That's right, there's salt being rubbed in some really fresh wounds right this moment. It's not because the trade of Devin Setoguchi to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Brent Burns to the San Jose Sharks was a bad deal or anything, it's just that ... well, he was ours. Plenty of fans of a myriad of teams find themselves attached to one player, and for many Sharks fans, that player was Setoguchi. San Jose is a better team than they were 24 hours ago, that much is just about as close to indisputable as you can get, but it will take some time to get over the loss of Setoguchi.
Though honestly, it isn't necessarily that he's gone, it's that he's gone literally a day removed from signing a three-year extension. Fans and media alike were considering what he could do in three years time, and already looking ahead to 2014 and what to expect by that time. Would Seto have a cup win at that point? Who knows? We read some awesome quotes about how he was excited to be back in San Jose, how great a place it is, and now we see his quotes about how disappointed he is. In short, it really sucks. Make a jump for a heavy dash of salt.
After the trade was made, I went ahead and ran a Google search on his name, just to see some more opinions and perspectives. Google News has a handy little feature that shows recent quotes from the person .. unfortunately, it's a bit slow to update, and I was treated to this:
If you can't see that very well, here is a link. Directly under that quote, there were links to news about the trade that had just went down. And Setoguchi couldn't be happier. We'll get into more specifics as to how losing Setoguchi affects the Sharks (as well as how Burns affects them) a bit later, but for now, more salt, two quotes from Setoguchi, courtesy of David Pollak:
Setoguchi said he got call from Doug Wilson before news on TV: "I didn't see it coming. . . It's not a good feeling, but it's a business. ... Setoguchi, who is home in Taber: "It's just tough to leave the guys and the family I know so well, especially after signing a new deal."