Kevin Bieksa goes from Indespensable to Dead Man Walking

Earlier in the season there was no point in trading Bieksa. All the other GM's were unsure of his potential because of the injuries that have kept his game total and point total down. Also because of the videos on youtube of game six versus Chicago where Bieksa is laying on his ass for three of the chicago goals.

But now that he has been fluking out and playing good, other teams might be willing to pay a price to take him for a playoff run. Say another team in the league that needs a highpower defenceman and has extra forwards to spare.

A team that really needs defense is San Jose and they might be willing to depart with Devin Set-o-hands. Numerous possibilities abound. All Gillis has to do is make sure to sell at the right moment, when it actually seems to the other team that Bieksa might be useful. Unfortunately, if you blink, you can miss these opportunities.

-hark

Thought on the Phaneuf Trade

This trade works out well for the Flames. Phaneuf was overpaid for the numbers he was putting up. They were paying him just as much as Iggy. When Sutter signed him it was his best season. He was even nominated for the norris trophy. But Phaneuf was always overated because he played in Calgary. The media built him up to be the next Chris Pronger way too prematurely. This year he wasn't even good enough to make the cut to Team Canada.

-n return the Flames get Hagman. He has put up 20 goals so far in Toronto which is a pretty amazing feat considering how bad they have played. Hagman will put more pressure on Jokinen to step up because god knows dawes and langkow are not doing that.

Overall its a good trade for the Flames. It frees up such much needed salary cap. It definitely isn't a sign that the flames are throwing the towel in for the season. Rather that they are picking up the slack.

Pitssburgh/Anaheim Trade

Whitney to Anaheim for Kunitz and some young guy i've never heard of. (heres the link to find out his name.)

I really don't see pittsburgh's logic in this move. pittsburgh's biggest weakness so far this season has been on defense. They had Gonchard and Whitney out for most of this season so far. And even once Whitney got back they were still losing a lot of games. I don't think they are necessarilly weak on offence considering they have 2 of the top 3 best point producers in the league. if anything, they should be looking to take on a defenceman rather than trade away their second best defenseman. Whitney had 13 points in 28 games and was a good puck moving defenseman.

Whitney will fit in well in Anaheim who already has neidermyer, pronger, beachamin. Maybe this is a sign that Anaheim is going to trade pronger because why else would they acquire a d-man?

Pittsburgh does gain a lot in Kunitz. He had 60 points two years ago when the ducks had their cup winning season. He can probably put up some good numbers playing with crosby and malkin.

Pens, Ducks trade today,
will they now make the playoffs?
theres no fucking way

-hark

Sundin

James mirtle wrote a post today showcasing his belief that sundin will go to NY. he did the math in a way that allowed NY to sign him without losing any big name players. It involved sundin signing a smaller contract this season and then resigning a bigger contract for next season. Sundin has said he is not interested in a two year contract, so im not sure that Mirtles logic fits. NY is already locked up big time with contracts to drury, gomez and lundqvist therefore i dont see NY being willing to offer him more money next season especially considering there will be 10 RFA's coming from new york this offseason including prucha and zherdev.

Mirtle offered a link to a NY journalist named Larry Brooks that was willing to take the time to understand the indepth capalogics of NY signing sundin

The Blueshirts currently have approximately $1 million of cap space. Pro-rating cap hits, the Blueshirts would need approximately $2.877M of space on Dec. 27 in order to be able to offer Sundin a full-season contract of $5M, half of Vancouver's standing bid.

This would mean that Sather would not have to part with Drury, gomez or Rosival. He could just demote some young players and trade peter prucha to free up enough money to sign sundin for 5 mil.

I would be very surprised if Sundin was willing to sign for 5 million. He might say that it is not about money but it has to be about money a little bit. I really hope that sundin is commanding at least 7 million from New York. That way they will have to trade one of the big 4: Drury, gomez, lundqvist or rozsival.

Where Would Nashville be without the Forsberg Trade?

The First Round Pick they traded for Forsberg ended up being jonathan Blum. He has 44 points in 28 games in the WHL this season.

The third round pick has 9 points in 17 games in NCAA hockey.

Defenseman Ryan Parent had 22 games with the Flyers last season. He was the same draft year as crosby and like most denfesmean he will take longer to make it to the big leagues than a forward. he did play 4 games with the flyers in last years playoffs and had 1 point. it doesnt seem like hes playing with philly this season, i think hes down in the minors.

Scottie upshall had 30 points in 60 games with Philly last season. this season hes got 10 points in 30 games.

And how did peter forsberg do in nashville. he played 17 games and scored 15 points in the regular season. and in the playoffs he had 4 points in 5 games before the preds were eliminated. then he never played for nashville again. it is still the biggest deadline day deal in the new era of the nhl. maybe gaborik or kovalchuk can top it this season