NHL Trade Deadline Day Round-up

I'll start this one off by saying that I was mightily disappointed by the lack of action in the last 24 hours of the trade deadline. We didn't really see any massive trades which I believe is partly due to how tight the race for the playoffs in the Western Conference is. There are so many teams that can still make the playoffs that only a couple of teams were selling. It would also seem that those that were selling were asking for a lot in return for their players.

The biggest trades were the ones listed below, many of which occurred in the last couple of weeks.

• Colorado trades Chris Stewart, Kevin Shattenkirk and a second-round pick in 2011 or 2012 to St. Louis for Erik Johnson, Jay McClement and a first-round pick in 2011 or 2012
• Boston trades Joe Colborne, a first-round pick in 2011 and a conditional second-round choice in 2012 to Toronto for Tomas Kaberle
• Los Angeles trades Colton Teubert, a first-round pick in 2011 and a conditional pick in 2012 to Edmonton for Dustin Penner.
• Nashville trades a first-round pick in 2011 and a conditional pick in 2012 to Ottawa for Mike Fisher
• Pittsburgh trades Alex Goligoski to Dallas for James Neal and Matt Niskanen
• Washington trades David Steckel and a second-round pick in 2012 to New Jersey for Jason Arnott

Looking at those trades above you have to say that Edmonton did well to get what they did for Dustin Penner. He is a 30+ goals a year man but he is surplus to requirements in Oil City because of his age (28) and what Edmonton are trying to achieve there.

Toronto did very well as they enter a rebuilding phase by selling off the likes of Kaberle, Versteeg and Beauchemin. In fact, here is exactly what they got:

• Joffrey Lupul  
• Aaron 
• Joe Colborne
• Jake Gardiner    
• No. 1 pick in 2011           
• No. 1 pick in 2011      
• No. 3 pick in 2011        
• No. 2 pick in 2012 (conditional) 
• No. 7 pick in 2012    
• No. 4 pick in 2013 (conditional)

What a haul for the Maple Leafs! GM Brian Burke certainly has grabbed himself plenty of pieces with which he can rebuild his fallen franchise.

It wasn't just Toronto and Edmonton who did well out of selling. The Sens managed to collect a hoard of picks too.

• Craig Anderson    
• Ryan Potulny       
• No.1 pick in 2011 
• No. 2 pick in 2011
• No. 2 pick in 2011 (conditional)       
• No. 6 pick in 2011
• No. 6 or 7 pick in 2011
• No. 2 or 3 in 2012 (conditional)

Not only did they get those picks and great potential in net with Anderson, but they also managed to clear a ton of cap space too. Ottawa are primed to rebuild in a massive way this summer.

The same goes for the Florida Panthers who mimicked the Sens' activity.

I guess after looking at what the Sens, Leafs, Panthers and Oilers managed to do over the last couple of weeks, you would have to say they biggest winners after the deadline were the sellers.

Boston were fairly active over the last couple of weeks and I think they were the team that got the strongest out of the trades. They acquired Kaberle (a target of theirs for the past couple of years) and added more depth to their forward lines. They are obviously hoping this will be their year as they gear up for a big Cup run.

I guess Washington also did well in finally acquiring a good second-line centre in Jason Arnott. With that move some of the pressure is taken off the top line of Ovechkin, Semin and Backstrom.

Here is a link showing the activity of all 30 teams leading up to the deadline.

I don't know how I manged to make this blog post a big one.

Anyways, enjoy!

Pacific Division: Watch This Space...

A couple of months ago I wrote an article about the Western Conference and how close the race for the playoffs was. Today that is still the case with teams from fourth to 11^th only separated by a handful of points. Why do I mention that again? Well, it would appear the same thing is happening, on a much smaller scale, in the Pacific Division. Dallas, San Jose, Anaheim, Phoenix and LA are all separated by five points. Five points! That is insane. It is the most closely fought division in the NHL and one where the lowest ranked team (LA) has six more points than the lowest ranked team in any other division.

Just a few games ago it looked like Dallas (65pts) were well on their way to capturing the Division title but they have hit a slump of late and lost their last three. San Jose (62pts) have finally found some form and are closing in on the Stars. Anaheim (62pts) and Phoenix (61pts) continue to have inconsistent seasons but find themselves in the hunt regardless and even LA (60pts) who have looked very poor at certain stages are still in with a shout should they go on a winning streak.

I would consider all five of these teams to be buyers during this trade window so it will be interesting to see who they pick up and who they move on. A quick word regarding what each of these teams might need follows:

Dallas Stars (30-18-5): Keeping a hold of Brad Richards past the trade deadline will be a massive bonus to the Stars who will need their number one centre to continue his goal scoring form if they want playoff success.

San Jose Sharks (28-19-6): Slowly generating some momentum, the San Jose Sharks look to be finally playing the sort of hockey we expect from them. If the Sharks' roster plays like we know they can, then they are Stanley Cup favourites, despite the fact that they suffer from post-season stage fright every year.

Anaheim Ducks (29-21-4): Getting Getzlaf back at some point will feel like the Ducks just acquired a top forward, so his return will give them an offensive boost (not that they have done badly since his injury). Where the Ducks do need to strengthen is in their defence.

Phoenix Coyotes (26-19-9): The Coyotes would make the playoffs with a legit 30+ goals a year man and a quick two-way defenseman. They also need to re-sign Bryzgalov and Yandle to long-term deals.

L.A. Kings (29-22-2): Offensively, other than Anze Kopitar, the Kings are fragile. If they improve in that area, without giving up too much, then they would see their chances of reaching the playoffs increase.

The Stars, Sharks and Kings have played 53 games and the Yotes and Ducks have played 54, so there is no massive advantage to be had from games in hand. The race is so close that we could see all five of the Pacific teams in the playoffs come the end of the season, which would be remarkable. This one is going to go right down to the wire. To borrow a line from the Desert Dogs: “Don't blink or you might miss something.”