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– The Dallas Stars and Montreal Canadiens have started Trade Season off on the right foot. Erik Cole was traded to Dallas in exchance for Michael Ryder and a 2013 3rd round pick. A good move by both teams, especially Montreal for unloading Cole’s contract and getting a quality in return. Cole made a stink during the lock out and threatened not to return to the NHL. Whatever the case, Cole will bring some grit and scoring to Dallas while Ryder brings Montreal a little more finesse.
– The Philadelphia Flyers also made a splash re-acquiring Simon Gagne from the Los Angeles Kings for a conditional 4th Round Pick in 2013. Gagne won a cup with the Kings last year and was one of Philadelphia’s top scorers during his last sting with the Flyers. It’s a good move by both sides – the Flyers get some scoring and the Kings unload some money. Maybe the Kings have an ace up their sleeve…
– The NHL has released a potential plan for re-allignment. Detroit and Columbus would be moving East, leaving the two future Western Conferences with only 7 teams each, which has heated the expansion debate. Nothing is set in stone of course and there is a lot that would have to be ironed out like the playoff set up. There would be the top 4 teams from each of the 4 conferences then four wild card teams (one from each conference). That’s the rumor anyway. There is a lot of discussion to be had, but some believe this could be the set up for the 2013-14 season. We’ll see.
– The Flyers are said to be VERY interested in acquiring Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien. The Flyers have been looking for a defenseman like Byfuglien since Pronger went down with a concussion. They missed out on both Ryan Suter and Shea Weber, so you know they will go hard for Byfuglien.
– Stephen Weiss could be the big draw this trade season. He’s struggling this year, but so are the Panthers. Montreal, Boston, Vancouver, St. Louis and Nashville are all said to be very interested.
– Corey Perry could be on the market especially if his contract talks don’t go so well before April 3rd. The Ducks could benefit from trading him as he would get a good return, but they are doing so well that they might not want to mess up chemistry. However, if he doesn’t sign you can’t let someone like him go for nothing. Same goes for Ryan Getzlaf, but it looks like Perry would be the one to go.
– With the Panthers doing so poorly, we might expect a fire sale come mid-March. Brian Campbell, Filip Kuba and Jose Theodore might all be on their way out. Theodore inparticular because his contract is up after this season. Boston might be calling on him as they don’t have a true backup for Tuukka Rask.
– The Washington Capitals are rumored to be shopping Troy Brouwer, Joel Ward and Jason Chimera to clear cap space. Yet another example of how Ovechkin’s contract will end up destroying the Caps in the future. Any one of these players would help a team looking for a deep playoff run. However, the Caps are playing better and if, and only if, they are out of the playoffs by deadline will they dump salary.
– Rick DiPietro, poor bastard, has been waived by the Islanders, and as if its a surprise, no one claimed him or his contract. DiPietro still has 8 years left on the deal he signed almost 7 years ago and he will most likely be the benefactor of the Islanders amnesty buyout. Like Scott Gomez, the Isles will pay him an obscene amount of money to leave the team and collect for 8 years, but it won’t count against the cap. If, and when, that does happen it will be interesting to see if DiPietro gets pick up by anyone and signed to a backup role. It’s not his fault he was signed for so much, and I’d love to see him make a comeback.
More to come…
