Trade Deadline Update

There isn't enough time for me break down every single trade that happened today, so I'll just go with the biggies(If you want to track today's deals, go here). Apparently the Flyers were content to just stick with what we got after trading for Vinnie Prospal last night, which is fine with me. I'm all for holding on to our young guys and draft picks going into the off-season since GM Paul Holmgren has proven he knows how to find good talent. The biggest trade of the day was Marian Hossa going to Pittsburgh along with Pascal Dupuis in exchange for Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, and Angelo Esposito. This makes Pittsburgh the most dangerous team on paper, though their goaltending is still suspect. Still, a powerplay line of Hossa, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin would be fun to watch so long as it's not against the Flyers. With Hossa wanting at least $7.5 million a year in a new contract, there is no way he remains a Penguin after this season. Crosby's already pulling in close to max or will be soon, and Malkin will probably want something along the lines of Alexander Ovechkin's contract in Washington. The Penguins better win the Cup or this deal will be a disaster. I'm really surprised Hossa didn't end up in Montreal or Ottawa, especially since those two clubs were talking about making big moves today. Montreal gave up Cristobal Huet to the Capitals, and Ottawa picked up Martin Lapointe. Yup, real big moves, guys.

Other than Brad Richards escaping Tampa Bay for Dallas and Brian Campbell heading to San Jose from Buffalo, nothing overly spectacular happened today. Toronto picked up some draft picks they'll need to rebuild that franchise, New Jersey and the Rangers moved some minor league players to the West, and just about everybody in the East except for Washington stayed put. Kinda boring, really. NHL Center Ice Online (which I have, and it is SWEET) broadcast the TSN feed, so I was able to follow along. It's easy to say that Canadians take this day way too seriously, but then you look at the absolute obsession Americans have with the NFL Draft Weekend and realize that yes, we both spend WAY too much time on this stuff.

Now that the deadline has come and gone, it's time to focus on the playoffs. It's starting to look like all roads in the East will go through New Jersey since Ottawa is slipping, Pittsburgh doesn't have the goaltending, Montreal will regret getting rid of Huet, and Carolina is barely hanging on to the Southeast. This doesn't bode well for the Flyers since we can't seem to beat the Devils lately, but as I said before, just to make the playoffs is a huge improvement for this team.

Senators in town tomorrow...

UPDATE - Sorry, got my dates wrong. The Senators are in town on Thursday, then the Flyers have back-to-back games on the weekend against the Islanders and Rangers in New York.