There was a flurry of activity in the last two hours of the NHL trade Deadline as teams were scrambling to fill roster spots and add depth to their lineup for a chance to make a deep playoff run, or even make the playoffs at all.
The Pittsburgh Penguins made the biggest splash acquiring Jarome Iginla, Brendan Morrow and Douglas Murray in seperate deals. Today they picked up Jussi Jokinen from Carolina for a conditional pick.
The Boston Bruins answered with Jaromir Jagr and today picked up Wade Redden and enforcer Rob Flick.
Toronto picked up defenseman Ryan O’Byrne, but lost out goalie Miikka Kiprusoff who opted to stay in Calgary until the end of the year and then possibly retire. Kiprusoff and his wife just had their first child and he did not want to uproot his new family and move them across Canada.
New Jersey got Steve Sullivan from the Coyotes for a 2014 7th round pick. Sullivan was drafted by the Devils in 1994 and was in the trade that sent Doug Gilmour to New Jersey from Toronto in 1997. The Coyotes also traded Matthew Lombardi to the Anaheim Ducks for forward Brandon McMillan.
The Philadelphia Flyers swapped goalies with Columbus, received Steve Mason for Michael Leighton and a 2015 3rd round pick. The Flyers also traded for defenseman Kent Huskins from Detroit for a 7th round draft pick.
The Tampa Bay Lightning traded for6’7″ goalie Ben Bishop from Ottawa. The Senators received rookie Cory Conachar in what could be the most even swap of the day. Both teams will fair well from their aquisitions.
Bad boy Raffi Torres was shipped off to San Jose from Phoenix. The Sharks also picked up defenseman Scott Hannan, who spent 6 season with the Sharks to begin his career.
The Minnesota Wild made a big splash aquiring Buffalo captain Jason Pominville for goaltender Matt Hackett, forward Johan Larsson, a 2013 1st round pick and a 2014 2nd round pick.
Courtesy: Lou Capazollo/Getty Images
Columbus, however made the biggest splash today. No one was expecting the Blue Jackets to land Marian Gaborik from the New York Rangers. Gaborik was sent over along with minor leaguers Blake Parlett and Steve Delisle for center Derek Brassard, injured enforcer Derek Dorsett, John Moore and a 2014 6th round pick. This was a statement trade by the Blue Jackets who are not only thinking about the playoffs this year, but the future as Gaborik now becomes the face of the franchise. The Blue Jackets also retained all their number one picks for the upcoming draft.
And then the Caps. I’ll get into more detail about this in a seperate post, but Washington left everyone waiting for about an hour after the deadline to hear that they had traded their number one prospect in Filip Forsberg to the Nashville Predators for Martin Erat and prospect Michael Latta. Still trying to figure out how I feel about this one.
That’s the recap. I’ll have more in a little bit about the Erat trade and something about Roberto Luongo NOT being traded.
More to come…
