Trade Deadline Deals

On one of the most busiest news days of the NHL regular season, the Trading Deadline, came and went with little blockbuster deals. For several hours this afternoon, bloggers, pundits and sports newscasters were all at a loss for commentary when the biggest name of the afternoon was Antoine Vermette to the Blue Jackets.

But once the deadline had been over and the time had progressed to the late afternoon, some of the more familiar names mentioned at the deadline were soon announced to have new teams. Olli Jokinen, considered the best available player, was selected to the Calgary Flames for a playoff push. Way to go, Calgary. Bring in somebody with absolutely no playoff experience whatsoever.

My Penguins shocked some pundits by grabbing up Bill Guerin from the hapless Islanders. This works out great for Shero who propped up his reputation for trade deals. Both my "Pittsburgh insider" and "Washington insider" say that originally Guerin was supposed to be a Capital, but the trade fell through for the Penguins to offer something else better. Guerin has Stanley Cups with two teams and is a great veteran for a young team. Later on, Mark Recchi, also went to Boston who offers some experience to get the young Boston Bruins some more respect as the top team in the East.

The last interesting trades to pop up were how the New York Rangers bolstered their playoff hopes with the additions of Antropov from Toronto and Morris from Phoenix. The blue line is the Rangers Achilles' heel and at least they have one guy on defense who knows what he is doing. Antropov's deal has conditions attached to how far the Rangers progress through the playoffs.

Edmonton has both guys named Ales.

And the last trade to go through at the deadline, the Maple Leafs decided to take a bunch of salary off Tampa Bay's hands in exchange for one of their minor leaguers. It raised a few eyebrows of concern, but the League said it was okay, and I want to believe them. It doesn't really affect the competitive ballance of the league and some of them are FAs at the end of the year. Could there have been a diamond in the rough for Toronto? Wait and see next year.