Monday, January 12, 2009

Ice Scoopz : Monday Part 1

So I'm feeling better now and can finally get this back on the road.

*-Right now there are huge rumors swirling around the league about the Ottawa Senators. Something big is going to go down by the end of the week. Fans and management are furious with the lack luster effort their team has put forward each night and everyone is just starting to realize that the playoffs are fading slowly out of the picture. GM Brian Murray is fed up and has to shake up his team. I believe this will start by waiving a or a couple of players. The main target could be Martin Gerber. His value is low and Binghampton starter Brian Elliott has shown he can play at the NHL level. Clearing Gerber's 3+ million salary would definitely help make room for another player. The other player I have heard regularly being shopped is Jason Spezza. Spezza to Calgary has been thrown around quite a bit. Brian Murray stated last week he has a deal in theory for a puck moving defenseman but the other team expects him to give up a big name and take a high salary in return. Gerber's waiving could be the set-up. There will be a shake up soon and Ottawa will most likely be sellers at this point in the season. Is it time to rebuild? Or just make a change? That's the question.

*-TSN has reported that the Lecavalier deal to Montreal might possible be in the works. They say Montreal and Tampa Bay have been in talks throughout the season about a deal and Tampa is just waiting for an answer from Vinny. Ownership wants to here "I want to stay" or "I'm willing to go to....." out of Lecavalier soon so that they can start their plans for the future. After this disappointing season why not? A deal could kick start a massive overhaul and put them back in contention in a few years the way Philly did. The rumored package they'd receive for Lecavalier is Josh Gorges, Chris Higgins, Tomas Plecanec, prospect P.K Subban and multiple 1st rounders. That's quite a haul for one player and I know if I was them why not? Another name being thrown about is Mike Komisarek but TSN's Bob McKenzie rules it out and Bob knows his stuff.

*-Atlanta named Ilya Kovalchuk their new captain today so does this mean the trade rumors are wrong? I still think he'll go this deadline if there is no deal in place. Atlanta cant afford to lose their last valuable asset to free agency and now is the time to trade him while he still has time on his contract to trap another team.

*-Finally Brian Burke is claiming to newspapers that the market is soft and although he wants change he hasn't really gotten any decent offers. Burke's still trying to add some toughness to his line-up preferably a power forward who can score. Tomas Kaberle has said this past week he'll waive his no trade clause if hes asked but Burke came back a couple days later with saying he'll never ask any of his players to do so because they would have earned it. Philly has been gunning for Kaberle ever since last trade deadline when they tried to acquire him but he refused to waive it. The Flyer's are still rumored to be interested and could dangle Mike Knuble and or Scottie Upshall the Leafs way with some picks. The Buds have to make a choice Kubina or Kaberle and I think Kaberle A. has more value and B. Kubina is actually looking like the player they thought they had when they signed him.

Well I'll be back in a bit with The I.R, and Wednesday we wil continue on like usual including team Germany and team Latvia reports on top of the usual Tuesday line-up tommorow.

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