2 Trades and a Player-Team Rivarly

[Grape 739]

The secret to the creation of a good rivalry is its spontaneity. Pre-planned “rivalries” will almost always fall flat, lacking that bite that naturally formed rivalries create. Think about during the NHL expansion to Seattle, where the media was really trying to push a Seattle-Vancouver rivalry before Seattle even drafted their team. Now, there really isn’t much talk between those teams. Proximity is not a reason to create a rivalry. The best rivalries are the ones formed by accident.

 

The Trades

 

Let’s go way back to the far-away time of Season 86. Upon taking the helm for the Ottawa Lynx, I was trying to use the hand dealt to me to craft a championship caliber team. The squad was chugging along, and we were snuggled up near the top of the league. Of course, smooth sailing doesn’t last forever, and Don Aven (@Novanod) one of the top players on the team, requested a trade to San Diego due to an existing relationship with the team’s GM. My hand was forced and a trade transpired, resulting in a respectable return for a top player.

A swap of 1sts (Las Vegas ended up turning into the #1 overall) and an exchange of two lower TPE players for a maxed player. Yes the team got weaker, but things were still on course. However, there was a bit of an issue now. While it’s always nice to bring in more bodies, there was a significant need on defense. Teams strive for a balance of 6 forwards and 4 defensemen, and now, with a forward to spare, I looked to bolster the blue line, and I found a partner in Miami.

A max defenseman coming into Ottawa, while two picks and a player to Miami. Now, these trades aren’t inherently that interesting, I mean, teams trade around players all the time. The uniqueness of these trades, however, come from two things. Firstly, there’s a common player involved in both trades. Keita Kourou (@woog) had quite the journey, going from San Diego, all the way up North and East to Ottawa, then back down South and East to Miami. A bit of a pain, sure, but that’s not the worst of it. The second factor that plays into this, is the amount of time between these trades. The first trade was posted on November 24th. The second was posted on November 26th. Poor Keita went through three teams in the span of two days. The worst part about it is that they didn’t even join the Ottawa LR until AFTER they were traded to Miami. Obviously, Keita was not too big of a fan of this transaction.

 

The Rivalry
 

Keita Kourou has not made it easy to forget about this, as they’ve made a handful of articles and mentions of Ottawa (along with San Diego) in pressers discussing their disdain for how all of this transpired, and has spoken out about how driven they are to see Ottawa fail, while wanting to play a part in that. As for their individual performance, they’ve strived in Miami, sitting at roughly a 1.6ppg pace this season, and helping Miami sit a 4th in the league as of now. Ottawa, on the other hand, has stayed in form, battling it out with Mexico City for 1st place. With Keita sitting at 200 TPA and guaranteed to graduate at the end of this season, they have one last chance to make Ottawa pay in the playoffs, assuming Miami matches up with them in the first place.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Grape