Small Trade! (Rumour no more)

I heard it was done at 4pm on Team1200 but I was stuck in traffic and couldn't put this up 'till now.

I'm kind of having a hard time believing this right now rooneypoo. You see, nothing this good ever happens to the sports teams I follow. But holy Diddle if this is true. He's got him listed with Demitra and such. I mean, I know its a long-term potential, but even just 50 points is sooooooooooooooo much infintely better than a guy who wouldn't even play on this team this year.

Great trade! Shannon is super fast & has excellent upside.

On the potential Hawks & Ottawa trade possibilities:

1)Bulin Wall would be better than what we have now. Elite goalie when he is motivated for sure. Besides, A-Train would have someone to do that cool Russian dancing with!!!! :D

2)Cam Barker needs a fire lit under his Donkey. Potential but no elbow grease. Young defensemen with upside are hard to find I heard......(Mez)?

3) Robert Lang would be a fantastic pick up for us. 2nd line centre who is great on the PP. Little long in the tooth but we only need a year or two....... never a bad thing t o have a 50 point centre on the 2nd line.8)

PKC wrote:I didn't know where else to put this, but I figured it would fit in with the trade rumors theme.

Anyways, Al Cimaglia, the Chicago Blackhawks blogger over at HB, has written a tremendous article regarding several possibilities for trades for Chicago and is extremely relevant to the Ottawa Senators. He also discusses the Meszaros trade and his feelings about it.

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=16625&blogger_id=52

Give it a read. And let's discuss it. I particularly like his idea of putting Khabibulin on re-entry waivers with the idea of Ottawa picking him up. We'd then only be on the hook for 3.375 million dollars of his contract.

A couple of issues with that:

1) Recall waiver priorities, like regular waiver priorities, are determined at the start of the season by last year's performance. LA would be waaaay in front of us and, if they wanted him, would snag him for sure before we got a chance. COL would also be ahead of us, I believe, but I could be wrong on that.

2) $3.375 is still quite a bit of money for us. That would put is very close to the cap, although I do think we could do it and still have about the requisite $1.5 mil in cap space. It'd be tight, tho', and might require a little manoeuvring.

3) This move doesn't get Gerber off our bench and books. The only teams I can imagine that might want him are LA and COL, and again they would probably snag Khabby first off of re-entry waivers instead of being forced into giving up any assets, however insignificant, for Gerber.

I wouldn't mind Khabby at that price and with Gerber gone, I suppose -- we'd actually save a few bucks and I think Khabby can actually be a better goal, even if he hasn't shown it recently -- but I'm not sure it could be done this way. I have to think LA would jump at the chance for a cheap starter that doesn't cost them any assets whatsoever.

Money Farmer wrote:Great trade! Shannon is super fast & has excellent upside.

On the potential Hawks & Ottawa trade possibilities:

1)Bulin Wall would be better than what we have now. Elite goalie when he is motivated for sure. Besides, A-Train would have someone to do that cool Russian dancing with!!!! :D

2)Cam Barker needs a fire lit under his Donkey. Potential but no elbow grease. Young defensemen with upside are hard to find I heard......(Mez)?

3) Robert Lang would be a fantastic pick up for us. 2nd line centre who is great on the PP. Little long in the tooth but we only need a year or two....... never a bad thing t o have a 50 point centre on the 2nd line.8)

We already have two second line centers that are capable of (hopefully next year) at least 60+ point season and both bring tons of other intangibles to the table that Lang doesn't. He is in my opinion the only guy we don't need.

PKC wrote:I'm kind of having a hard time believing this right now rooneypoo. You see, nothing this good ever happens to the sports teams I follow. But holy Diddle if this is true. He's got him listed with Demitra and such. I mean, I know its a long-term potential, but even just 50 points is sooooooooooooooo much infintely better than a guy who wouldn't even play on this team this year.

Honestly, in terms of our minor-league depth charts, I think Shannon steps in right along side of Zubov and Nikulin as next in line in terms of who will make the team next in the near future. If we want to keep him around, however, we're going to have to sign him to a 1-way deal next year, I imagine.

I'm absolutely shocked that this deal went down. Gillis just got his pocket picked big time.

rooneypoo wrote:A couple of issues with that:

1) Recall waiver priorities, like regular waiver priorities, are determined at the start of the season by last year's performance. LA would be waaaay in front of us and, if they wanted him, would snag him for sure before we got a chance. COL would also be ahead of us, I believe, but I could be wrong on that.

2) $3.375 is still quite a bit of money for us. That would put is very close to the cap, although I do think we could do it and still have about the requisite $1.5 mil in cap space. It'd be tight, tho', and might require a little manoeuvring.

3) This move doesn't get Gerber off our bench and books. The only teams I can imagine that might want him are LA and COL, and again they would probably snag Khabby first off of re-entry waivers instead of being forced into giving up any assets, however insignificant, for Gerber.

I wouldn't mind Khabby at that price and with Gerber gone, I suppose -- we'd actually save a few bucks and I think Khabby can actually be a better goal, even if he hasn't shown it recently -- but I'm not sure it could be done this way. I have to think LA would jump at the chance for a cheap starter that doesn't cost them any assets whatsoever.

Sorry I didn't post the rest of my idea in here, I posted it in the comments section of Cimaglia's blog.

Anyways, I can only see Murray picking up Khabibulin on waivers. I
believe in a separate three-way trade between LA, Ottawa and Chicago,
you could see Gerber head off to LA with a mid-to-low round draft pick
coming back Ottawa's way and then that along with another low round
pick being flipped to Chicago in compensation for Khabibulin. Would
make sooooooo much sense.

LA would get a relatively cheap starter for the year, Chicago gets half
of Khabibulin's salary off the books, and Ottawa makes a small change
in nets for pretty much the same price.

But now that you mention it, I suppose it would make just as much sense for LA to pick up Khabibulin off waivers unless they'd prefer Gerber because he might not be as injury prone as Khabibulin.

Basically, my trade idea (regardless of how little sense it might make):

Ottawa picks up Khabibulin off of re-entry waivers.

To LA: Gerber
To CHI: LA's 5th round pick and Ott's 4th/5th round pick

rooneypoo wrote:

PKC wrote:I'm kind of having a hard time believing this right now rooneypoo. You see, nothing this good ever happens to the sports teams I follow. But holy Diddle if this is true. He's got him listed with Demitra and such. I mean, I know its a long-term potential, but even just 50 points is sooooooooooooooo much infintely better than a guy who wouldn't even play on this team this year.

Honestly, in terms of our minor-league depth charts, I think Shannon steps in right along side of Zubov and Nikulin as next in line in terms of who will make the team next in the near future. If we want to keep him around, however, we're going to have to sign him to a 1-way deal next year, I imagine.

I'm absolutely shocked that this deal went down. Gillis just got his pocket picked big time.

It would seem so. I mean I don't know much about Shannon apart from what I read on Sportsnet and what I read at HF.

rooneypoo wrote:
Honestly, in terms of our minor-league depth charts, I think Shannon steps in right along side of Zubov and Nikulin as next in line in terms of who will make the team next in the near future. If we want to keep him around, however, we're going to have to sign him to a 1-way deal next year, I imagine.

I'm absolutely shocked that this deal went down. Gillis just got his pocket picked big time.

But...what did they have Nycholat's numbers at? He's a good player too.

504Heater wrote:

But...what did they have Nycholat's numbers at? He's a good player too.

You mean Dobber? He thinks little of him, apparently, because he's no where to be found in this year's guide...

How in the world did we just land this guy for Nycholat?

The catch with Shannon, of course, is that he's tiny (5'9, 175 pounds) and a little old (25), but a very expendable Nycholat on a 1-way, 1-year deal is much less of a price than I would have been willing to pay to get this guy.

PKC wrote:How in the world did we just land this guy for Nycholat?

Another great move by Murray.

I don't think its as hard these days in the NHL for smaller, faster, skilled forwards to succeed.

rooneypoo wrote:
You mean Dobber? He thinks little of him, apparently, because he's no where to be found in this year's guide...

Really? I don't understand that to be honest.

504Heater wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:
You mean Dobber? He thinks little of him, apparently, because he's no where to be found in this year's guide...

Really? I don't understand that to be honest.

Maybe some players just aren't meant to succeed in the NHL. We've certainly seen some of them come up through our system (Denis Hamel, Josh Hennessey, etc..).

woo hoo

Murray strikes again!

I like this trade a lot. Gives a little more competition for the young forwards in training camp and relieves some of the logjam on the backend.

As for potential Chicago trades, I don't see how Lang would fit in here at all. We already have Vermette and Fisher on the 2nd line and both prefer to play centre. Why would we want a 3rd centre on our 2nd line. Alao, if I'm not mistaken, I thought I heard that when he was in Detroit, he had locker room problems. Barker or Khabibulin remain intriguing possibilities, but we would need to send a few guys out to even up the cap.