Leading into last month’s trade deadline, there was plenty of speculation that the Sharks may be looking to do something with one of their goaltenders. While San Jose has been among the top scoring teams in the league all season, they’ve struggled at keeping the puck out of their own net and sit last in the league in save percentage. Despite that, head coach Peter DeBoer told reporters, including Paul Gackle of the Mercury News, that they had no interest in moving one of their two goalies. Backup Aaron Dell has struggled considerably this season but has two good seasons in that role under his belt, not to mention another year on his contract at $1.9MM which could have limited his potential market somewhat anyway.
Elsewhere in the Pacific:
- Ilya Kovalchuk’s somewhat strange month continues. The winger did not accompany the Kings on their three-game road trip, reports Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider. Instead, he’s staying back in Los Angeles to work with their skill and development staff. Kovalchuk voiced his frustration over being a healthy scratch last week but it appears that will be continuing for at least the next three games.
- Acquiring quality puck-moving defensemen has been an issue over the years for the Oilers which means that they may have to turn to one of their top trade chips this offseason to try to get one. With that in mind, David Staples of the Edmonton Journal suggests that moving center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for a young, higher-end defender would stand as a sensible move for a team that has had and given up on Jeff Petry, Justin Schultz, and Erik Gustafsson in recent years. Edmonton is going to be tight to the salary cap this summer so moving Nugent-Hopkins’ $6MM AAV for a younger (and presumably cheaper) blueliner would give their new GM a little bit more financial flexibility this offseason as well.
Yeah, the Oilers have SO MUCH scoring depth, they can afford to unload one of the very few guys that has that ability, so they can crap-shoot for another D-man. They’ve actually got decent D prospects in the pipeline now, so their real need is MORE scoring from 3rd-4th liners. And, they may have hit the jackpot with Jay Woodcroft now in Bakersfield helping that development along at a better-than-expected pace. That, and a replacement bench-boss could lead to a better season next year. Maybe playoffs, maybe not, but getting Hitch out of the way, before he turns 99, will only help the team. Otherwise, another dark year ahead…
i agree with you!! there is no way we trade one of our few forwards that has actual talent. Stupid idea
Everyone wants a puck-moving D man. They don’t come cheap.
Hockey has moved to a high speed game. Any Oiler that can’t play this way needs to go, by trade or buy-out, even if they get a bag of pucks in return ie, Lucic. They can’t trade away one of their top scorers for any reason. They have a hard enough time scoring as it is
What was the game plan in Edmonton anyway… trade Sam Gagner and end up with Mathew Cairns? Trade away all of the D prospects for nothing. Trade the league M.V.P for a Decent Dman to replace those prospects. Trade Eberle for Strome who was traded for Spooner. Trade Spooner for Sam Gagner… done stanley cup is ours