after shutout losses to the toronto maple leafs and boston bruins, bryan murray made his biggest move a day after the trade deadline.
after losing six of their last eight games, and 14 of their last 21, the ottawa senators have fired coach john paddock. general manager bryan murray, who was the teams coach last year, will take over behind the bench.
also let go was assistant coach ron low. the rest of the coaching staff will stay on.
well, let’s hope there is some excitement today. a rundown of today’s deals, updated throughout the day.
trying to find a good way to sort the deals so they are easy to read. going with these tables for now.
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| tampa bay | alexandre picard, conditional draft pick | philadelphia | vaclav prospal |
11:00am update…
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| new jersey | bryce salvador | st. louis | cam janssen |
11:15am…
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| florida | wade belak | toronto | 2008 5th round pick |
11:35am…
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| san jose | brian campbell, 2008 7th round pick | buffalo | steve bernier, 2008 1st round pick |
11:45am…
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| dallas | brad richards, johan holmqvist | tampa bay | mike smith, jeff halpern, jussi jokinen |
11:55am…
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| washington | cristobal huet | montreal | 2009 2nd round pick |
fairly quiet early since noon. 2pm update…
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| chicago | andrew ladd | carolina | tuomo ruutu |
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| florida | karlis skrastins, 2008 3rd round pick | colorado | ruslan salei |
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| ottawa | martin lapointe | chicago | 2008 6th round pick |
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| colorado | adam foote | columbus | conditional draft picks |
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| washington | sergei fedorov | columbus | ted ruth |
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| ny islanders | rob davison | san jose | 2008 7th round pick |
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| washington | matt cooke | vancouver | matt pettinger |
2:50pm…
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| pittsburgh | hal gill | toronto | 2008 2nd and 2009 5th round picks |
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| ny rangers | christian backman | st. louis | 2008 4th round pick |
3pm. the deadline has come, with probably the biggest deal of the day.
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| pittsburgh | marian hossa, pascal dupuis | atlanta | colby armstrong, erik christensen, angelo esposito, 2008 1st round pick |
post deadline, 3:10pm…
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| minnesota | chris simon | ny islanders | 2008 6th round pick |
3:15pm…
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| detroit | brad stuart | los angeles | 2008 2nd and 2009 4th round picks |
more post 3pm deals…
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| phoenix | al montoya, marcel hossa | ny rangers | fredrik sjostrom, josh gratton, david leneveu |
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| florida | chad kilger | toronto | 2008 3rd round pick |
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| anaheim | marc-andre bergeron | ny islanders | 2008 3rd round pick |
3:30pm…
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| anaheim | jean-sebastien aubin | los angeles | 2008 7th round pick |
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| atlanta | joe motzko | washington | alexandre giroux |
not quite done for the day yet…
| team | acquires | team | acquires |
| nashville | jan hlavac | tampa bay | 2008 7th round pick |
with the trade deadline less than 18 hours away, some names have already started moving.
despite saying last week that he was unlikely to return, peter forsberg is going back to where (basically) it all started. forsberg has signed a one-year deal with the colorado avalanche. the avalanche are in a tough battle for a playoff spot out west, currently four points out of the last spot. the addition of forsberg and the return of joe sakic from injury are nice “pickups” at this time of year.
in another signing, the first overall detroit red wings are bringing back darren mccarty. mccarty was given a one-year deal and sent to the ahl for some conditioning.
and one trade to kick off what could be a flurry of deals. the philadelphia flyers have picked up vaclav prospal from the tampa bay lightning. going the other is prospect defenseman alexandre picard. a draft pick is also part of the deal.
as for my plans on deadline tomorrow… i plan on tuning into the coverage for a could part of the day. i’ll have one deadline day post that will be up momentarily where i’ll run down all the trades that come down the line.
the deadline is officially at 3pm et on tuesday.
news just coming down that mats sundin has decided to not waive his no trade clause and will stay with the toronto maple leafs.
in sundin’s words…
“I have carefully considered the team’s request that I waive my no-trade clause,” Sundin said in a statement. “I have always believed I would finish my career as a Toronto Maple Leaf so the actual request was still a very difficult one for me to contemplate.”
“I have spoken to and listened to my family and those closest to me about this issue. In the end, there is no right decision in a situation like this one.”
“I cannot leave my teammates and join another NHL Club at this time. I have never believed in the concept of a rental player. It is my belief that winning the Stanley Cup is the greatest thing you can achieve in hockey but for me, in order to appreciate it you have to have been part of the entire journey and that means October through June. I hope everyone will understand and respect my decision.”
this should make the marian hossa sweepstakes that much more interesting.
peter forsberg’s agent don baizley is spreading the word among nhl teams that forsberg won’t be skating in the league this year.
“The prospect of Peter having enough confidence in the foot-skate issue to commit to being able to play in the NHL this season isn’t where it needs to be at this moment,” Baizley told TSN. “As a result, teams are being told it is unlikely he will be able to commit to return to the NHL this season.”
is forsberg’s career over? you’ve got to start thinking that. a player who’s battled injuries through most if not all of his career, it’s a shame his career might come to an end like this. what might have been if forsberg had had a 1000-game nhl career? over his 12 years in the nhl, forsberg only played two full seasons – the strike shortened 94-95 season and the year after that. he played 60 or less games in four seasons, and missed the entire 2001-02 season. over less than 700 games, he averaged well over a point a game. had he averaged even 70 games per season at his point-per-game average of just under 1.25, we’re talking about 1000-point career.
the nhl trade deadline is a week from tomorrow. in advance of that, the general managers of all 30 nhl teams are meeting in naples, florida. the meetings are a time to talk about rules, the salary cap, and other league happenings.
but, with three days of meetings before the deadline, it’s a time to talk trade.
there are a few big name players who’s names are going through the rumour mill. many big names are seemingly available for trade, including florida’s olli jokinen, atlanta’s marian hossa, buffalo’s brian campbell, and of course maple leafs captain mats sundin.
sundin’s is the name that most gets mentioned with a possibly trade. speculation is that if leafs gm cliff fletcher can find a trade partner, he’ll give sundin a couple of days to look at the deal and accept or turn it down. like more and more players, sundin has a no-trade clause. more important than that, he is a key figure in toronto, and has been playing for the same team for over a decade. will he want to leave the leafs to help them out?
the other big news on the player front this week might be the return of peter forsberg. philadelphia flyers general manager paul holmgren said that forsberg could decide by tomorrow whether he’ll return or not.
it should be an interesting week leading up to the deadline.
i just finished reading gare joyce’s book, “future greats and heartbreaks: a year undercover in the secret world of nhl scouts.” a short review…
in the book, joyce is given all kinds of access from the columbus blue jackets before the 2006 nhl entry draft. he was brought into their “war room”, sitting in on discussions about various prospects. he took in the nhl combine, seeing the prospects being put through the paces. in the week before the draft, he sat in on player interviews, even asking a few questions to potential draft picks himself.
the whole first part of the book focuses on joyce’s time with the blue jackets and their scouts. you get an inside look at the preparation for the 2006 draft. the dissecting of prospects, big names and long shots. a lot of focus on phil kessel, you was coming off a pretty bad year going into the draft. he had a lot of rumoured off the ice problems, and you get a sense of frustration from the scouts about a player who looks to have all kinds of talent, but maybe not “all there” in other areas. in that draft, the blue jackets end up taking derick brassard with their first pick, sixth overall. there are interviews with brassard pre-draft, when he heads to columbus with a couple of other prospects to skate and work out.
the second part of the book is all about joyce basically becoming a scout for a season. over the course of the 2006-2007 season, he sees games in the czech republic, sweden, finland at the various world junior tournaments. and he hits various cities in british columbia, saskatchewan, ontario and quebec to see games and prospects across the canadian hockey league. a few players take centre stage in this part of the book, the next generation of potential nhl stars – patrick kane, sam gagner, angelo esposito, logan couture and jakub voracek among the players who get more billing.
the final part of the book is as the season unwinds, with columbus in another non-playoff year. this is around the time when doug mclean was being let go by the blue jackets, replaced by scott howson as general manager. the author gets much less access at the 2007 draft because of the change in the front office. but on the players he spent watching during the year, voracek, ends up being the jackets first round pick.
for fans of hockey, consider this book a definite read. no one gets inside access like this for events such as drafts and scouting reports. i got the book on tuesday, and read it in less than two days. a very good read.
with the nhl all-star weekend finishing up last night, the american hockey league kicked off their all-star festivities in binghamton, new york with their version of the skills competition. the game goes tonight.
the rosters are made up of upcoming prospects and long time ahl players. the rosters are broken up into “canadian” and “planetusa” teams. the canadian team is… all canadian players. planetusa is american and european players.
just to give an idea of some of the players involved, here are the results from last night’s skills competition.
puck control relay
planetusa team of peter harrold, t.j. hensick and rob schremp defeat canadian team of martin st. pierre, corey locke and jason krog. in the individual relay, planetusa’s keith aucon beat denis hamel.
fastest skater
overall fastest time went to toby petersen, with a time of 14.001 seconds. he narrowly beat joey tenute, who clocked in at 14.072. others involved were andrew ebbett(14.875), jeff tambellini(14.490), petr vrana(14.209) and joakim lindstrom(14.634).
rapid fire
this competition has two shooters each taking five shots from inside the faceoff circles. pekka rinne and jimmy howard both stopped nine of ten shots. greg moore and clay wilson were the best shooters, each scoring three goals.
hardest shot
mark mancari destroyed this competition. mancari set a skills competition record with a shot registered at 102.8mph. jonathan ericsson was the only other play to hit triple digits, going for 100.1. alexandre picard(96.5) and bobby ryan(96.3) also had decent shots.
accuracy shot
4-for-4 is the target, and it was done by gabe gauthier. rob schremp, teddy purcell and martin st. pierre all went 4-for-6.
pass and score
this is a competition that has three skaters going against a goalie. the goalies won. drew macintyre and tuukka rask both stopped all three shots they faced. the best goal scoring trios were toby petersen/erik reitz/brett sterling and t.j. hensick/joakim lindstrom/bobby ryan, who got two goals.
breakaway rule
again, the goalies came through big here. nolan schaefer was perfect, allowing no goals on five shots. pekka rinne, tuukka rask, michael leighton and drew macintyre each allowed one goal.
in the end, planetusa won the skills comp., with a 15-9 score. you can catch the all-star game tonight in canada on sportsnet, starting at 7pm et.
related links
canadian all-star roster
planetusa all-star roster
players named to this weekend’s all-star and youngstar rosters, listed by team.
* = injured, not playing
# = injury replacement
anaheim
chris pronger, scott niedermayer#, ryan getzlaf, corey perry#
atlanta
tobias enstrom, marian hossa, ilya kovalchuk
boston
milan lucic, zdeno chara, tim thomas#, marc savard#
buffalo
brian campbell
calgary
dion phaneuf, jarome iginla
carolina
eric staal
chicago
patrick kane, duncan keith
colorado
paul stastny*
columbus
rick nash
dallas
matt niskanen, mike ribeiro#, sergei zubov*
detroit
nicklas lidstrom, chris osgood, pavel datsyuk, henrik zetterberg*
edmonton
sam gagner, shawn horcoff
florida
tomas vokoun
los angeles
jack johnson, anze kopitar
montreal
andrei markov
minnesota
marian gaborik
nashville
jason arnott
new jersey
david clarkson#
ny islanders
rick dipietro
ny rangers
marc staal, brandon dubinsky, scott gomez
ottawa
daniel alfredsson, jason spezza, dany heatley*
philadelphia
kimmo timonen, mike richards
phoenix
peter mueller, ed jovanovski
pittsburgh
kris letang, tyler kennedy*, sergei gonchar, evgeni malkin#, sidney crosby*
san jose
evgeni nabokov, joe thornton
st. louis
erik johnson, david perron, manny legace
tampa bay
mike lundin, vincent lecavalier, martin st. louis
toronto
tomas kaberle
vancouver
alexander edler, henrik sedin
washington
nicklas backstrom, alexander ovechkin
the all-star game goes on sunday at 6pm et. tonight is the skills competition and youngstars game, with action kicking off at 7pm et. nhl.com will have some radio coverage from atlanta during the weekend as well. today at 3:30pm they are having an all-access show you can tune into.
it’s captain alfie!
daniel alfredsson was in all but one goal in ottawa’s 8-4 win over tampa bay last night. his seven points on the night (3 goals, 4 assists) set a new franchise record.
and just like that, alfredsson took a one point lead in league scoring heading into the all star break. he eclipsed the 30-goal mark for the fourth time in his career, and he’s hit 20+ goals in eight straight years.
alfredsson doesn’t get much ink when it comes to talking about league mvp. there are those you like the youngsters: sidney crosby(now out of the running) and alexander ovechkin. and then the established mvp’s like jarome iginla, vinny lecavalier and roberto luongo. but no one can replace what alfredsson does for ottawa.
alfredsson leads the senators in pretty much every offensive category – goals, points, power play goals, short handed goals, game winning goals, and plays the most minutes of any forward on the team. and even the odd game where he doesn’t get a point, he is usually far and away the senators best player.
across the nhl fanbase, a lot of people don’t like alfredsson. well, across the “centre of the universe” people don’t like him. the stanley cup “guarantee” and the so-called dirty hits have him low on some peoples list. there is no questioning daniel alfredsson’s talent. he has made those of us in ottawa forget alexei yashin. he has lead the team to a stanley cup final and a conference final.
not bad for a sixth round draft pick.
