NHL Trade Deadline: Western Conference Action Heating Up
After the Blackhawks announced the acquisition of veteran center Michal Handzus, two other Western Conference teams made significant moves on Monday night.
The Los Angeles Kings traded a second round pick in the 2014 and 2015 Drafts to the Buffalo Sabres for veteran defenseman Robyn Regehr.
That move came at almost the same time as the St. Louis Blues made another trade to help their blue line. After adding Jordan Leopold earlier in the week, St. Louis traded a conditional first round pick in this summer’s draft and two prospects to Calgary for defenseman Jay Bouwmeester.
The conditions of the Bouwmeester trade are simple: the deal has to help the Blues. If St. Louis qualifies for the playoffs this season, Calgary receives a first round pick in the 2013 Draft. If the Blues are left out of the postseason, the Flames would receive a fourth round pick in the 2013 Draft and a first in the 2014 Draft.
St. Louis already traded their second round pick in the 2013 Draft to Buffalo for Leopold.
If the pick is a first rounder in 2013, the Flames would become the second organization to hold three first round picks in this summer’s NHL Draft; the other is the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Calgary also acquired defenseman Mark Cundari and netminder Reto Berra. Cundari, who will turn 23 at the end of April, has accumulated 70 total points over the last three seasons with Peoria. Berra, 26, played with Biel in the Swiss-A league this season.
The Blues had a busy day on Monday. They also announce they had ended their partnership with Peoria as their AHL affiliate; the Vancouver Canucks will take over that relationship, meaning the Chicago Wolves will be working with a new NHL organization for the 2013-14 season.
The Kings are going to be very tough again this post season.
I still think SB is blowing it with not going after a true #2C. I guess we’ll see how Kruger does on the 2nd line while Bolland is out.
Tab, any word on how long he’ll be out?
Crawford looked so casual last night, maybe not getting any shots causes him to relax to much. Letting in the first goal gave the Pred’s live when they were out played for two periods.
Injuries will be a big concern going into and in the playoffs. If they lose either of Hossa or Sharp or any other top line player they have no chance in advancing to the CF in my opinion.
Let’s hope SB is correct.
GO Hawks
What #2 center is available and what is the cost? Who goes the other way to make salary room if not an expiring contract?
It seems like only Buffalo and Calgary are coming off anyone significant.
And, as always, you have no idea what they are asking the Hawks for in return.
Stinky- Ott from Buf, Ribero from Wash and Roy from Dal would be the “top targets”.
We have cap room, the question would be at what cost. seeing how the cost for Igilna seemingly wasn’t “too high”, i would think we can swing a deal if we wanted to. Just with SB saying he didn’t want to subtract from our roster, i doubt a move will be made. I would be ok moving a package to get Roy. Hayes might make Bickell expendable (the way bickell “made brouwer expendable”). Also a guy like Morin might not have much long term value to our roster given our depth of current prospects. Does Dallas want those guys?… or would they want a guy with more upside (danualt/mcneil)? i wouldn’t trade those prospects for a rental. When it was O’Reilly… i could part with those guys… not for a rental though.
I find this move as a head scratcher, where does Handzus fit on this roster? 2nd line(I hope not) 3rd line, 4th line? I really see this as a replace for Myers who really looks DONE @ this point. On the other end, I really like the JBouw move for STL. Let me clarify and say he wasn’t a fit on the Hawks. STL made themselves better with this guy although his D isn’t the best he is an offensive force. Back to the Hawks, I really wish this team could have beaten ANA this season b/c I’m not sure if they have enough to beat them in the playoffs. We shall see,….Go Hawks!
Eastern Conference deal to start Tuesday
Carolina acquired D Marc-Andre Bergeron from Tampa for Adam Hall & a 7th round pick (2013).
Interesting to see how adding Bergeron impacts the rumors about Carolina making McBain available…
Tab you are plugged in,….I have the NHLN on and they haven’t announced it yet! Nicely done!
I think they will put Handzus on 4th line with Kruger (shifting to wing) and Frolik. Not sure where Carcillo fits now with a healthy roster.
I just feel there is another move coming with a current roster player going elsewhere. Even though SB says he’s not moving anyone, I think that Stahlberg’s days are done here. Perhaps Bolland, but I think Bolland plays differently in the playoffs and he is much more valuable (except in the dot), especially if we match-up with VAN and the Sedin sisters.
Now that DAL has made Jagr available as well as Roy, I can see us being players for one of those guys.
Twitter tells you everything the fastest.
Roy is tiny and is terrible at faceoffs. Same with Ribero. I also don’t feel Ott fits.
A lot like Rozy, Handzus will not dress every game.
Handzus MUST dress every game…that is the ONLY way that deal makes sense…the Hawks must have 2 face-off men available for every game in the playoffs, and likely here on…Handzus centring the 4th line means he will skate about 7 even strength minutes and say 2 minutes on the PK…that’s 9-12 minutes a night…Handzus is in fantastic shape…he can handle that every night of the week. This must be the case because if not, nothing Bowman did makes any sense.
There’s your cost for Derek Roy…NOT MUCH…let’s hope Bowman is right.
Is Derek Roy really that much of an upgrade over Bolland? He wins 1% more of his faceoffs, is tiny, and isn’t any good at defense. I know everyone wants Bowman to get a name they have heard before, but really… it’s Derek Roy.
Given the costs of some of the deals it REALLY makes me wish SB would have went all out and gone after Ott or Vermette. Knowing it would have been out of character, but still. I think the Western playoffs are going to be very competitive. CHI,LA, ANA, MINN a cut above but the other 4 spots will be good strong clubs and not ‘gimmes’. Unless it’s us vs. Detroit. Wings are tied to our whipping post ha!
This from Stan Bowman today…
Regarding the No. 2 center slot, Bowman said, “we’ve done pretty good so far with that. We have a lot of options.”
Even if I were Bowman’s greatest supporter, I wouldn’t be able to agree with that statement. As I mentioned earlier the 2nd Centre position is a sore spot for Bowman, and for him to deal with it at this point would be putting onus on the fact that it has taken this long for him to do something about it…thus he won’t. That’s putting one’s own ego ahead of what’s best for the team…
Bolland has NOT been adequate as the 2nd line centre…he’s been better than Brendan Morrison, but not by a ton…
interesting comment from the boss, thanks SrBrad.
I wholeheartedly disagree with him on the first portion. Anyone who believes him has not been paying much attention…..