The Stanley Cup Finals are another Edmonton Oilers against Florida Panthers showdown this season, and it has been a barn-burner of a series! Three of the first four games have gone to overtime and were won in dramatic fashion.
Leon Draisaitl scored both the overtime winners for Edmonton, and the player I love to bash, Brad Marchand, scored the OT winner for Florida. Neither of these performances surprised me, but I have been surprised by the play of former Detroit Red Wing, Jake Walman.
I haven't been surprised because I thought Walman was a bad hockey player. Quite the opposite. He was one of my favorite players in his time with the Wings, and has to be the worst trade that Steve Yzerman has made since being a general manager of any team.
During the offseason before the 24-25 campaign, Walman was mysteriously traded to the San Jose Sharks, along with a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft for future considerations. We all know by now that future considerations mean the Wings received absolutely nothing in return except the ability to drop a contract from their salary cap.
Walman has been solid in the playoffs for Edmonton leading up to the Finals, and has really come alive since the series started. He had an assist on the first goal of the series when he put a shot from the blue line right on Sergei Bobrovsky.
The rebound ended up on Draisaitl's stick, where it went straight to the back of the net. In Game 2, Walman had an assist on the biggest Oilers goal of the night. The net was empty for the Oilers, and fewer than 30 seconds were left in the game. On a feed from Connor McDavid, Walman put the puck on the net again from the blue line.
It took a great bounce off Bobrovsky into the slot, where Corey Perry found it and tied the game with less than 18 seconds left! The Oilers did lose the game, but what an ending.
Even though Game 3 was a blowout loss for Edmonton, Walman showed up for his team in a way that doesn't make it on the scoresheet. In a feisty game, he picked up $10,000 in fines for a couple of old-time hockey incidents.
He roughed up another player I can't stand, Matthew Tkachuk, earning the first $5,000 fine of the night. The second incident was even better. After having his glove stolen by A.J. Greer, he got back to his bench and grabbed a water bottle, which he used to spray water on the Florida players sitting on the end of their bench! It was priceless, and the video went viral on social media.
The Detroit Red Wings were shortsighted to drop Jake Walman from the team
I knew as soon as the Jake Walman trade happened, it was a huge mistake. Then I felt even worse about the trade when Walman scored his second goal of the playoffs. In a must-win Game 4 with his team down 2-1 in the series, Walman game through, scoring the go-ahead goal to break the 3-3 tie with just over six minutes left in the game.
His shot was an absolute missile that flew past Bobrovsky and made a great goaltender look like a chump. The Panthers did tie the game in the final seconds forcing overtime, but we all know how that ended.
Now I'm not saying that Walman is the best defenseman in the NHL, or that he is going to win the Conn Smythe Trophy this year. What I am saying is that Yzerman was absolutely mental to trade Walman for nothing while he had a good contract and loved being in Detroit.
The fact that he was dropped for cap space, but then the Wings signed Joe Veleno to a new contract and picked up Erik Gustafsson, just made me sick. I can't believe Yzerman couldn't have dropped Veleno for someone from the Griffins on an entry-level contract, not signed Gustafsson, and freed up the money to keep Walman.
Although I really miss having Walman on the Red Wings roster, I do love seeing him kicking butt on another team. The fact that he is helping defeat a divisional opponent of the Wings is just icing on the cake.
I really hope that he can get his name engraved on Lord Stanley's Cup by the end of next week. Nothing would make me happier than to see the Cup finally go back to Canada instead of Florida. Hockey and Florida just doesn't make sense to me!
