Against the Trade Deadline: A Polemic
Fuck the trade deadline.
I hate this time of year. There is no time in the NHL calendar- not UFA Day, not the All-Star Game, not even the Awards show- more subject to bullshit and stupidity than the trade deadline. Or, more accurately, the three weeks or so before the trade deadline, when everybody and their grandmother spends 80% of their hockey-time either A) making stuff up, or B) very earnestly discussing stuff other people made up. It’s a season defined by fragmentary gossip, nonsensical rumors, unfounded speculation, and flat-out masturbatory fantasy, a time when even the most stolid and respectable commentators go a bit loony over maybes and possiblies and oh-wouldn’t-it-be-nice-ifs. It is the great annual harvest of made-up shit.
just because fans make it annoying - like they do to everything else on the face of the earth that is capable of having fans - doesn’t mean it’s not necessary to the sport.
