Trade Deadline Deals

• Ottawa gets G Pascal Leclaire & 2nd round draft pick from Columbus in exchange for C Antoine Vermette
• Penguins send D Danny Richmond to Blues for D Andy Wozniewski
• Sabres get G Mikael Tellqvist from Phoenix for 4th round pick in 2010
• Boston picks up D Steve Montador from Anaheim for F Petteri Nokelainen
• Calgary sends D Lawrence Nycholat, D Ryan Wilson,& 2009 second-round pick to Colorado for D Jordan Leopold
• Calgary acquires C Olli Jokinen & 2009 3rd rd. pick from Phoenix for F Matthew Lombardi, F Brandon Prust, & 2009 first-round pick, the first real "blockbuster" of the day
• Boston makes another move and gets F Mark Recchi & 2010 second-round pick from Tampa Bay for D Matt Lashoff, F Martins Karsums
• Toronto sends C Nik Antropov to the NY Rangers for a 2nd round pick and a conditional pick
  
• The Florida Panthers add RW Chris Neil to their line up from Ottawa
• Philly traded RW Scottie Upshall to Phoenix for LW Daniel Carcillo
• Phoenix sent D Derek Morris to the NY Rangers for F Petr Prucha, F Nigel Dawes, and D Dimitri Kalinin
  
• The Maple Leafs sent C Dom Moore to the Sabres for a round draft pick
• Atlanta trades F Erik Christensen to Anaheim for Eric O'Dell
• Sharks get F Travis Moen & D Kent Huskins from Anaheim for F Nick Bonino, G Timo Pielmeier and a conditional draft pick
• Three way trade saw the following: Edmonton got F Patrick O'Sullivan, Carolina got RW Erik Cole (again), and LA got RW Justin Williams.
• Chicago go C Sammy Pahlsson from Anaheim for D James Wisniewski and another player/draft pick to be named
• Philly gets D Kyle McLaren from San Jose for a 6th round pick
• Toronto acquires G Olaf Kolzig, D Jamie Heward, D Andy Rogers, & a 4th round pick from Tampa Bay for D Richard Petiot
  

More Trade Rumblings And Transactions

• Penguins released Miroslav Satan. Satan had an unexpectedly poor season up to this point and this frees up cap space for any trades or offseason moves. Satan only had 17 goals, 19 assists which really wasnt much of a drop-off from last year's numbers. It'll be interesting to see who signs him
• Probably the bigger story is the Rangers signing Sean Avery. Avery had been suspended following his now notorious comments about his ex-girlfriends dating other NHLers. Look, I know what he said was pretty bad but I think people take him way too seriously. I wonder how he'll fit in with the Rangers and if he'll be able to contribute after so much time out of the league
• Jay Bouwmeester could be headed to the Flyers before the deadline, but there are also several other teams supposedly in the hunt for the Panthers player.
  
• The Pronger rumors continue to heat up and noone really knows where he'll land. Personally, I could care less. As long as he goes to the Eastern Conference, out of my sight, I'll be fine. But it looks like he'll land back in St. Louis, of course.
  

Gaborik on the move?

Might the Minnesota Wild be putting Marian Gaborik on the trade block? Gaborik is recovering from hip surgery and is close to coming back. But by the time he returns he might not be wearing a Wild jersey. Gaborik's a free agent at the end of the year and the Wild could be looking at cashing in off of his current contract by trading him away.

Any team that takes Gaborik would putting themselves in a situation for a huge loss conisdering he's only played 6 games this year, might not be 100% when he returns, they'd obviously have to give up something of value (draft pick or young star), and he might not resign with that team in the offseason. All of these factors make the trading of Gaborik unlikely but I wouldn't be surprised if a Pittsburgh, Buffalo or Dallas tries to pick him up.

Backstrom Re-signs with Wild

Some big news out of Minnesota as Niklas Backstrom re-signed with the Wild for four more years at a total of $24 mil. This ended a lot of trade speculation around the league about him going to the Caps most likely. Backstrom's one of those goalies that you can build a team around, like Kiprusoff, so the Wild are good shape for the next few years and could make big time statements in the league.

That also ends my very unlikely dream trade for the Wings at the deadline. Eh oh well.

The Trade Deadline Approacheth

So the trade deadline is less than two days away and once again it doesn't look like the Wings need to make any moves. This is a good and bad thing. The good news is that we are able to build such a successful team through the draft and free agency and just players that have stayed for so long (ie Maltby, Draper, Lidstrom, etc.) The bad news is we could miss out on some good chances for players that will be UFAs at season end.

Ken Holland is probably the best GM in the NHL and possibly in all of sports. That's why he was able to bring Brad Stuart in last year for 2 draft picks. Stuart was a big part of the Wings Cup win last June. So the question of who is the next to come to Hockeytown? Will the Wings even make a move for a player down the stretch? Here's what Holland had to say about it:

"I've had some teams call," Holland told The News. "We don't have a lot of cap space, if any, really. Most trades we're going to look at would have to be cap dollar in, cap dollar out."

If you ask me, I don't think anyone needs to be brought in. It makes sense too. We don't have a lot of cap space and if we want to be able to resign Hossa and/or Franzen in the offseason, it would be beneficial to keep things the way they are.

There've been speculations that Holland would add Ian Laperierre from the Avalanche. I know Laperierre brings some physicality to the line-up but we already have some guys that can do that (Kopecky, Maltby, Draper) and DMc is back with the Griffins making rehab starts. I just don't like the fact that we'd most likely be giving up some of our young talent in turn for Laperierre. There've also been some reports of the Wings being interested in Kari Lehtonen, the Thrashers goalie, but most of that has seemed to die down.

The move I would like to see be made? Reel in Backstrom from the Wild. I know this wouldn't happen, considering he's a free agent at the end of the year and we'd be getting rid of either Ozzie or Conklin but Backstrom is playing pretty good right now, and that's a big understatement.

In the end, don't expect too much from the Wings. But then again Holland could show his genius.