This was the first part of four on January 29th, 2008. Four weeks before the deadline I set out to find rumors and put who I thought could go somewhere. It is fun to look back at this now and laugh at some of it.
Hello everyone and welcome to a special column simply reflecting the countdown to the Feb. 26th trade deadline where the line between buyers and sellers has been and still is quite blurry. Really only two teams are out of it as of now….the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Los Angeles Kings. Even the Tampa Bay Lightning are only 7 points out of the division lead.
However in the coming weeks, a lot of these contenders for the last playoff spots do play each other…and they will play each other often. Some teams like Florida face a tough path on the road (they play 9 of their next 14 away from home). Also Colorado faces a 10 out of 15 on the road stretch and has 3 major injuries. Other teams like Atlanta faded a bit towards the break. If a trend like that continues, they may find themselves sellers as well.
There will be some teams looking to solidify their chances…teams like the Flyers and Devils who have big homestands coming up. The Devils really more so….especially with as many divisional matchups looming ahead…they need to clean up and gain some points. The Ducks after their long East Coast trip will have a considerable amount of games at home before the deadline so look out for them to maybe still be active at the deadline. Never be caught off guard.
So taking a quick early look…what is really out there for the buyers? Well depending on what media outlets or pundits you listen to…there could be more out there than meets the eye. Okay here is a quick list of players that could, and I emphasize, could be out there.
— Mats Sundin (Toronto)
— Vinnie Prospal (Tampa Bay)
— Ray Emery (Ottawa)
— John-Michael Liles (Colorado)
— Marek Malik (New York Rangers)
— Rob Blake (Los Angeles)
— Alexander Frolov (Los Angeles)
— Brad Stuart (Los Angeles)
— Marian Hossa (Atlanta)
— Fedor Tyutin (New York Rangers)
— Erik Christensen (Pittsburgh)
— Nikolai Khabibulin (Chicago)
— Brian Campbell (Buffalo)
These are just a small fraction of the names out there. Any of the big four from Tampa could be traded…maybe a Zherdev from the Blue Jackets could be on the market as well. As the days get closer to the deadline, expect more and more rumors to come flying from all directions. The question becomes where there is smoke….will there be fire?
Now to one semi hot rumor……
Scouts have been looking at Ray Emery as Ottawa seems to be finally done with him and it is no secret that GM Bryan Murray who could ship him to either LA or Tampa for a top 6 forward. The LA forward might be Alexander Frolov and the Tampa forward may be Vinnie Prospal. Salary wise both do make sense but it doesn’t mean that will happen.
The last of the last…..
So what will happen in the next four weeks? One thing is for sure…it will not be dull. Many of The Program insiders and I will be going back and forth with the connections we have to try and give you the best guess of who is going to head where. As always, all of it is just speculation until it actually happens. Happy hunting GM’S!!
