Is Clarke getting senile in his old age?
Clarke circa 1998 "Bure's just as dumb as Nedved, and Nedved is an idiot."

Clarke circa 2006 "Nedved has always been a good scorer and a real good player and we think he'll solve some of our problems up front." Come on Bobby, get your story straight.

Clarke circa 1998 in reference to Nedved holding out during contract negotiations "What makes you think these guys are not going to walk out on the next team they go to?" Well, Nedved signed with the rangers played 6 seasons with them totaling 328 pts in 432 games. Nice prediction Bobby.

Bobby Clarke's decision to swap young D-men for well-aged forwards reminds me of how Bowman purged the Red Wings of youth back in the 90's. Scotty (yes, Scotty wasn't the GM, but he sure did have considerable influence with Detroit's front office) ended winning three cups with this tactic, will Clarke Philly on the same path? I really doubt it. First of all, Bowman brought in guys like Shanahan (104 pts. and 174 pims. that year) and Hull (81 pts.) who were either on top of their game -Shanny- or at least still good contributors -Hull. Nedved, who's been hit with a concussion and groin and elbow injuries this year, does have some assists this year (9 in 25 gms.) but hasn't scored since the second week of the year. Scotty also had much more depth up front than Hitchcock has. Detroit's SECOND LINE during the '97 & '98 playoffs consisted of Federov, Larionov, and Kozlov, who amassed 92 PLAYOFF points (in 40 games) those two years. Philly's second line of Handzus, Kapanen, and Radivojevic has a combined history of 58 points in 137 playoff games. That works out to be 2.3 points per game for Scotty's 2nd line vs. 0.42 points per game for the Hitchcock boys, Ouch!!!!!

Nedved is no Shanahan but he still has a great wrist shot and has good enough vision to be a good playmaker. Can he play injury free the rest of the year, and does he even still have the drive it takes for a playoff run? Clarke set the Philly back an entire decade when he make the evil trade with the Colorado Nordiques swapping Lindros for Ron Hextall, Peter Forsberg, Steve Duchesne, Kerry Huffman, Mike Ricci, Chris Simon, 1st round selection (Jocelyn Thibault) in 1993, 1st round selection (later traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, later traded to the Washington Capitals - Nolan Baumgartner) in 1994 and $15 million in cash. Clarke always hated Lindros for his "underachievement" of 839 pts. in 708 games. Now that he has his Forsberg back, maybe this trade will exorcise the Ghost of Lindros that Bobby placed on Philly back on June 30th, 1992. I doubt it, but only time will tell.