Flyers trade Mike Ratchuk, break this young man's heart

Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Ratchuk is no longer a Flyer. Well, actually he was never really a Flyer to begin with.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Ratchuk is no longer a Phantom.

Please! Please! Settle down! There is no need for shouting! Put down those pitchforks! We will all get through this thing together.

To those out there who weren't preparing to storm the Wachovia Center like a band of angry villagers in an old horror movie, allow me to explain.

The Flyers shipped minor league defenseman Mike Ratchuk to the Columbus Blue Jackets for minor league right winger Stefan Legein.

On the surface this may not seem exactly, well, Earth-shattering. Trading a minor leaguer for a minor leaguer. Big woop, right? Wrong! How dare you?!?

Ratchuk is responsible for one of the greatest plays I've ever seen live at a hockey game. Two years ago on fan appreciation day, he went end-to-end with the puck and rifled a shot in late in the game. It was a play that really can't be described, it needed to be seen. Sadly, the AHL doesn't post many videos on Youtube, so if you weren't there, you probably won't be seeing it. Apologies.

Now that he's gone, I'm not sure what I'll do with myself. I'll just have to go on, one day at a time. If there was ever a time for a Joaquin Phoenix sigh, this is it.

On paper the deal makes sense. Ratchuk has been a healthy scratch for the Adirondack Phantoms (The Flyers AHL affiliate) last two games. The Flyers have tremendous depth in the defensive position, what with Oskars Bartulis, Kevin Marshall and Marc-Andre Bourdon all currently developing in the system, so sadly Ratchuk was... expendable.

Legein has himself quite the back story. While playing for the Blue Jackets farm team, he decided that he was done with hockey for good and retired at age 19. Once the prospect of going out and finding a real job became too daunting, he returned and finished out the season.

He is supposed to be very fast and will drop the gloves if need be, so he seems like a perfect fit with what Flyers GM Paul Holmgren has been up to lately in terms of blending skill and toughness.

Here's hoping that he works out and all is well. I'll miss you Ratty and I will never forget that one goal, that one beautiful moment that we shared. I'm getting a bit choked up here...