Rambling about the NHL trade deadline, some trades, a bit of trading and of course – trades. Also some deals, swaps, and a few player exchanges

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Morning Updates:

– New Jersey have claimed defenseman David Warsofsky off of waivers, but I'm skeptical. If Gelinas/Severson/Larsson aren't getting it done, can Warsofsky?

– Edmonton has claimed Adam Pardy off of waivers

– Zac Rinaldo has been sent to the AHL

– Carolina trades minor-league goalie Drew McIntyre to Chicago for prospect defenseman Dennis Robertson

– Ottawa GM Bryan Murray has announced that Kyle Turris will be shut down indefinitely. He had been playing through a high ankle sprain. I would imagine he sits for at least three or four weeks.

– Minor trade – the Penguins traded Sergei Plotnikov to Arizona, a team that has been picking up the dregs of the NHL all season long in hopes of finding a hidden gem. The Pens got Matthias Plachta and a conditional seventh rounder. Read up on Plachta here

– Edmonton has signed prospect goalie Laurent Brossoit to a two-year extension worth $750k per. You can read up on his fantasy outlook here. With the Cam Talbot contract, you don't have to worry about Brossoit in any of the next three years.

– The Leafs have recalled several prospects, but the key one is William Nylander. He is absolutely a pickup in fantasy leagues – I think in 15 games he'll be good for 10 or 11 points, with the bulk of them early on (adrenalin). Read up on Nylander here.

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My favorite day of the year on this site, or at least in a possible tie with Day 1 of the regular season. Keep checking the site for our breakdowns from a fantasy standpoint. And for a quick glance for anything you’ve missed, this year we have a Trade Tracker. At your fingertips on that page – links to each player’s profile (or prospect profile if he’s a prospect), links to where we break it down, and links to the thread in the forum where the trade is discussed/argued.

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The trend that seemed to really get started last year is continuing into this year. NHL teams are getting a jump on the deadline by acquiring players a few days early. They want them off the market quickly and make Deadline Day a little more certain. It gives them time to react rather than waste time trying close a deal that wasn’t meant to be closed. Kudos to Ian and Steve for covering off the trade analysis during the last three days of ‘mini-trade deadlines’.

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Possible Cup Final on Sunday? Chicago vs. Washington? Right now, that’s where I’m leaning…

Matt Niskanen had been money in the bank when it comes to filling in for injured stars. Two years ago it was Kris Letang, leading him to his career-high 45-point season. Last season when Mike Green went down, Niskanen stepped in and picked up the bulk of his points during that window. This campaign, when John Carlson went down, Niskanen again filled the void.  But it’s starting to look as though the party is over. He’s still getting a ton of PP time, but the points aren’t happening. They’re going elsewhere. I’ll ignore the Brooks Orpik five-points-in-four-games thing and instead focus on Dmitry Orlov. He has six points in his last eight games and finally got a sniff of PP time Sunday. He was given PP time in early January but wasn’t effective and maybe it was too soon for him, considering he missed pretty much all of last season and January was just three months in. Would another six weeks matter? I’d like him to get another shot, just to see. He can move the puck and has upside at least as high as Niskanen’s.

I don’t like the sweet minutes that TJ Oshie is getting with the Capitals versus what he’s doing with those minutes for fantasy hockey. Look at his profile. 91.8% of his ES minutes are with Alex Ovechkin and either Nicklas Backstrom or Evgeny Kuznetsov. And his %PP is a career high (by far) 61.0% of the team’s available PP time. But he’s on pace for 47 points?

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Weird that Tomas Fleischmann got into the lineup for Chicago but not Dale Weise. I’m guessing it’s a matter of skill set and fit? Doesn’t bode well for the awesome season Weise was having. Here were the line combos:

#1           24.8%    LADD,ANDREW – SHAW,ANDREW – TOEWS,JONATHAN

#2           22%        ANISIMOV,ARTEM – KANE,PATRICK – PANARIN,ARTEMI

#3           21%        DESJARDINS,ANDREW – FLEISCHMANN,TOMAS – TERAVAINEN,TEUVO

#4           13.1%    MASHINTER,BRANDON – PANIK,RICHARD – RASMUSSEN,DENNIS

Christian Ehrhoff was also a scratch so perhaps Coach Quenneville just wants to introduce the new guys into the lineup one at a time. Give each of them a taste, then make a decision later. These were depth adds but it speaks to the confidence in their prospects. Could Ryan Hartman fill in as well as Dale Weise? Is Ville Pokka not ready?

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Marc-Edouard Vlasic continues to roll and his projected pace is now up to 52 points. Wow. Just…wow. His career high is …well, his current 37 points. He has 33 points in his last 43 games. And he’s doing it from the second PP unit and with Justin Braun as a partner? Speaks to the coaching style. He’s being allowed to do things differently under the new coach. If you remember, he was an offensive stud when he was drafted out of the QMJHL.

Tomas Hertl has 18 points in his last 23 games. He’s been playing with the red-hot Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski. Cause or effect? I submit that it’s a little of both.

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Interesting – Zac Rinaldo was placed on waivers by the Bruins yesterday. So was Rene Bourque (Columbus), Reto Berra (Colorado) and Alex Stalock (Toronto). Some biggish names there…

Minor trade – the Rangers sent Ryan Bourque to Washington for Chris Brown. I believe in both cases the player wanted in another organization in hopes of a better shot/fresh start. And in the case of Ryan, he joins his brother Chris in Hershey and that played no small roll.

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Before I go any further, I’d like you join Draft Kings with me. Sign up here for tonight’s exclusive DobberHockey contest. Only 50 can enter, so you’re only competing with myself and 48 other DobberHockey readers. The prizes are nothing to sneeze at – $150 in prizes. Come on! What else do you have to do while you await the next trade announcement? Go here. Three bucks to join.

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With 10 minutes left in the third, Jaroslav Halak (who I own) had a shutout and a 1-0 lead over Cam Talbot (who I own). Talbot stood on his head (36 saves, 37 shots), the Oiler offense kicked in, and they won 3-1. Halak had been on a roll, winning three in a row.

One thing about Justin Schultz being gone is the fact that Adam Clendening got into the lineup for the sixth time. He saw secondary PP ice and he’ll be a regular down the stretch. It’s his big audition and it will determine his fate next season, no question. So far his time in the NHL has been as big a failure as Schultz’s and frankly I thought they had similar offensive upside. So who knows? Clendening took it seriously last night though – three hits and five BLKS (both season highs). And also this:

I’m guessing that counts as a BLK?

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The trade also gives Jordan Oesterle a shot. He’s a puck-moving rearguard signed as a free agent out of college and he picked up his first NHL point last night. His full profile and scouting report can be found here.

Edmonton line combos last night:

#1           30.9%    DRAISAITL,LEON – HALL,TAYLOR – KASSIAN,ZACK

#2           18.3%    HENDRICKS,MATT – KORPIKOSKI,LAURI – LETESTU,MARK

#3           17.5%    EBERLE,JORDAN – MCDAVID,CONNOR – POULIOT,BENOIT

#4           16.7%    KHAIRA,JUJHAR – LANDER,ANTON – YAKUPOV,NAIL

Big line for Zack Kassian and he picked up his second point in three games. He’s also seen decent PP time during those three games.

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Tanner Pearson has five points in his last five games, though I wouldn’t consider picking him up because of his linemates – Trevor Lewis and Vincent Lecavalier. No thanks.

Corey Perry was in on all four goals Sunday night. A nice way to end a four-game pointless drought.

When Cam Fowler returned from injury (and pushed Shea Theodore down), he went pointless in six games. Understandable, as he was getting his legs back. But since then he has eight points in eight games (six on the PP). It’s the Anaheim power play that’s rolling – Sami Vatanen has nine points in eight games, with six of them on the PP.

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Ryan Callahan is on fire. Or maybe it’s Steven Stamkos. Coach Cooper has gone back to the old standby for line combinations and I like it. Sure, it didn’t work in the first month the way it did last year, but it’s a great idea to try them again late in the season. Here were the combos:

#1           24.4%    JOHNSON,TYLER – KUCHEROV,NIKITA – PALAT,ONDREJ

#2           22.5%    CALLAHAN,RYAN – KILLORN,ALEX – STAMKOS,STEVEN

#3           17.2%    BROWN,J.T. – FILPPULA,VALTTERI – PAQUETTE,CEDRIC

#4           17.2%    BOYLE,BRIAN – MARCHESSAULT,JONATHAN – NAMESTNIKOV,VLADISLAV

So Callahan has 11 points in his last seven games and the Triplets – the original Triplets – are reunited.

For the Triplets things haven’t worked out as well as with the Stamkos line. But they haven’t been horrible. Yes, we expect 70-point paces from these fellas (or at least we did in the summer), but right now they’re producing like 55-point guys which is an upgrade on what we had been seeing from Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat. Johnson took a puck to the face in this ugly incident Sunday:

Johnson did leave the game and there is definitely a chance of a concussion. But to me it looked like he’ll get away with some stitches and no concussion. We’ll know more today I’m sure.

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Without Eric Staal around, I wonder how well Jordan Staal can do? He and Jeff Skinner are now the focal point of the Carolina offense. In the first Eric-less game, Skinner tallied two points and Jordan had zero. I don’t like it when they rock the boat of a hot player I own. Be it a coaching change or a major trade or injury, these things can impact the ol’ mojo that your guy has been enjoying.

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Annoying 1 – I wonder why I keep seeing references to the Patrick Kane situation last year? Comments like “The Capitals won’t shut down John Carlson until the playoffs like the Blackhawks did with Kane last year.” Or “The Blues won’t shut down Alex Steen until the playoffs the way the Hawks did with Kane last year.” They didn’t shut Kane down a few extra games last year to get to the playoffs and clear their cap space. He had a broken collarbone and came back early (too early, in my opinion) for the playoffs. The situations are completely different. With Steen and Carlson, the team would possibly have to hold them on the sidelines for an extra few games so they can have a bit of extra cap space.

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Annoying 2 – Comparisons to the Oilers annoy fans of other teams that are looking at a rebuild. I don’t have a leg to stand on with this argument today, but the Oilers will eventually be a winning team for a long, long time. So go ahead, tear me up in the comments. I know I’ve been saying this for four years now. But with the management, coaching and young core of top-end players, logic dictates that I’ll be right. I fought this same argument with the Penguins and Blackhawks a decade ago. Full rebuilds take forever, especially if it starts going wrong after three or four years and you have to tweak it. Take the five-year plan you have in mind, and add two or three years. Then wait longer.

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