John Scott Was Traded To Montreal Most Likely To Strategically Get Him Out Of The All Star Game
There’s always at least one issue per year that reminds me of why I hate Hockey Twitter so much. This year, it was the Curious Case of John Scott And The NHL All Star Game. For those of you who aren’t quite up to speed, earlier this year John Scott was fan voted to be one of the 4 captains in this year’s ASG. This, despite, only registering 5 career goals and 11 career points in 285 games. And because of the way the fan voting system is set up, there was seemingly nothing the NHL could do about it and John Scott, who is regularly sent down to the AHL, was set to not only play in the all star game but be the captain of the Pacific division team. That is, of course, until today when John Scott was traded from the Arizona Coyotes to the Montreal Canadiens in a three-way deal with the Nashville Predators.
At first it was funny because what the hell are the Montreal Canadiens going to get out of John Scott? But after a while it was more of what the hell is the NHL going to get out of this trade and as Bobbo McKenzie is reporting, it was almost entirely to get him out of the All Star Game.
Now why does this make me hate Hockey Twitter? Well because these sons of bitches are never fucking happy. When John Scott was originally in the lead in ASG fan voting, they called the process a joke. And now that the NHL has stepped in to try to take John Scott out of the ASG, they’re calling it a joke. You can’t win with these bastards but now we’re living in a world where there are people who are legitimately bent out of shape over John Fucking Scott.
And here’s the thing. John Scott shouldn’t have been in this situation to begin with. He didn’t ask for this to happen. He should have never been allowed to get those votes in the first place. That’s completely on the NHL who did a god awful job at handling this entire situation. Don’t have a fan voting process if once those results don’t go your way you’re going go through actual lengths like this to change it. In a perfect world, you realize that you made a mistake by letting idiot fans vote for all stars, let John Scott play in this one and then change the voting process next season. But who actually gives a shit? It’s a meaningless game that probably nobody is going to watch anyway and I guess Hockey Twitter just needs something to be angry about.
And now you’ll have the people coming out saying that the NHL is hosing John Scott out of a chance to win the $90,000 bonus awarded to the winning team in the All Star Tournament. Well guess what people. John Scott is lucky to be making $575,000 a year for playing a game that quite frankly, he isn’t very good at. So don’t weep for John Scott. He’s making out like a bandit right now regardless because he should really be taking buses to games to begin with rather than flying on charter planes. Also, it looks like John Scott and his wife are expecting twins so there are people who are crying for John Scott that his family has to move now while dealing with that. And again, it’s a shitty situation to be in especially since he didn’t ask for this but the NHL is a business. Guys with families get traded all the time. It’s part of the job and these players go into the game knowing that. Especially players of John Scott’s caliber who probably realize they’re not going to stick with the same team for any longer than just a couple of seasons.
So TL;DR, it’s a shitty situation for John Scott but who gives a flying fuck? He’s still a professional hockey player and you still won’t watch the NHL All Star Game. It’s like a “if a tree falls in the woods but nobody hears it” type of situation but instead of falling in the woods the tree fell in Hockey Twitter’s lap and now they have to freak the hell out about it. /end rant.
P.S. – the real losers here are the Montreal Canadiens. Need to know what kind of incentive they got to make this deal.