Ice Scoopz: Thursday Afternoon

While we're waiting on the Marco Sturm trade details here are todays news a rumors.

*-> Bryan Murray and the Ottawa Senators continue to hold on to Brian Lee as they attempt to trade a trade. Lee cleared waivers yesterday but the Sens would rather deal him instead of sending him back down to the AHL and possibly losing value because of rentry waivers in the future. Murray has said he's giving his team a chance to deal with it's issues within before pulling the trigger on a major deal. Many are saying Murray is attempting to package Lee with a promising young forward which is believed to be ether Nick Foligno or Peter Regin. We'll have to watch Lee as we know now for sure the Sens are looking to dump him before the Christmas deadline. I'm still hearing Minnesota (probably because of the Minnesota connection) and Columbus. I'm not seeing ether, but I could see Minnesota taking another risk on an underachieving player and possibly paying out again ala Guilliame Lattendresse.

*-> Joffrey Lopul is set to return to the Anaheim Ducks after his conditioning stint with Syracuse of the AHL.

*-> With Michael Leighton set to return to Philadelphia the Flyers now have a goaltending controversy. With 3 goalies potentially on the roster with next to no cap space left it's no secret the Flyers are in tough. Sergei Bobrovsky wasn't expected to steal the number one spot right out of the gate and was expected to play the season in the AHL so the Flyers have a major decesion. It appears the flyers will not demote Bobrovsky to the AHL as he's played admirably so far. Bobrovsky would not have to pass through waivers as Brian Boucher and Leighton would. That leaves ether Boucher or Leighton on their way to ether a new team or the AHL. Brian Boucher is the less espensive option and well suited for the backup role. boucher has been linked as the odd man out from early on but with the cap crunch on it could be the costly Leighton. It's a tough call for the Flyers brass, in my opinion I think they may buy some time with an lenghty conditioning stint for Leighton before making any moves. The Flyers will look to trade rather than waive ether netminder as surely ether would be claimed by a struggling team as both goalies are affordable. Leighton seams destined to be the odd man out simply because of his cap hit and the Flyers will want some move to maneuver at the deadline. The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Calgary Flames were rumored to be interested in Boucher while Colorado was previously linked to Leighton.