Ice Scoopz: Trade

*-> The Montreal Canadians have landed the center they've been after this afternoon. the Canadians have trade Chris Higgins, Doug Janik, The rights to bluechip prospect Ryan McDonough, and KHL runaways Pavel Valentenko to the New York Rangers for center Scott Gomez, Tom Pyatt, and future journeyman Mike Busto.

The Canadians apparently have given up the hope of landing Vincent Lecavalier or another higher calibre big centerman and chose Scott Gomez. Many say this comes as a cap clearing space for the New York Rangers so they may welcome Danny Heatley sometime in the next 24hours. Chris Higgins may be a part of the return for Ottawa in a deal.

To me personally I find this a waste. Why would Gainey want another short undersized franchise player? Saku Koivu would not only put up 3/4 of the points (for half the price) of Gomez but also inspire the room with his trendous heart and what he's done for the Canadians in the past. 7.5$Mil is a ridiculous to take on and could have been spent elsewhere like on retaining Alexei Kovalev and Saku Koivu. Disapointing as a Habs fan.

The I.R: Thursday Afternoon

Alot of minor shuffling today and yesterday from/to the Injured Reserve or the AHL and here they are.

*-> The Montreal Canadians have been hit by a wave of recent injuries and now can add Chris Higgins back to that list alot though he'll most likely only miss a game or two with an agrivated upper-body injury. The good news is that big Georges Laraque will most likely be ready to put on the skates for Montreal's tilt with Toronto Saturday. Also defenseman turned forward Mathieu Dandenault will be back from his serious leg injury way sooner than expected. He is rumored to be back early next week. Patrice Briesbois who is also out with an undisclosed injury which would most likely be his ankle should be ready to play again next week as well.

*-> The Canadians have also sent down defenseman Alex Henry back to Hamilton after playing two games.

*-> The Buffalo Sabres have activated veteran defenseman Teppo Numminen from the injured reserve and sent down defenseman Marc-Andre Gragnani to the Portland Pirates.

*-> The Ottawa Senators have returned center Peter Regin to the juinior Sens and recalled winger Ryan Shannon for tonights game against Boston.

*-> The Blue Jackets have reactivated Russian young gun Nikita Filitov but then sent him down to Syracuse of the AHL.

*-> The Carolina Hurricanes have ran into some injury trouble down the stretch on their Western tour lossing both Rod Brind'Amour and grinder Scott Walker. Walker who was placed on the I.R today is out with an undisclosed upper body injury while Brind'Amour continues to suffer from a bad back. Walker is expected to be atleast while a week while Brind'Amour is only expected to miss the last leg of the trip. Replacement Jakub Petruzalek was called up from Albany.

*-> The Toronto Maple Leaf's have done another up and down shuffle involving Justin Pogge after leaving him out to dry againts the Sabres last night. Justin Pogge was sent down to the Marlies today after just one day in the show. The Buds countered by bringing back up Jonas Frogren after just sending him down yesterday with tough guy Andre Deveaux.

*-> The Phoenix Coyotes have recalled Kevin Porter and forward Jeff Hoggan from San Antonio of the AHL while sending down LW Steven Goertzen and former Sen Alexander Nikulin. The Desert Dogs have also activated Viktor Tikhonov from the IR but chose to send him down to San Antonio for some conditioning.

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.

Wednesday Late Night News Hits, Vokoun to Ottawa?

Well after a rough weekend I'm back, a company Christmas party and the flu has decided to hit me. Luckily not a lot has happened except some more injuries surprise surprise.

-> Montreal's Mathieu Dandenault is out for up to 2 months with a broken arm after being hit to the ice. The hit looked fairly harmless except he landed akwardly and clearly breaks. after he gets up he stayed on the ice with his arm dangling to finnish the play. Although Dandenault is not even close to being one of my favorite players it shows alot of heart that he actually tried to finnish his shift.

->Another Montreal injury in that Calgary game, it looks like Chris Higgins will be out again indefinatly has he appears to have injured his wrist. Higgins is expected to have an MRI tommorow morning.

->Pittsburgh's Hal Gill will miss two to 4 weeks after suffering a shoulder injury in Ottawa this weekend.

->Canucks traded D James Sharrow to the Hawks for a conditional draft pick. Sharrow was originally drafter by the Atlanta Thrashers in the 4th round of the 2003 entry draft.

->Rumour has it that the Panthers are preparing to shop goaltender Tomas Vokoun. One of the usual top goalies in the league before this season and now he has taken the backseat to Craig Anderson. I hear Ottawa again as a possible trading partner but I really don't believe his 5.5 mil salary would go down well, not unless Martin Gerber was part of the package. Los Angeles is another possible destination which would make sense but I'm pretty sure that La is wants in on the Tavares sweepstakes. Also they believe next season Jonathan Bernier will be their Carey Price.

Well thats it for tonight, I need some rest but I'll be back tomorow with the KHL all star teams I keep putting off. Hopefully some OJ and bed will get rid of this so I can finally feel normal.