Special Edition: Deadline Deals

 Now as promissed I am back after having my eyes glued to TSN's coverage of today's trading and am ready to write about what I saw. And what a boring day it was. I suppose the lack of trades today should be no surprise considering all of the teams that still believe they can win as well as all of the other trades that have gone down in the past month but today will still very slow. Still after today teams like the LA Kings, Phoenix Coyotes and Washington Capitals were able to improve slightly, but many of the big ticket names I mentioned in yesterdays post did not.

Clearly the biggest trade of the day, which is not a hard achievement to receive, was Edmonton sending Dustin Penner to the LA Kings for prospect dman Colten Teubert, LA's 2011 1st round pick and a conditional pick in 2012. Penner is a big man that is joining a big team that loves to hit and score so called "garbage goals" so he should fit well with the Kings. The Oilers though are the big winners in this deal as they were able to free up some cap space for next season, bring in a big top prospect dman and another 1st round pick this year. Going younger is the mindset the Oilers are in right now and this deal shows that perfectly. Some rumours are saying Ales Hemsky was who LA was originally targeting but since they weren't willing to give up prospect Bryden Schen, that deal never fell through. Hemsky may have been helpful to the Kings, especially playing with Anze Kopitar, but I applaud Dean Lombardi in identifying the value of Schen and not letting him be traded away.

The Washington Capitals were able to get what they were looking for, a 2nd line center and a veteran dman. They dealt David Steckel and a 2012 draft pick to the NJ Devils for vetren Jason Arrnot and traded a young prospect and another pick to Florida for Dennis Wideman. Arrnot is a highly praised veteran leader with a hard shot and a big body. He can kill penalties and play the powerplay and will be a reliable center man for the Caps. It was announced today that the Caps star dman Mike Green will miss 2-3 weeks with an injury so Widemen will be a perfect fit to replace the offence lost with Green's injury. The Caps will benefit greatly from having more veteran leadership in the locker room, something they didn't have much of when they lost in the 1st round of the playoffs last year. Let's see if that theory is right.

The Coyotes are always a team that every one seems to overlook but if you check the Western Conference standings they are currently in 4th place and not to far behind their division leader San Jose. They also made a move today that could help them get over the top and go for a playoff run by acquiring Rusty Klesla form the Columbus Blue Jackets for Scottie Upshall and Sami Lepisto. Klesla was the last player remaining from the original Columbus team being the 4th overall pick in 2000 but after 10 years of playing in the league he still hasn't met all the expectations that come with being drafted so high. In Phoniex he will get to play with veteran dmen like Adrian Aucoin and the currently injured Ed Jovanovski, dmen who can teach Klesla the finner details about the game and he will be a welcome asset to them for some time to come. Of course the Coyotes had to give up a player to get a player and Scottie Upshall is unfortunately that guy. With some of their younger prospects such as Mikkel Boedker emerging as scoring wingers, the speedy Upshall was replaceable. But he will get an opportunity with the Blue Jackets to score some goals and get more ice time and I think he will be a good line mate for Rick Nash.

Of course there was a few more moves today but the ones I discussed above are the ones I believe will have the biggest affect on the teams involved. Like I said earlier, some of the bigger deals with teams such as Toronto, Ottawa and Boston happened in the past couple weeks which turned what is usually an exciting day for people like me into a quieter and less eventful one. It will be interesting to see which teams will benefit most from their new players and with just over 1 month left in the season, teams are desperate more than ever to get points and move up the standings. Expect another post next Sunday and until then Happy Hockey.