Hawks make blockbuster trade.
Byfuglien, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel and a prospect to Atlanta for a first-rounder second-rounder, prospect Jeremy Morin, and Marty Reasoner.
So Atlanta’s parlayed Kovalchuk into Byfuglien, Eager and Sopel…that’s not bad, actually. Good trade for Dudley, and five million in cap space off of Chicago’s books. Eager is a restricted free agent.
Where will Vokoun end up?
Buffalo’s Tyler Myers wins the Calder (rookie of the year). Datsyuk wins the Selke again.
The Stars look like they’re going to trade Ribeiro for an upgrade on defense.
I hope they can pull this off. Stars were pathetic on defense last year, choking away a lot of wins in the 3rd.
Not much surprise in the Awards last night (well, Sedin winning the Hart and St. Louis breaking Datsyuk’s skein of Lady Byngs might qualify.)
Is it just me, or has Jay Mohr put on a lot of weight lately?
On to Los Angeles, and the Draft starting tomorrow night.
Marleau and Pavelski have re-signed with San Jose. 4/27.6 mil for Marleau, 4/16 for Pavelski.
The UFA list is dwindling. The top two forwards were expected to be Marleau and Plekanec, and both have re-signed with their teams.
Kenner, how can you have neglected to mention Mathieu Darche? He re-signed with the Habs again too, though details aren’t available. I’d guess in the $700 000 range, since he made $600 000 last year? I liked him - hard worker, experienced enough that he really seemed to help the call-ups from the 'Dogs, and just really, really wanting to play for the Habs!
NHLnumbers.com lists Darche’s 10-11 cap hit at $500K, so it looks like he took a cut. He’s certainly taken the slow path, as before this year, his only full NHL season was 07-08, when he played 73 games for a crappy Tampa team, earning 22 points.
I’d like it if he can move into a top six role up front, since he’s a big dude at 6’1, 215 lbs, and displayed a pretty decent scoring touch down in Hamilton, with 16 goals in 32 games. But he’ll be 34 in November, so I doubt he’s going to get much better.
First round of the draft last night. Oilers take Hall, Bruins take Seguin.
Montreal traded with Phoenix to move up from 27th to 22nd, where they took Jarred Tinordi, a big honkin’ defenceman from the US Under 18 team. His dad, Mark, was a defenceman for the Rangers, Minnesota/Dallas and Washington between 1988 and 1999. Phoenix took Montreal’s 27th pick, and will also take Montreal’s 57th pick. Montreal gets Phoenix’s fourth-rounder, somewhere around #113 IIRC.
Being a Red Wings fan it’s hard to get very excited about the draft. Whoever they pick isn’t going to be up for 4-5 years most likely.
Riley Sheahan (pronounced SHAY-han) was a guy I was hoping would be available for Montreal; a centreman with some size. He’s 6’2 and 202, plays for the U. of Notre Dame.
The Flyers have acquired the rights to Evgeni Nabokov from San Jose for a seventh-round pick.
I’ve also heard on TSN that Philly also has interest in Boston’s Tim Thomas. One thing’s for sure, whichever goalie Philly chooses, it will be the wrong choice.
Sounds like that deal’s not quite done. The trade will only happen if the Flyers can offer Nabokov a good deal before July 1st (and the 2011 7th pick is just a technicality, since until then he’s still under contract), but there’s no certainty that Nabokov will sign. Either way, he’s done in San Jose, though I think that was known for some time now. Should be interesting to see how it plays out.
Tom Pyatt is back in the fold, re-signing for a year.
I like Pyatt…he seems to work well with Lapierre on an energy/checking line. I hope Moore will come back as well.
Pyatt and Pouliot today!
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Moore, but I’ve read a few articles mentioning how he’s a pretty sought after UFA…Habs might not be able to afford him. I think they need to sign Price first, and then see where they stand.
The Habs are at $51.2M right now; they have $8.2M left under the cap, and seven players from last year that are still unsigned. Lapierre, Price and Kostitsyn the Younger are RFAs…they’ll definitely sign the first two, and if I were Gauthier, I wouldn’t bother qualifiying Kostitsyn (if he hasn’t been qualifed already.) Mara, Metropolit, Moore and Bergeron are still remaining UFAs. The first two likely aren’t coming back; time will tell if Moore and Bergeron re-sign.
The Mike Modano Era in Dallas looks to be officially over, as the Stars will not offer him a new contract for next season.
And there goes the final player link to the North Stars. I see him going to Anaheim or San Jose for a season.
They did give a qualifying offer to Sergei, for some reason. Probably to keep him around to trade, unless he’s completely repented and changed his entire lifestyle and work ethic in the past few weeks!
Price and Lapierre will get signed. I agree that Mara and Metropolit are gone (though I liked Metro - good hard worker), and Bergeron is a little redundant now, especially since his only real asset is his slapshot. They had better sign Moore!
Conversation at work today has Martin Biron coming in as Price’s backup. I can see it happening, though I don’t know enough to know whether it’s a good fit.
Is it just me, or do Anaheim and San Jose have a habit of picking up older players for just one more season?