In a much smaller move than the one we saw yesterday, the Montreal Canadiens have acquired defenseman Keegan Lowe from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for Philip Samuelsson. Amazingly, both players are sons of former NHL players, Kevin Lowe and Ulf Samuelsson—who is actually the head coach of the Charlotte Checkers where his son will now play.
This isn’t the biggest deal we’ll see this deadline but perhaps it is just another crack in the dam and deals will start to come through. Lowe does still have some upside after being drafted in the third round in 2011. A solid AHL defenseman, if his puck moving ability ever improved he could crack an NHL bottom pairing. It wasn’t going to happen in Carolina though, behind a young mobile defense corps.
Samuelsson was drafted in the second round in 2009 but hasn’t turned into the player Pittsburgh had hoped for. Instead, he’s bounced around a bit and is not expected to make much of an impact in the NHL ever again. He’ll be 26 in July and will now hope to make an impact under his father’s tutelage. Ulf played over 1000 games in the NHL, and was one of the most feared checkers in the league—perhaps he can show his son a thing or two about lining guys up over the middle.