For the people hating on Dater, a Tweet I saw from Frei this morning sums up why I thought it was a bad idea for him to get put back on the beat:
Terry Frei @TFrei
9h 9 hours ago
One thing I am reminded of in this temporary return to hockey is the low standards for tossing out rumors. We made fun of it in SAVE BY ROY.
Now, I agree that in today's "Twitter World", there is a "low standard" for tossing out trade rumors--but that's the way of the world. You have people like McKenzie, Friedman, LeBrun (really well respected hockey people) who are constantly talking about this (while not really saying anything of much lately), but Frei acts like it's "above it all"...
On top of that, he has to constantly ***** and moan about Morning Skates, and makes sure to plug his books or work in a Denver Broncos angle to an Avalanche story.
The guy is acting like he is miserable to be doing this, constantly saying stuff like "while I finish the season out with Mike Chambers..." (who is equally horrible at his job)
Dater had problems, absolutely, he got on people's nerves (he would probably be among the first to really, truly admit that), but given the "talent level" at the DP in the Sports Department, he was among the better beat writers.