By Brian Metzer
Well, the day is off to a rousing start. I am up at at the crack of dawn, showered and ready for an exciting morning of trade deadline action!
7:40am: Headed over to Brugger’s Bagels and completed first trade of the day — some US Currency for two coffees. One hazelnut and one regular.
8:00am: home war room set up. iPad Tweetcaster app in full effect. Kukla’s Korner/From the Point applets open on lap top to discuss any and all action and TSN TradeCentre on the television. Good times all around. One of my favorite days of the year…as it tends to be for those in and around this great game.
8:40am: first “twitter” segment on TradeCentre … once again reiterating why I am thrilled that the Pens kept Katie O’ and not the “other one.”
9:00am: I am in love with the cricket sound byte on TradeCentre. I often wish I had such a byte at my disposal in daily life! It is very appropriate today during such a quiet deadline. I am sure there will be plenty of last minute action, but nothing but a lot of posturing etc right now.
9:15am: Magic Bullet commercial one of the most exciting parts of TradeCentre thus far… pretty quiet. Though I am excited as I have been looking for a more effective way to bring music to my break dancing competitions. Now I just need to get my hands on an old refrigerator box…
9:45am: Duthie is the man… tough to keep a show going when there isn’t much to talk about. He has become an expert in keeping things entertaining and interesting these slow morning hours…
In case you guys didn’t know, I will be going live with the The Pens Nation radio show at 12:30pm and then will be joining Mike Grau and DD (Daniel Dudley) live in studio TribLive Radio from 2:00pm-4:00pm breaking down all trade deadline happenings!
10:35am: Andrei Kostitsyn becomes the first domino to fall on this trade deadline day. He heads to Nashville to join his little brother Sergei. As long as the Predators can control them, it should work out pretty well for a team that needed some scoring punch. The Kostitsyns famously partied themselves out of Montreal and some are concerned that they could act up a bit too much being put together. The Montreal Canadiens pick up a 2nd round pick in 2013 and a conditional 5th round pick in 2013.
11:00am: It sounds like the price for Paul Gaustad is currently a 1st round pick. That is WAY to rich for most GMs at this point. I guarantee you that the price will drop before the end of the day. Sami Pahlsson, who Mike Colligan and I have been hyping up in regard to the Penguins has garnered as many as six suitors. Will be interesting to see where he lands… he is a valuable playoff performer and was a key component for the Ducks back in 2007 as they went on to win the Stanley Cup.
11:15am: Still very quiet on the trade front… though we are heading into the “busy time” as many GMs start to pull the trigger in and around the noon hour. The next three hours should be fun.
11:30am: Plenty of talk about the Leafs. Not sure what to expect from them… they could make some waves moving forward with a goalie, but they are still probably a year away from making a huge impact in the playoffs. Though look at the run the Lightning went on last year. Could catch “lightning” in a bottle with the right moves…
11:52am: Preparing for my appearance on The Pens Nation radio show… though there really isn’t much to speak of just yet. Very quiet in and around the Burgh… as it seems to be around the league. If nothing else it will be nice to catch up with those crew over there… good folks!
12:05pm: The Winnipeg Jets have claimed defenseman Grant Clitsome off of waivers from the Columbus Blue Jackets. I really like this move for him, though he is more of an offensive weapon who is now stuck behind Dustin Byfuglien and Toby Enstrom. Worth noting that he had 19-points in 31 games down the stretch last season. He was a guy that I had on my fantasy sleeper list early in the season over at NHL.com. He never really got it going, even when James Wisniewski was out of the line-up. Will be worth watching how he does in MANITOBA!
12:09pm: Always tremendous to hear Brian Burke interviewed on deadline day…especially pre-deadline. “That’s none of your business…” and “that’s none of TSN’s concern.” Great stuff as always…
12:21pm: A couple quick thoughts on Paul Martin. Have gotten a ton of questions about whether the Penguins will be trading him today… the short answer is no. They can’t afford to move a defenseman who is playing upwards of 23-minutes per game. Though he might not have been great this season, he has been much improved as of late. He logs big minutes, can play in all situations and moving him into a situation where he has been able to be a bit more creative has helped him thrive. People need to remember that he was never a shut down defender in New Jersey. He was their puck mover, shooter and power play guy. He has and will continue to be a very effective player for the Penguins. Sure, Simon Despres has made strides, but he is not prepared to step in and play huge minutes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If Paul Martin is moved, it will take place over the summer or at next season’s deadline. That will allow the time for the youngsters to mature a bit more.
12:57pm: Just finished up with the guys over at the Pens Nation…thanks for having me! Always a great chat…though we didn’t have much to chat about today! I will be leaving for my appearance on TribLive Radio shortly, but there have actually be a couple trades to discuss… first up, Mike Commordore has been dealt by the Detroit Red Wings to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a conditional 7th round pick. Clearly a move to solidify the defense for the rest of the season, as Commie isn’t necessarily a long term fix. Though that Lightning team looked pretty damn porous against the Penguins on Saturday in allowing 8-goals. Then the Edmonton Oilers shipped Tom Gilbert over to the Minnesota Wild for Nick Shultz. This should help both teams as the Wild get themselves a puck mover who can chip in on the offensive side of the puck, while the Oilers get a reliable rearguard who can team up with Ladi Smid to put a defensive minded guy on each of the top two pairs.
2:29pm: I am currently live on air with Dan Dudley (and Mike Grau evebtually) over at TribLive Radio… looks like some trades are flowing in, but nothing ground breaking. My guess is that the Pens were in on Sami Pahlsson… likely a 4th round pick. Vancouver doubled it and that made it to rich for Ray Shero. Josh Yohe has mentioned that there are some rumors on the Colorado side that the Pens might be interested in David Jones… something that we talked about a couple weeks ago.
3:02pm: Well, DD, Mike Grau and I will have to come up with something to talk about for the final hour as it looks like the big moves are not going to come. Paul Gaustad to the Nashville Predators is a great move and solidifies the fact that they are in the hunt for the big prize this year. Looks like your Pittsburgh Penguins did nothing, but that has not been confirmed. Ray Shero will meet with the media at 4:15pm.
3:20pm: No surprise seeing Johnny Oduya being dealt by the Winnipeg Jets after they grabbed Grant Clitsome off of waivers earlier in the day. Clitsome gave them a younger puck moving defenseman who is under contract next season and allowed them to flip a very similar player in Oduya for two draft picks. Oduya is going to help the Blackhawks with his mobility and ability to retrieve and possess the puck.
3:59pm: I just finished up with the boys over at TribLive Radio. Huge thanks to Mike Barker, Dan Dudley and Mike Grau for having me in, it was a blast! Unfortunately we didn’t have anything huge to discuss, though the final 45 minutes yielded a number of trades. I was most shocked by the fact that Nashville relented and gave Buffalo the 1st rounder that they coveted for Paul Gaustad and the Vancouver Canucks decided to move Cody Hodgson, who was largely thought to be the best prospect in the league just two summers ago. Sure they got themselves a tough, hard-nosed forward in Zack Kassian, but it was a steep price. Kassian will not allow the Canucks to get manhandled in the way that the Sedins were last year against the Boston Bruins.
4:40pm: “I will confirm that we were not active today. Nobody going, nobody coming. Our roster is our roster moving forward. ” – Penguins General Manager Ray Shero
Thanks to the Penguins official site for the quote. Not a big surprise. Shero had gone on record a number of times as saying that he wasn’t sure that there was a move out there that made sense for him and apparently that remained the case as the deadline came and went without a move being made. Shero did admit to calling and making offers on a few players during his presser, but nothing ended up being a fit and no moves were made.
5:15pm: I just heard the Scott Howson quotes and all I can say is wow! Yes, there is something to be said for not being pressured into a bad deal, but to come out and throw Nash under the bus as he did was probably not called for. They have got to continue on together for a couple more months. Howson states that “Rich Nash came to us one month ago and requested to be removed from the organization…” The team apparently offered to accommodate that request, but only if they got something to their liking, they did not before 3:00pm today. This essentially signals that the relationship between Rick Nash and the Columbus Blue Jackets will end this summer.
5:45pm: I just saw a blog on Facebook that said that the “Pens were putting all of their eggs in the ‘Sid will be back’ basket.” Sure, they are still hopeful that he will be back, but this team is pretty damn good without Crosby to this point. He just enhances a pretty good team. The Penguins were not in a situation where they HAD to do anything, they have plenty of depth in the organization, are in contention for home ice advantage and are already among the class of Eastern Conference. You have got to make trades that make sense — you don’t deal just to deal. Could they have used a depth forward and defenseman? Sure, but it wasn’t a pre-requisite for winning the Cup this year. When they are healthy they have plenty of depth at the forward position.
6:00pm: The Greg Zanon trade is a very underrated one. That might not be a sexy acquisition, but Zanon is a nice defensive D-man who can block shots. You put him in the mix with Chara, Seidenberg, Ference you have a very formidable top four. Plus you still have Joe Corvo who is capable of playing decent minutes for the team. Not sure I love the Rolston deal for them, but Zanon will definitely help.
6:15pm: Thank you for listening, reading and all around following along today! Hopefully you found some value in the radio appearances, diary, and twit talking that I took part in and will follow it all moving forward. I know that I had a blast putting it all together…
Here is a link to the TSN Tradetracker so that you can review all the moves that were made today.
The Howson thing is just unbelievable. What a dumba$$! Now you have to move him and your negotiating position is compromised. Is there any way Howson keeps his job? Methinks not.