Last year there was a flurry of trades with the biggest in my opinion being the Stars acquiring Brad Richards and Johan Holmqvist in exchange for Mike Smith, Jussi Jokinen, Jeff Halpern and a 4th round selection. A lot of people can contest that the Hossa trade to Pittsburgh, or the Campbell trade to San Jose were bigger, however, because those players aren't there anymore, I qualify the Richards trade as bigger.
This year there are a lot of fish in the sea, Jay Bouwmeester and Vincent Lecavalier seem to be the odds on favorites to move, however don't forget about the quiet Don Waddell who traded Hossa last year, he is still sitting on Ilya Kovalchuk. The first overall pick in 2001 has one more year left on his contract and some people are feeling that if Kovalchuk isn't extended this off season he will not return to Atlanta.
Staying with the Thrashers, Matthieu Schneider is a targeted rental player as his contract is up at the end of the year. Having just 41 points thus far this season, the Thrashers are in the thick of the Tavares lottery and might as well look for the "win".
Oh and don't forget anyone on the Islanders over the age of 30, ei: Doug Weight and captain Bill Guerin are both having decent seasons and would do well in any one's playoff run.
The Leafs have injured defenseman Thomas Kaberle as their highest ranked asset however his wrist/hand injury seems like it may hinder the chances of him moving out. Also, it seems that Brian Burke is actually pro-Kaberle, as opposed to any of the other players he has bashed publicly.
The Ottawa Senators are also sellers, Bryan Murray may have to look into trading one of their big guns in Spezza or Heatley even though Eugene Melnyk seems dead set against it. The most likely candidate to leave Ottawa has been one of their best defenseman this season: Filip Kuba is a UFA at the end of this season.
Enough about sellers, the buyers in this market seem to be two-fold; established contenders and bubble teams. The Sharks, Caps, Wings and Hawks are already tight against the cap so I wouldn't count on any major moves from them. Boston is a team that I can see making a move, with the amount of depth they have in the minors and the number of injured players rising they do have the type of cap room needed to add a key contributor down the stretch, look for them to add an experienced wing player.
The Stars might be a team that can add a key contributor, they have the room under the salary cap and their defense corps could need brush up with Zubov out for the season. The Stars could be in the market for Filip Kuba (at least I would like them to be).
The Habs. Well, it's hard to say what exactly is wrong with them right now but I can only hope that they learn to fix it quickly before falling out of the playoff picture (see: Pittsburgh Penguins). There are some incredibly hard decisions coming up in Montreal right now as the following players do not have a contract for next season:
- Alex Tanguay
- Saku Koivu
- Alex Kovalev
- Robert Lang
- Chris Higgins
- Tomas Plekanec
- Steve Begin
- Kyle Chipchura
- Tom Kostopoulos
- Guilliaume Latendresse
- Francis Boullion
- Mathieu Dandenault
- Mike Komisarek
- Patrice Brisebois
1 comment:
All i got to say is that it's about time that someone in toronto is being held accountable. The leafs always having a way of over-glorifying athletes(see Tucker) but never putting the pressure and calling them out like they do in montreal (see benching kovalev). Ron Wilson may be an idiot but he'll do whatever burke tells him. Also montreal is in dire need of a defencemen, i think pronger and bouwmeester are the obvious choices, pronger coming cheaper. All in all i think higgins, o'byrne and a couple picks/prospects are probably gonna be shipped out of montreal. I doubt they'll get a center to replace lang because gainey isnt the type to get rid of prospects.
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