A flurry of deals...Vokoun, Toskala, Aucoin and Bell...

Just got home, and realized that some huge deals have been pulled off in the last few hours, especially in the goalie market.

For starters, the Nashville Predators traded goalie Tomas Vokoun to the Florida Panthers, about an hour and a half ago, in exchange for a first round pick and two second rounders.

Vokoun agreed to waive his no-trade clause to be dealt to the Panthers.

The Czech goaltender had a in-and-out 2005-2006 season.
He got injured for about 2 months early into the year but remained his usual solid self when he returned.
Chris Mason, however, proved to be too good to sit on the bench down the stretch and for the entire playoffs in GM David Poile's eyes.

As a result, Poile has chosen him as the team's number one goalie heading into next season.
Mason broke out of a backup role to post all-star like numbers.
I think a 2.38 GAA, 24 wins, a .925 save percentage and 5 shutouts in 40 games is pretty wicked.

Vokoun had a nearly identical season to Mason's, posting 27 wins, a .920 save percentage, a 2.40 GAA and 5 shutouts in 44 games.

But, in the end, Poile dealt Vokoun and showed the hockey world that money is still talking.

Vokoun will be paid an average of $5.5 million over the next 4 seasons, while the thrifty Mason will earn only $1.25 million over the 2 coming seasons, before being eligible to hit the open market at the end of 07/08.

That, faithful fanatics, explains the entire logic and reason behind this deal.

Vokoun is an established no. 1 goalie, something Florida hasn't had since Roberto Luongo, and certainly something they didn't get from the terrible Alex Auld and the party-wild Eddie Belfour last year.
Time will only tell how he adjusts to Eastern Conference teams and especially his new team, which is a huge downgrade from the dominating and powerful Predators he played for in the recent years.

It wasn't Manny Fernandez, or Tomas Vokoun but, hallelujah! The Toronto Maple Leafs have FINALLY gotten a respectable goalie.

And GM John Ferguson Jr. has just silenced his critics and some sour (aren't they all?) Leafs fans by getting top-notch 'tender Vesa Toskala from the cross-continent Sharks to go along with tough-hitting and scoring forward (see Blackhawks days) Mark Bell.

But it's worth mentioning Bell had a pathetic season on the scoresheet, scoring only 11 times and ending up in the coach's doghouse during the Sharks playoff run in favour of youngsters Ryane Clowe and Patrick Rissmiller.

I'm also feeling lazy today, and don't really want to write this up myself, but here are the complex details concerning the picks San Jose gets, courtesy of the Globe link above:

The deal, which includes forward Mark Bell going to Toronto, has cost the Leafs a conditional first-round selection, 2007 second-round choice and 2009 fourth-round picks. The Sharks can choose whether to take Toronto's first choice tonight (13th overall) or the 2008 first-round selection. If the Sharks choose the latter condition and the Leafs have a top-10 pick next June, the Sharks have to wait until 2009 for Toronto's first-rounder.

And where does this leave Andrew Raycroft, whom the Leafs gave top goalie prospect Tuukka Rask to the B's so he can go back to his Calder days, and be their solid number one goalie.
He did neither, and had a very streaky season in goal.

Toskala didn't quite repeat his terrific 2005-2006 year, he was good, but not better than the wall named Evgeni Nabokov, who re-claimed top-goalie status after losing it in the previous year.

Adrian Aucoin's miserable and injury-raddled days in Chicago are over.

TSN is reporting that the Flames will acquire the former star defenceman from Chicago, along with a seventh round choice for defenceman Andrei Zyuzin and prospect Steve Marr.
Zyuzin was a quite "gets the job done" type player for Calgary last year, and was well-liked by the media and fans.

Aucoin, on the other hand, was not.

Constantly booed, injury and lost on the ice, Aucoin's tenure in Chicago has stained his successful career, and has erased all memory of his glorious Islanders days as a top scoring point man.

His hefty salary of $4 million over the next couple years is also a major cap hit in Darryl Sutter's books, and the Flames clever GM must be praying this pans out for him.

Aucoin may be a replacement for impending UFA's Roman Hamrlik or Brad Stuart, one of which is expected to pack his bags and play elswhere next year with the most likely being Stuart.

And that's all for now!

If anything else happens, you'll hear from me later or if I'm still lazy, tomorrow.

--BBR

Gainey does it again...au revoir Samsonov!

COWABUNGA!

Bob Gainey has done it again, folks.

After ridding himself of Jose Theodore's seemingly unmovable contract last year, he clears the air and dumps Sergei Samsonov in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks.

''Considering we didn't have plans for Sergei Samsonov in our organization for next season, our options were either to buy out his contact or to trade him in order to allow us to save valuable cap room over the next two seasons,'' Bob Gainey told the media.

And Pierre McGuire finally got one right, he had recently told the Team 990 Montreal that the Canadiens and Blackhawks were close to making a deal, and hehe, here it is!

The Canadiens finally parted ways with their problematic Russian forward, 28-year old Sergei Samsonov today, sending him to Dave Tallon's Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for depth defenceman Jassen Cullimore and checking-line winger Tony Salmelainen.

Samsonov's $3,75 million 2007-2008 salary is off the Habs' books, and into Dave Tallon's; heading this way is defenceman Jassen Cullimore, who proved last season that he was no longer NHL material.

The 6 foot 5, 220-pound Cullimore had two goals and 12 assists in 118 games over the last two seasons with the Blackhawks, after winning a Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2003-2004.
However, he and his $1,9 million salary will not be suiting up in Montreal any time soon.

The 34-year old veteran and ex-Hab [was traded to the Canucks in 1996 for Donald Brashear] will have his contract bought out by the Canadiens, and he'll need to look for greener pastures if he wants to continue playing hockey next season.

Salmelainen's situation will be "re-evaluated" over the next few weeks, but he'll likely battle for a roster spot come September.

He's still relatively young at age 25, and might still turn out to be a decent player one day.

Bob Gainey is a genius, he turned Samsonov's salary into a 600K cap hit over the next two seasons!

I'll have more on this later, right now, time to rejoice!

WE GOT SOMETHING FOR SAMSONOV! Who woulda thought of that?
WE GOT MORE THAN A PUCK BAG!

Cheers,

--BBR

Hawks win first overall choice in upcoming draft...

The Chicago Blackhawks have won the first overall pick according to multiple sources.

Poor Flyers, they have a horrific year and still can't win the first one.

The bottom five had already been determined in a pre-lotto:
1. Philadelphia
2. Phoenix
3. LA Kings
4. Washington
5. Chicago

And the Hawks win...the Flyers will likely pick second.

Here's the most updated rankings from ISS:

1. Jakub Voracek, RW
2. Patrick Kane, RW
3. Alexei Cherepanov, RW
4. Kyle Turris, C
5. James Van Riemsdyk, LW
6. Karl Alzner, D
7. Sam Gagner, C
8. Maxim Mayorov, LW
9. Keaton Ellerby, D
10. Logan Couture, C
11. Angelo Esposito, C
12. Colton Gillies, C
13. Nick Petrecki, D
14. Joakim Andersson, C
15. Alex Plante, D

Hope this pick will compensate for all the "missed chances" that the Hawks had of getting Ovechkin and Malkin.

I can see Patrick Kane going to the Hawks...

Wouldn't it be nice if the Caps got Cherepanov to compliment Ovechkin and Backstrom?

Wow.

Isn't it wonderful how Brandon Bochenski suddenly became a star?

Aren't these fairy tale stories wonderful?

Last season, Canadiens goaltender Cristobal Huet was the clear winner, this season, Brandon Bochensk is raising some eyebrows in Boston.
Let's learn a little 'bout Brandon Bochenski. For starters, he was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks at the trade deadline last season after a remarkable stint with the Senators, in exchange for forward Tyler Arnason and a 1st round pick.
Bochenski had 14 points in 20 games with Ottawa but managed just 2 goals in 10 games with Chicago this season.
The deal proved to be a bust for both teams, especially Ottawa, since Arnason did not make an impact as expected, putting up a zero in the goals column and adding just 4 assists in 19 games.

Things didn't go well for Bochenski either, he was floundering miserably in Chicago, posting just 4 points in 20 games along with a horrendous -9 rating.
This all after a sensational stint alongside Jason Spezza for Bochenski...
The Blackhawks lost patience with the young forward and he was bounced between the minors and Chicago quite often.

It looked as if Bochenski's magical tenure with the Senators was a flash in the pan, and that it was doubtful he'd ever come close to that kind of production again.
Well, that was half-right, as Bochenski proved to be a bust again for the Blackhawks, who gave him a chance to prove himself once again.

On his second chance with Chicago, Bochenski had just 2 goals in 20 games and was heavily criticized by new head coach Denis Savard.

Finally, he was traded to Boston in early February for minor-league forward Kris Verteeg and a conditional draft choice. After failing to extract any production out of Stanislav Chistov, Peter Chiarelli figured he can try to resurrect a lost cause in Bochenski.

"Wow" is all you can say about Bochenski in Beantown.

He has put up consistent numbers, bringing back memories from his...shall we say, "glory"days in Ottawa? With 14 points in 14 games with Boston and a nice +7 rating, he's been tearing it up and maybe, just maybe, give Bruins fans a flick of playoff hope.

He is now playing alongside Marc Savard...and no wonder he's putting up huge numbers, just like in Ottawa when he played with Spezza.
Let's just hope (even though it's obvious) he's not one of those players that depends on superstars next to him...yeah, Jason Spezza and Marc Savard sound like those kinda players.
I wonder why he didn't play well in Chicago, hmm, I forgot, no Savard or Spezza there.

OK, that was a a little harsh, congrats Brandon! I hope for your sake and the Bruins' playoff hopes you keep it up!

And to close off, here are a few comments from Denis Savard on Bochenski's current situation in Boston:

"Good for him," Hawks coach Denis Savard said. "He’s had a few goals the last few games, but he didn’t show that when he was up here. He didn’t have the enthusiasm or the jam to be up here, let’s face it. Maybe he has the skill and the talent, but at a young age if you don’t have the will, you can’t have him around.

"Maybe he’s starting to figure it out because it’s his third team in six months. Good for him if he does well."

Cheers,

Bleu, Blanc et Rouge

Red Wings gamble on underachieving Calder

Just minutes after a deal that sent Brent Sopel to Vancouver, the Red Wings have taken off another potential player to be traded the night before Deadline Day, I hope there's something left for tomorrow.


The Chicago Blackhawks traded defenceman Lasse Kukkonen to Philadelphia for struggling forward Kyle Calder who sports a league worst -31 with the Flyers this season and has struggled offensively, netting just 9 goals, which began coming after Christmas and earned 12 points for a measly total of 21.

The Hawks then dealt Calder to the Detroit Red Wings, who have hopes of resurrecting this player from the dead, in exchange for surprising young forward Jason Williams who has put up some impressive numbers this season with

This is just a gamble by the Red Wings in hopes of adding a potential scorer (who hasn't scored this season). They did give up Williams to get him, but seriously, why the hell would Detroit do this? No logic behind this move at all, unless they expect Calder to become the player he was which, at this point, there's no telling what he'll do.

Williams has floundered this season and has not lived up to his $1.6 million salary, Red Wings fans will be happy to see him go.

Kukkonen is a solid young defenceman and the Flyers will likely play him if an injury occurs (very likely.)

I nearly lost all respect for Ken Holland...until a reader notified me of Williams' salary.
Calder could be a make-or-break player for Detroit.

We'll just have to wait and see...

Bleu, Blanc et Rouge

Canucks snag Smolinski?

Paul Kukla reports the Vancouver Canucks have acquired centre Bryan Smolinski from the Chicago Blackhawks for a second round pick.

Sportsnet now reports the Canucks are closing in on Smolinski and they have not yet acquired him.

Smolinski is a nice addition to a low-scoring Vancouver Canucks team, hopefully he will pan out and jolster their offence...but don't expect huge numbers from Smolinski. As long as he's consistent with his offence as well as his defense, is all the Canucks really care about.
And hey, he is a playoff experienced vet too...

Stay tuned to see how this will turn out.

TSN/Eklund: 9 players on waivers.

EDIT: TSN just reported this, it is official.

It is Eklund, so until this becomes official (if it does) ...take it with a grain of salt:

He claims a reliable source has informed him that, 9 players have been put on waivers and here they are:

"Brian Boucher, Bryan Berard, Michael Leighton, Denis Hamel, Jason Krog, Niko Kapanen, Marc Chouinard, Aaron Downey, and Petr Cajanek"

Some very interesting names in there, especially Berard, Kapanen, Boucher and Cajanek.

Berard requested a deal out of Columbus, maybe putting him on waivers is the first step, although, I would not understand any logic behind this since Columbus would lose one of its top defencemen and get absolutely nothing in return.

Expect most of these names will likely be claimed.

8 scouts last night at Kings-Avs game...

Over at the Denver Post, Terry Frei just reported 8 teams (rumoured to be Chicago, Vancouver, St. Louis, NY Rangers, Dallas, Boston, Columbus and Tampa Bay) were in attendance for last night's Kings-Avalanche game).

The possible shoppings from both teams are believed to be:

Brent Sopel: Los Angeles is rumoured not to want a mountain of players for him, most likely a mid-round draft pick. Sopel can be an affordable option for teams wanting to bolster their blue line. He is also more affordable than Sheldon Souray.

Aaron Miller: Might attract some attention for teams in need of depth...

Ossi Vaananen: With the injury to defenceman Jordan Leopold, Vaananen's chances of being dealt have likely diminished, unless the Avs make a same position swap and trade Vaananen for another defenceman.

Ken Klee: Klee is aging quickly and he has not been as effective this season as he was with Toronto and New Jersey last season. If he is dealt, he will be for at best a mid-late round pick for teams seeking depth.
Don't look for teams to sacrifice much or trade any young players such as New Jersey did (Aleksander Suglobov)last season.

Ian Laperriere: Slight drop-off from last season, Laperriere is a checking centre with a light offensive side.