We have three trades to speak of today, two of which involve former Rangers' first round picks. While in the theme of pairs, two of these deals can be labeled as absolute steals. The Toronto Maple Leafs along with the Chicago Blackhawks look to have made great trades to improve their teams tonight.
Lets start with the trade that has made headlines on every hockey sports outlet around. That deal is between the Anaheim Ducks and the Toronto Maple Leafs, seeing Francois Beauchemin exchanged for Joffrey Lupul, Jake Gardiner and a conditional 4th round draft pick. This is a win-win for both teams, though in my opinion the Ducks got fleeced. The Ducks get an experienced defenseman who won a cup with Anaheim in 2006-07, and he adds to their defensive depth that no longer has Scott Niedermeyer or Chris Pronger. Instead, there are Lubomir Visnovsky, Cam Fowler and Toni Lydman. Beauchemin will be looked at to provide a good defensive presence that can dish out hard hits.
Toronto gets two good players in this deal, one that can help now and one that can aid them in the future. Joffrey Lupul is a three time 20+ goal scorer, with a career high of 28. He had off-season back surgery and has scored 13 points in 26 games. He addresses the need for a top-6 forward for Toronto, and is signed for the next two seasons. The main part of this deal, however, is top prospect and former 1st round pick Jake Gardiner. He currently is scoring at a point-per-game pace with the University of Wisconsin as a blueliner. He is described as having blazing speed and a good first pass, and can man the point on the powerplay and in the offensive zone. If Gardiner develops into the top-4 blueliner that he is expected to be, then the Maple Leafs got great value out of this deal.
The Islanders acquired a goalie, though this player is not exactly a starter in the NHL or someone who has had potential to be a starter in a very long time. Former Rangers' prospect Al Montoya, University of Michigan standout, has been traded from the Phoenix Coyotes to the Islanders for a 6th round pick. He has been assigned to Bridgeport tonight, and it is expected that he will be recalled after tomorrow's game in Montreal. Montoya is having a rough year in the AHL yet again, recording an 11-8-0 record with a .891 Sv % and a 3.19 GAA. In his NHL career, Montoya has played five games for the Coyotes in 2008-09, and he performed well. He had a 2.08 GAA, .925 Sv % and a 3-1-0 record. It remains to be seen if he can be a reliable starter, but Garth Snow did say that he would not trade a top pick or prospect for a goaltender. With injuries to Rick DiPietro, Nathan Lawson and rookie Kevin Poulin, along with the trade of Dwayne Roloson and refusal to report from Evgeni Nabokov, a move for a goaltender was necessitated. This may be Montoya's last time to prove that he can perform at an NHL level, as he has not had an opportunity for over two seasons.
The third deal of the night was between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Florida Panthers. The Panthers shipped out forward Michael Frolik and goaltending prospect Alex Salak for forwards Jack Skille, Hugh Jessiman and prospect David Pacan. At first glance, it looks like an obvious win for the Blackhawks. Frolik is in his third NHL season, and has scored 21 goals in each of his last two years. This season, however, he only has eight goals to go along with 21 assists for 29 points. Frolik has great upside, and has the potential to be a 60-point player in the NHL. Alex Salak is an intriguing prospect for the Blackhawks to acquire, as they do not have any good goalie prospects currently in the system and Marty Turco is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. He is one of the top goaltenders this year in the SEL (Sweden) with a .925 Sv % and 6 shutouts that lead the league. He could return to North America next season to compete for the Chicago starting job, so this is a good opportunity for the young netminder.
Florida gets Jack Skille, who in his own right is having a respectable first full season in the NHL. He has scored seven goals and 10 assists for 17 points in 49 games. GM Dale Tallon obviously still sees potential in Skille, as he was the one to draft him back when he was the GM of Chicago. Skille has offensive upside, as he has proven he is able to score at the collegiate and AHL levels. He has the ability to break out in Florida like Mike Santorelli (14-14-28), who was acquired from the Nashville Predators. Hugh Jessiman's spiral from 1st round pick to bust has been quite the adventure. It goes from choosing the wrong development path to underwhelming performances in the minors that have led Jessiman to be with his fourth NHL organization. He is the only first round pick from the 2003 NHL entry draft to not have played in an NHL game. The final part of the deal, prospect David Pacan, is a very interesting one. He has 14 goals and 43 points in 49 games with the Niagara IceDogs after leaving the University of Vermont after one season. Pacan has good size (6'2", 187 lbs) and is showing his scoring ability after a rough year at Vermont. All in all, I think that Frolik and Salak are the better prospects, and Chicago comes out on top.
The Devils and Sharks also made a minor league deal tonight, with the Sharks sending over Jay Leach and Steve Zalewski for Michael Swift and Patrick Davis.
Overall, it was a very exciting night for NHL fans, as the deadline deals seem to have started three weeks early. This could very well be the first domino to go down, and soon enough other teams will be addressing their problems well before the deadline. There it is, three NHL trades that will have impacts on the respective NHL teams. AW over and out.
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