Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Robbie Earl for Ryan Hamilton

The Wild made a trade today with the Leafs sending Ryan Hamilton to the Toronto Marlies (duh) in exchange for Robbie Earl.

Looks like a fairly even trade, stats- and position-wise, so I wonder what the impetus for this trade is. More later...

From THN:

Minnesota assistant general manager Tom Lynn says Earl "adds the elements of speed and energy that will strengthen our prospect base and improve team speed and attack in Houston."

It's notable that this is a homecoming for Ryan, as he's from nearby Oshawa. Hopefully it's not too unpleasant a transition for him, but it's never easy, I'm sure. He's been kind of a fixture here.

Same could be said for Earl, who's in his third pro year with the Marlies. I do remember his name as kind of a threat guy, so this could be interesting. His scoring is down this year, so maybe the ubiquitous "change of scenery" will help him find the back of the net. The Aeros could use that.

Anyway, welcome to the land of shorts and flip-flops in January, Robbie! Aeros fans will miss you bunches, Hammy. Go get 'em.

Interview with Robbie Earl right here. Danke schoen to Mr. Falness for that. Just poking around the Marlies section of the Leafs message board, they're sad to see him go. I guess it's mutual.

UPDATE: I'm also reminded that Ryan's sister works for the Marlies. They're getting the band back together!

Also, here's the Leafs board talking about it. After a trade like this, I always find it kind of amusing to watch other fans swish the deal around in their mouths a bit and try and sort out what they think of it, gather information, etc. Though someone should tell Canada how to spell Houston.

5 comments:

AJ  January 21, 2009 at 6:36 PM  

I already miss Hamilton. Dude was such a hard worker you couldn't help but appreciate him, especially with Pouliot back.

Ms. Conduct  January 21, 2009 at 6:40 PM  

I agree. He was one of my favorite Aeros. I sure wish him well though. I'd love to see him get a cuppa there.

Fred Trask  January 21, 2009 at 6:45 PM  

Make that 3.

I owe him a print and now it'll be a lot tougher to get it to him. Ryan always gave you his all. He may not have been the most talented on the ice each shift but he sure gave 100% and make the other guys look kinda bad. I'm happy he's going to Toronto though.

Earl stood out for me in the Toronto game as THE guy with the most hustle and some skill. My understanding was he was in a bit of a scoring drought but he sure worked hard and was very speedy.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf)  January 21, 2009 at 11:07 PM  

So, by all accounts Hamilton is a hard worker, eh? Bodes well for the Leafs, I guess. Enjoy Earl. He's got speed, and def. some upside. I'm kind of sad to see him go, even though he barely played any games with the big boys.

Ms. Conduct  January 22, 2009 at 8:21 AM  

Yeah, eyebleaf, he's a VERY hard worker, leaves it all on the ice, heart on his sleeve kinda guy. His knock is his speed, but if you can put him with guys who will get the puck to the net and play a bit of a puck possession style, he's in his glory there and he'll pay the price to get the puck at the net. Seems like so few guys are willing to battle around the net and go to the dirty areas, but he's one who will.

I can understand why Burkie was impressed with him, as it was the game where he had that great goal to tie it up and the celebration that had me swooning a little bit. Here's my post about it.

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