Blockbuster deal caps off busy few weeks for Wings

By Tom Hoffman

Last year it was Geoff Snider. Before that it was Sean Greenhalgh, Sean Thomson, Rob Van Beek, Ryan Ward, Luke Wiles and Chad Thompson. Now you can add Athan Iannucci to the list of former first round draft picks of the Philadelphia Wings to be sent packing in recent seasons following today's deal with the Edmonton Rush that saw Iannucci, Alex Turner and Brodie MacDonald sent West in exchange for 2011 2nd team All-Pro Brodie Merrill, Mike McLellan and Dean Hill. The Wings also picked up Edmonton's fifth round pick (#41) in this year's entry draft and the Rush's fourth rounder in 2013 while Edmonton gets the Wings #1 picks in 2012, 2013 and 2014. All of this on the heels of John Tucker resigning his spot as head coach and Tom Slate leaving his defensive coaching position with General Manager Johnny Mouradian adding the head coaching job to his resume, last season's offensive coordinator Blane Harrison moving to the defensive side (where he coached with NY/Orlando) and adding Jim Milligan of the Peterborough Lakers to run the offense.

Already this deal has sparked fan reaction, most of that towards the negative. If twitter response can be considered, some Wings players (Brandon Miller and Paul Dawson) seem to like the moves made. While Iannucci was a fan favorite and the team's top offensive player the Wings still managed to set a franchise low in 2011 averaging only 8.94 goals per game though to be fair he was still geting his legs back after missing part of the 2009 and all of 2010 recovering from knee surgery. Turner had a decent season but did not score a goal in the team's final five games while MacDonald was just one of several goalkeepers the Wings had in the mix. In Merrill, the Wings add one of the National Lacrosse League's best at getting to loose balls as well as one of the league's best transition players. Some have already hinted at the possibility of a transition with Merrill and Max Seibald. McLellan struggled in 2011 between Colorado and Edmonton but put up solid numbers in four season with the Titans. Hill could be looked to contribute to this squad much the same way Jason Crosbie and Jamie Rooney did with the 2008 Wings, a team that had very few problems on offense.

In one sense it is discouraging to see the team deal off players who have not only been fan favorites but also faces that even non-Wings fans might recognize. But when you miss the postseason in eight of ten seasons since winning their last NLL title in 2001 it's not like management is blowing up one of the best teams in sports history. The lack of winning is just one of a number of reasons Wings attendance has been on a downward spiral throughout the last decade, the last seven seasons being the seven worst attendance averages in Wings history. How this will all look on and off the field won't be known until the season gets underway in January. Will the players be right and this is the deal to start the Wings back on the road to respectability or do the fans have this one pegged as the beginning of the end for a once proud franchise? This question could be answered as early as the upcoming entry draft, one in which the Wings hold the top pick. The clock is ticking.