Busy deadline raises questions

February 26, 2008   ·   Joe McDonald   ·   Jump to comments

It was a crazy deadline this year. In all 24 trades were completed, second most in history. Here’s the chart, as per NHL.com.

	Team	Player/Compensation
	Marian Hossa, F Pascal Dupuis, F		Erik Christensen, F Colby Armstrong, F Angelo Esposito, C 2008 first-round pick
	David LeNeveu, G Fredrik Sjostrom, F Josh Gratton, F Conditional draft pick		Al Montoya, G Marcel Hossa, F
	Chad Kilger, LW		2008 third-round pick
	Alexandre Giroux, LW		Joe Motzko, RW
	Brandon Bochenski, F		Future considerations
	Jan Hlavac, F		2008 seventh-round pick
	Jean-Sebastien Aubin, G		2008 seventh-round pick
	Brad Stuart, D		2008 second-round pick 2009 fourth-round pick
	Jay Leach, D		Brandon Segal, RW 2008 seventh-round pick
	Marc-Andre Bergeron, D		2008 third-round pick
	Hal Gill, D		2008 second-round pick 2009 fifth-round pick
	Chris Simon, F		2008 sixth-round pick
	Christian Backman, D		2008 fourth-round pick
	Matt Cooke, LW		Matt Pettinger, LW
	Sergei Fedorov, C		Theo Ruth, D
	Adam Foote, D		2008 or 2009 conditional first-round pick 2009 conditional fourth-round pick
	Brad Richards, F Johan Holmqvist, G		Jeff Halpern, C Jussi Jokinen, F Mike Smith, G 2009 fourth-round pick
	Cristobal Huet, G		Second-round pick
	Ruslan Salei, D		Karlis Skrastins, D 2008 third-round pick
	Brian Campbell, D 2008 seventh-round pick		Steve Bernier, F 2008 first-round pick
	Cam Janssen, F		Bryce Salvador, D
	Andrew Ladd, F		Tuomo Ruutu, F
	Wade Belak, F		2008 fifth-round pick
	Martin Lapointe, F		2008 sixth-round pick
	Rob Davison, D		2008 seventh-round pick
Feb. 25
	Vaclav Prospal, F		Alexandre Picard, D 2009 conditional draft pick

Clear winners: Pittsburgh and San Jose. In my opinion, the Penguins are now the team to beat in the NHL. Their backline got more physical with Gill and their power play may now be unstoppable. If Ty Conklin and Marc-Andre Fleury can stay healthy and consistent, they’ll be tough to beat. Campbell to San Jose really helps that team on the blueline.

Clear losers: Islanders, Edmonton and Atlanta. The first two for the mere fact that they did nothing of note. Getting rid of Simon was a good move for the Islanders, but losing Bergeron is tough. Edmonton had chances to move several players, and didn’t. Atlanta got some good youth back, but they did nothing to be good this year. Armstrong and Christiansen might get lost in the bigger market up in Ottawa.

Other thoughts:

The Rangers made some weird moves. I understand the players they traded (Montoya and Hossa) as both were expendable. Hossa has been limited due to injury and Montoya’s stock was just falling in Hartford. The players they got are questionable though. Backman should help out the blueline, but is in no way the shutdown defenseman the Rangers were looking for. He’ll be physical and chip in a point or two every five games, but that’s if he stays healthy. Sjostrom needs to play on a 2nd or 3rd line on a mediocre team. He will play on the 4th line, if he plays at the NHL level at all for the Rangers. This pushes Ryan Hollweg out of the picture, who cannot be replaced in terms of sheer energy. Gratton is a strange pickup, as he goes straight to Hartford. He fights and, well that’s it. He doesn’t do much else. LeNeuvue has a lot of upside and has worked with Benoit Allaire, who is very high on the kid. Hopefully that pays off.

Would have rather had Bryce Salvador, who went to the Devils. Good pickup by them, especially since they only parted with Cam Janssen.

Washington got better as well with Federov and Huet. Ridding themselves of Pettinger isn’t a bad thing either. He was a bust so far this season.

Thoughts? Agree or disagree? Let’s hear some other thoughts. I’ll check in later on.