Cornwall ON – Busy day in Hockey land Kiddies! The Flames finally dumped Darryl Sutter as GM. The team, which has been a roiling mess the last few seasons has Jay Feaster taking the helm for the balance of the year. Much safe political speak in the media coverage.
Good timing as Montreal is within 2 points potentially of 9th place Carolina in the conference standings.
Pierre Gauthier made a trade and I kinda like it. Kudos to the Habs GM. He sent off a 2nd and 5th for James Wisniewski whose 26 and about to become a UFA. He was signed to a one year deal by the Islanders and has made the most of his ice time scoring 21 points in 32 games. He’s also got a bit of grit to his game. His knock is that he’s not big enough to take on the Big Guns, and probably is a good fit as a #3 or 4 D man.
His cap hit for this year is a livable $3.25 M which means there’s still some Markov money to make another move and solidify the Top 6.
It also spells PK Subban getting a tour of the AHL for awhile to get some ice time in and clear his head and recalibrate although he played in the 3-0 loss to the Caps.
In other NHL moves St. Louis nabbed former Avalanche forward Marek Svatos who’d been playing in the KHL. It’s always good when you can add a roster player without having to give one up.
With Jason Spezza out long term or even for the year it’s a good time for Ottawa to start that fire sale as they have zero hope for this season and didn’t have much with Spezza.
It should be interesting to see if they can nab a 2nd rounder for Kovalev and perhaps get something for Gonchar and maybe a few other spare parts?
NHL Scores: Pittsburgh doubled Atlanta 6-3; Carolina nipped Toronto 4-3; Boston extended there conference lead over Montreal wiht their 4-3 win vs Tampa Bay; St. Louis clipped Chicago 3-1; Dallas doubled Nashville 4-2; Buffalo also doubled Edmonton 4-2; Anaheim beat Phoenix 3-1; and the Canucks tripled Philly 6-2.
What do you think Hockey and Hab fans? You can post your comments below.
