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Behold! NHL Trade Deadline is NIGH!

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Nigh….as in soon to come? Whatever. Stay in school kids. The NHL trade deadline is Monday, March 2nd. In years past the trade deadline has been the object of much excitement and trepidation amongst fans for various reasons. It always brings out the armchair GMs who don’t approve of prospects given up for “over the hill has beens” to make a playoff run or they think the return for an outgoing veteran was too low. My favorites are the fans who think a 3rd pair defenseman, a middling prospect and a 2nd round draft pick will land you a top 6 winger or top 2 d-man.

Depending on who you talk to, the trade party started early…or SUPER EARLY. The Islanders, who are playing their last game in that crater of an arena they call Nassau Coliseum, kicked off the trade storm before the season even started by acquiring Nick Leddy from the Chicago Blackhawks and Johnny Boychuk from the Boston Bruins. These are two top 4….maybe even top pair defensemen that they got for a few draft picks and a couple of very replaceable players. They struck gold in these trades, preying on a couple of teams in desperate need of cap relief. It certainly shows in their play as they have been at or near the top of the Eastern Conference all year. Well done, Garth Snow.

It was mostly quiet until February 11th when the Jets and the Sabres completed a monster trade that saw defenseman Tyler Myers and forwards Drew Stafford and Brendan Lemieux and a conditional draft pick go to Winnipeg while the Sabres snagged forward Evander Kane and defenseman Zach Bogosian. You can say that Buffalo won this trade because they got a great power forward and a really good, young puck moving defenseman. But Winnipeg, who was basically forced to trade Kane after the nonsense that happened earlier that week, got a former Calder Trophy winner in Myers, a solid 20-25 goal scorer in Stafford and a prospect they wanted to draft when he was up but Buffalo grabbed him first. It was a good trade for both sides and they seemed to get good value for what they gave up.

Nashville made a fairly big splash after Toronto’s managing group gave the order to blow up the roster. They were able to get defensemen Cody Franson, a guy they drafted and had to give up and Mike Santorelli and sent forwards Olli Jokinen, Brendan Leipsic and their first round pick this year to Toronto. This was a move that was all about trading for moveable pieces and draft picks. They will likely move Jokinen as well to get more pieces they want. Cody Franson was a UFA after this season and with the rebuild coming, it didn’t look like it was a good place for him to be. Needless to say Olli Jokinen wasn’t thrilled about joining that circus.

Lastly, yesterday, February 26th, was a busy day for a few clubs. New Jersey dealt aging but dangerous forward Jaromir Jagr to Florida for a 2015 second-round pick and a conditional 2016 third-round pick. Good move for Florida as they bring in a guy who can score goals and provide leadership as they battle Boston for that final wildcard spot. The more interesting trade happened between Toronto and Columbus. Toronto sent forward David Clarkson to Columbus in exchange for Nathan Horton. If you’re unfamiliar with Nathan Horton’s situation, allow me to give you the cliff notes. He signed in Columbus two years ago from Boston. He immediately got injured and missed most of that first season. He came back and was quite productive. Suddenly he starts having back issues. Debilitating back issues. The kind that keep people from being able to walk right or sit straight. It suddenly looks like his hockey career could be over because they will try the usual treatments but he may need a rod in his back which would certainly push him to early retirement. Very sad situation for him. What this does for Toronto is it would lets them dump that absolutely horrific contract they gave to Clarkson onto someone else while taking on the similar salary and cap hit of Horton. Horton can be placed on LTIR (Long Term Injured Reserve) until his contract runs out. His contract isn’t guaranteed so he would not be able to claim the money if he were to leave the game. Being put on LTIR allows the cap hit to be freed up while still paying Horton his actual salary. Columbus wants Clarkson, and Toronto wanted to shoot that contract into space. They were able to get rid of it and everyone is happy.

Expect some moves from the Blackhawks as they try to get someone in the lineup to help fill the void left by the injury to Patrick Kane. You may see the Bruins try to bolster their lineup as well as Detroit as they search for a top tier defenseman. The next few days could be exciting, but they could just as easily be very, very boring.


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