Gentleman PK

Canada finally made its contribution to the international bad decision competition: Rather than supporting crazy politicians or damaging our economic future, we went with what we know well: bad hockey trades. The Montreal Canadiens stepped up and traded star defenceman PK Subban to Nashville for star defenceman Shea Weber.

That's quite a headscratcher. It's pretty unusual to have a trade of two players at the same position, unless there are other players or draft picks thrown in, or the players have vastly different contracts. But nope, it's a one-for-one swap of offensively-gifted defencemen, each with several years left on expensive contracts. The biggest difference between the players is age: Subban just turned 27, while Weber is about to turn 31. Weber is making less money, but by the arcane workings of the NHL salary cap, the money they save will make little difference in their ability to sign new players. And there's the big problem that Subban's contract is for another six years, but Weber's is ten more years, until he's 40. So this must be one of those situations where the trade only makes sense with those newfangled advanced statistics that geeks and Brad Pitt believe in. Nope, turns out they agree the Habs got hosed.

So it's hard to avoid the simplified view of the trade: Montreal just traded a player entering his prime for a similar player who's just exiting his prime. And that's why the explanations turn to personalities. Word is that the team was in a the-player-goes-or-the-coach-goes situation. But again, you have to have a pretty special coach to choose him over a star player. But coach Michel Therrien is coming off a disasterous season in which the Habs had their best ever start to a season and still managed to miss the playoffs. One would think that he'd be gone as soon as management has the slightest excuse.

Thus, I've done my due dilligence, and I can't come up with any sensible reason for this trade. So let's talk about race. No, I'm definitely not saying the Canadiens traded Subban because he's black. But this trade is only the latest aspect of Subban's career that just doesn't seem to add up. Last summer, the Canadiens were looking for a new captain, and it seemed odd that not only did Subban not get the title, but didn't even get discussed among the media. Usually captancies go to a player which is some combination of the best or most commanding player, which would seem to be him. Then, there's all this talk about "personality" and "attitude" being disliked or problematic, but which never seems to be linked to any examples. Or if he does get criticized for actual actions, it's for something that rates about a one-out-of-ten on the scale of objectionable hockey behaviour.

His treatment seems to be a good example of modern bigotry, where most people don't have a negative view of that person from a different group, but they look at them a little differently. Behaviour that would normally be accepted without a thought gets seen through a negative lens. And hockey is a fertile ground for such mischaracterization: it's a culture in which there are a lot of not-so-socially-acceptable behaviours that we've learned to look the other way on. When you drop somone into that world who is going to be closely analyzed and criticized for any bad behaviour, it's inevitable that person is going to be seen negatively, even if they're no worse than their peers.

Hopefully things will work out better in Nashville. It may be in the American south, but at least it doesn't have the media fishbowl a Canadian team has.