The General Managers of every NHL team met for the past three days in Boca Raton, FL to discuss the state of the game. Central to their annual discussions was the recent run of shots to the head, most notably the shot that Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke put on Boston’s Marc Savard that likely ended Savard’s season. After three days of deliberations, the group has agreed to present a motion to the NHLPA’s Competition Committee for their review.

The following language was agreed to unanimously by the group:

“A lateral, back pressure or blindside hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and or the principal point of contact is not permitted. A violation of the above will result in a minor or major penalty and shall be reviewed for possible supplemental discipline.”

Cooke’s cheap shot, seen below, is a clear-cut example of the type of play this rule change recommendation would make a penalty-drawing offense, if not worse.

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Earlier this year, the Blackhawks had a scare when Willie Mitchell of the Vancouver Canucks left the penalty box and caught Captain Jonathan Toews with a high hit. Clearly, the game is concerned that their younger players are at risk when unnecessary violence takes place on the ice, and is taking steps to avoid these horrific injuries.

What made the presentation of this recommendation strange was the news that came later from the league office. NHL senior vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell informed the Pittsburgh Penguins that Cooke would not face any league penalty, including any suspension, for his hit on Savard. While the recommended rule change won’t take effect until next season, Campbell noted that suspending Cooke would not be consistent with other, similar issues the league has dealt with this year.

On this post we’ll keep you updated on all the latest player movement around the NHL as the trade deadline approaches. With only two-plus days to make deals before the mid-afternoon deadline on Wednesday, March 3, teams could be burning out their phone’s batteries in the coming days.

Here’s what’s officially gone down:

The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired defenseman Jordan Leopold from the Florida Panthers for a 2010 2nd round draft pick. Leopold, 29, has 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists), is -7 and is averaging 22:26 on the ice  in 61 games this year. His name had been linked to a number of trade scenarios, including a trade that would send goalie Tomas Vokoun to the Blackhawks. He is, however, headed to Pittsburgh.

Center Matt Stajan has agreed to terms with Calgary Flames on four-year extension worth about $3.5 million per year. He is going to be an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Stajan was acquired before the Olympics in the trade sending Dion Phaneuf to Toronto.

The St. Louis Blues’ AHL affiliate traded goaltender Hannu Toivonen and defenseman Danny Richmond to the Chicago Blackhawks‘ Rockford affiliate for goaltender Joe Fallon. All players will remain in the AHL. Fallon was recently recalled by the Blackhawks when Antti Niemi had the flu, but did not appear in any game action. Richmond, 25, has 15 assists, 16 points and 135 penalty minutes in 54 games in Peoria. He is a Buffalo Grove, IL native who was part of the Hawks’ organization between 2005-08.

The Dallas Stars signed forward Steve Ott to a four-year extension with $2.95 million per season. Ott, 27, has 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) and is -13 with 100 PIM in 51 games this season. Of the 23 players in the NHL with 100+ PIM, Ott is only one of three who have scored more than 10 goals.

The Edmonton Oilers traded defenseman Denis Grebeshkov, 26, to the Nashville Predators for a 2010 2nd round draft pick. Grebeshkov has 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) and is -16 in 47 games this season. The Preds have been rumored to be shopping D Dan Hamhuis; Grebeshkov might be his replacement.

The Atlanta Thrashers acquired forward Evgeny Artyukhin from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for minor league defenseman Nathan Oystrick and a conditional draft pick in 2011. Artyukhin, 26, is a UFA after this season and adds size at forward that Atlanta GM Don Waddell has openly coveted.

On Tuesday morning, the Atlanta Thrashers agreed to an NHL contract with defenseman Chris Chelios. The Atlanta Thrashers were founded in 1999; Chelios was a rookie in the NHL in 1983-84. At 48-years-old, Chelios brings… experience… to Atlanta.

The Minnesota Wild are expected to announce a contract extension with defenseman Marek Zidlicky that’s good for three years at $4 million per season. Zidlicky, 33, has 36 points (five goals, 31 assists) and is -2 in 60 games this season.

The Anaheim Ducks acquired a 4th-round pick in either 2010/2011 from the Boston Bruins in exchange for defenseman Steven Kampfer, who is currently playing at the University of Michigan. Again, not a major deal for either team, but it moves another defenseman to Boston’s organizational depth that could make another deal (or two) possible.

The New York Islanders traded defenseman Andy Sutton to the Ottawa Senators for a 2nd round pick (that was acquired from the San Jose Sharks). Sutton was scratched from the Islanders’ game on Tuesday night against Chicago.

The Pittsburgh Penguins made the first major deal at the deadline, adding left wing Alexei Ponikarovsky from Toronto for prospect Luca Caputi and veteran Martin Skoula. Skoula was included in the deal to create enough cap space in Pittsburgh for Ponikarovsky to clear. Caputi, also a left wing, was the third-ranked prospect in the Pittsburgh system.

The St. Louis Blues have acquired right wing Matt D’Agostini from Montreal for forward prospect Aaron Palushaj. D’Agostini, 23, has two goals, two assists and is -12 in 40 games for the Canadians this year. Palushaj, 20, was the third-ranked prospect in the St. Louis organization.

The Boston Bruins have sent defenseman Derek Morris to the Phoenix Coyotes for a 4th round pick in the 2011 draft. Morris, 31, has three goals and 22 assists, is averaging exactly 22 minutes per game, and is -2 this season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will never see Martin Skoula in uniform. Skoula, who was acquired as part of the Ponikarovski trade on Tuesday night, is headed to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday morning. Toronto will receive a 5th round pick in the 2010 draft.

The Boston Bruins acquired defenseman Denis Seidenberg and defenseman prospect Matt Bartkowski from Florida for forwards Craig Weller and Byron Bitz and a 2nd round pick. Seidenberg will likely replace Derek Morris in Boston’s rotation.

The Anaheim Ducks have acquired defenseman Aaron Ward from the Carolina Hurricanes for goalie Justin Pogge and a 4th round pick. The Ducks send Nick Boynton to Chicago on Tuesday, but Ward figures to factor into Anaheim’s top-four.

The Edmonton Oilers claimed forward Ryan Jones off waivers from the Nashville Predators. Jones, 25, has seven goals and four assists in 41 games this season for Nashville.

The Washington Capitals acquired forward Scott Walker from the Carolina Hurricanes for a 7th round pick. The Capitals have been trying to add depth to their blue line for some time, and the veteran Walker accomplishes that goal at a relatively small price.

The St. Louis Blues have dealt center Jan Stastny to the Vancouver Canucks for Cedric Labrie. Stastny, 27, has one goal in just four games for the Blues this season. How, and where, he’ll fit with Vancouver is to be determined.

The Colorado Avalanche have dealt Wojtek Wolski to the Phoenix Coyotes for Peter Mueller and Kevin Porter. Wolski, 24, has 17 goals and 30 assists and is +15 in 61 games this season. Mueller, 21, has four goals and 13 assists in 54 games this season, and will be a restricted free agent after the season.

The Vancouer Canucks have traded defenseman Mathieu Schneider to the Phoenix Coyotes for Sean Zimmerman and a 6th round pick. Schneider, 40, has five points in 17 games for the Canucks this season and is likely a rental to fill their defense.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have dealt center Jeff Halpern to the Los Angeles Kings for Teddy Purcell and a 3rd round pick. Halpern, 33, has nine goals and eight assists in 51 games for the Lightning this year and, more importantly, is an unrestricted free agent after the season. Purcell, 24, has three goals and three assists in 41 games this year.

The Washington Capitals have acquired center Eric Belanger from the Minnesota Wild for a 2nd round pick. Belanger, 32, has 13 goals and 22 assists in 60 games in Minnesota this season. How he impacts the lines in Washington will be an evolving situation.

The Anaheim Ducks have added backup netminder Curtis McElhinney from the Calgary Flames for Vesa Toskala. Before the Olympics, the Ducks signed Jonas Hiller to an extension and dealt Jean-Sebastian Giguere to Toronto. Toskala has already taken away Miika Kiprusoff’s job once in his career…

The Buffalo Sabres have added forward Raffi Torres to play in front of Ryan Miller down the stretch. Torres, 28, has 19 goals and 12 assists in 60 games this season with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Columbus will receive Nathan Paetcsh and 2nd round pick.

The Sabres, after adding Torres, have traded Clarke MacArthur to the Atlanta Thrashers. MacArthur, 24, has 13 goals and 13 assists and is -14 in 60 games so far this season. His spot in Buffalo will be filled by Torres, and he’ll try to fill the void left by Ilya Kovalchuck in Atlanta.

The Washington Capitals added more defense, trading for Milan Jurcina. Jurcina, 26, has one goal and six assists this season in 44 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Caps have added both Jurcina and Walker now before the deadline.

The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the deadline, sending forward Lee Stempniak to the Phoenix Coyotes. Stempniak, 27, had 14 goals and 16 assists, and was -10 in 60 games for Toronto this year. Toronto acquired 4th and 7th round picks.

Carolina traded Joe Corvo to the Washington Capitals for a 2nd round pick, prospect and Brian Pothier. Corvo is the second defenseman added to the mix for the Caps in one day. He had four goals and eight assists in 34 games for Carolina.

The Vancouver Canucks acquired defenseman Andrew Alberts. Alberts, 28, has two goals and eight assists in 62 games this season in Carolina. He will replace Mathieu Schneider in the Canucks’ blue line rotation. Carolina received a 3rd round pick for Alberts.

Los Angeles acquired Fredrik Modin from Columbus. Modin, 35, had two goals and four assists and was -3 in 24 games for the Blue Jackets this season. This was the second deal for the Kings at the deadline, while Columbus unloaded a number of players.

The Anaheim Ducks acquired Joey MacDonald from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a 7th round pick. MacDonald, 30, was a reserve in Toronto who only played in six games for the Leafs this season. The Ducks added a number of netminders around the deadlines, both before and now after the Olympics, this year.

The Florida Panthers acquired defenseman Mathieu Roy for prospect Matt Rust. Roy, 26, had ten assists in 31 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets this season, and will likely replace Denis Seidenberg in the Panthers’ rotation.

The Anaheim Ducks sent Ryan Whitney to Edmonton for Lubomir Visnovsky. Visnovsky, 33, had 1o goals and 22 assists in 57 games for the Oilers this year. Whitney, 27, had four goals and 24 assists in 62 games in Anaheim this season.

The Nashville Predators acquired center Dustin Boyd from the Calgary Flames for a 4th round pick. Boyd, 24, had eight goals and 11 assists in 61 games for the Flames this season.

The Cam Barker Era is OVER!

New Blackhawks' defenseman Kim Johnsson

The Blackhawks traded Barker to Minnesota for defenseman Kim Johnsson and the Wild’s top pick in the 2009 draft, Nick Leddy.

Leddy is the prize in the deal, a solid young defenseman prospect taken 16th overall in 2009, and was described  this way by Hockey’s Future: ”You’d be hard pressed to find a better, more complete defenseman playing in the Minnesota state high school Class A/AA league this season than the Eden Prairie native. Leddy is also one of the early favorites for this year’s Mr. Hockey Award, which recognizes the top high school player from the state of Minnesota.”

Listed at 5′11 and 185 pounds, Leddy joins a deep group of Hawks prospects on the blue line with Dylan Olsen and Shawn LaLonde. He was the third-ranked prospect in the Wild organization. Hockey’s Future also says

The Hawks finally unloading Barker, who has disappointed throughout this year, allows the team to slide a veteran, minutes-eating blue liner into his slot on the third defensive group for the rest of this season. Barker had 14 points (4 G, 10 A) and was +7 for the Hawks this year, averaging just 13:06 on ice this season.

Barker has two years left on the contract extension he received before this season with a cap number over $3 million.

New Blackhawks' prospect Nick Leddy

Update: From Stan Bowman when he met the media.

Re: Johnsson: “He’s been in the playoffs, he’s been in the Olympics… he’s been in high-pressure situations before.” Johnsson played for Sweden in the 2002 Olympics.

Re: Leddy: “He was a big part of the deal… We’ve been very high on him since last year when we were trying to trade up in the draft to get him, actually… His speed is something that’s been talked about quite a bit… He had to be in the mix for this to work.”

Antti Niemi will start a third consecutive game when the Blackhawks host the Atlanta Thrashers. Does this mean Niemi has assumed the top spot on the Blackhawks’ depth chart?

“He’s coming off a couple of strong wins,” coach Joel Quenneville. “He’s got some momentum in his game right now. Let’s keep it going.”

In his last two starts, at St. Louis and against the Dallas Stars in Chicago, Niemi allowed four goals on 62 shots (.936 save pct). One of those goals, the only one he allowed in a stellar performance against the Blues, was allowed in the final two minutes with the Blues skating six-on-three.

Since the beginning of the calendar year, Huet has allowed 2.75 goals per game and has allowed at least four goals in four of his 12 appearances; his .879 save percentage is miserable. Niemi, on the other hand, has a .910 save percentage even with the bad period in Vancouver being included; he has allowed just 17 goals in eight games, including the early exit against the Canucks. Niemi has not allowed more than three goals in a game yet in 2010.

Niemi is 15-4-1 on the season and leads the league with a 1.98 goals-against average.

Niemi might start Sunday as well.

The Detroit Red Wings traded forward Ville Leino to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday for defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and a fifth round draft pick in the 2011 draft.

Detroit then immediately placed Tollefsen on waivers.

Leino, 26, had disappointed the Red Wings this year by only scoring seven points and earning a -10 rating in 42 games. This move was simply a player dump to make room for some of the returning veterans that Detroit has had on the injured reserve, including Johan Franzen. In 55 games over two seasons with Detroit, Leino scored nine goals and seven assists.

Detroit enters Saturday in ninth place in the Western Conference, and has been bouncing back and forth with Calgary for the eighth and final playoff spot. The Red Wings haven’t been healthy all year, though, and should be near 100 percent after the Olympic break.

For Philadelphia, they receive an underachieving forward in exchange for Tollefsen, 25, who has missed a total of 30 games because of concussion and MCL injuries. Tollefsen signed with Philadelphia in July after spending three seasons in Columbus. If he clears waivers, he’ll be assigned to Grand Rapids.

The Calgary Flames have agreed to a second major trade on Sunday, according to TSN. Calgary will send center Olli Jokinen and forward Brandon Prust to the New York Rangers in exchange for forwards Ales Kotalik and Christopher Higgins.

Kotalik did not travel with the Rangers to Denver for Sunday’s game.

UPDATE: TSN is reporting on Monday morning that Ryan Callahan might replace Higgins in the deal. Matt Gilroy’s name has also been mentioned.

So, to review Calgary’s busy Sunday, here’s a quick chart of the incoming and outgoing Flames.

After Monday’s practice, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said that Cristobal Huet would get the start in net for Tuesday night’s game in Edmonton against the struggling Oilers.

The move could help Huet’s confidence after Antti Niemi received consecutive starts for the first time this year. Edmonton currently ranks 21st in the NHL in goals per game (2.58) and 24th in shots on net (28.8), statistics that are clear indications as to why the Oilers are in last place in the Western Conference with only 38 points in 50 games. The next-worst team in the West is Columbus, at 49 points.

Edmonton’s defense hasn’t help their case, either. The Oilers are 29th in the NHL, allowing 3.36 goals per game on 31.7 shots per night, a number good for only 25th in the league.

After a rough stretch of games, at least on paper, the Oilers might be the perfect rebound for the Hawks before they head into San Jose for a huge game with the Sharks.

Vancouver Canucks forward Ryan Kesler had some strong words to share with a Vancouver radio station on Monday morning, sending some shots at the Blackhawks’ Andrew Ladd.

”He’s a coward and that’s the way it is,” Kesler told TEAM 1040 radio following Saturday’s game.

”It started last year in the playoffs,” Kesler said. ”He hit me (and) cross-checked me in the face when I wasn’t looking. At least he was man enough to hit me when I was looking this time.”

Man enough? Looks a lot like someone was on the dance floor and just forgot the steps to me…

ESPNChicago is reporting that former Blackhawks captain Chris Chelios, currently playing for the Chicago Wolves, was pulled over in Westmont on Dec. 28 and charged with DUI.

Chelios was also charged with improper lane usage and speeding in the incident that ended with his truck being towed to the Westmont Police Department. ESPNChicago reports that Chelios has a Feb. 1 court date in Wheaton.

Oops.

On Monday, the NHL named their three stars for the month of December: Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin, Phoenix’s Ilya Bryzgalov, and the Blackhawks’ Patrik Kane.

In December Kane had 20 points (8 goals, 12 assists), as the Hawks went 11-4-0 int he month. Kane, 21, had points in 13 of 15 games, including a two six-game streaks. He notched the game-winning goal in victories over the Detroit Red Wings (Dec. 23) and Nashville Predators (Dec. 26 and 27), becoming the first Blackhawks player with game-winners in three consecutive games since Murray Craven from Dec. 26-29, 1995. 

Kane has scored in eight consecutive games, in 14 of his past 15 and 26 of his past 30.