good (I'd take decent right now) and it's probably too late for the team to do anything this season.