There were trades made every day of the final six days leading up to the deadline last year, so we can probably expect to see some deals happening over the course of the coming week. Players who are currently still playing in the World Juniors cannot be traded until Wednesday morning but I doubt we're going to see any of the WHLers on Canada or the USA be moved. Just a feeling but I just don't see the Pats throwing in the towel and trading Eberle & Teubert so soon after loading up with the Ashton deal.
The Pats are 10th in the East, six points out of the playoffs, and give up a whopping five games-in-hand to the 8th place Warriors too. But there's still 30 games left to play, six points is not insurmountable if they get things straightened out there. If anything, I'd expect to see the Pats ADD more players instead of moving them out....
One WHLer in the WJCs who I do expect to see moved is Switzerland's Luca Sbisa, although you have to think the price for him is dropping by the day almost. First came the news that he was going to play for the Swiss at the Olympics, and now he has torn abdominal muscles at the WJCs and will be out six weeks with that. Doing the math, that puts his return to action just in time for the Olympics, which means he won't be in a WHL lineup again until early March - and that's assuming his injury heals properly and on time. We've all seen abdominal muscle injuries that stretched on and on and on....so all this stuff has to be a concern for any team that might have been interested in trading for the guy.
Teams that would want Sbisa are more concerned about having him in their lineup in April than in February, so the Olympics are probably not that big a deal. But his health status is going to be an issue when it comes to negotiating a price for him....nobody's giving up a fortune for a guy who might be damaged goods, no matter how good he is when healthy.
Other burning questions heading into the deadline week.....
- Are the Rockets going to fold their tent and move an asset like Brandon McMillan? They have fallen behind Chilliwack into 3rd in the B.C. division and 7th in the conference, meaning if they don't improve in the 2nd half of the season they will have to face one of the leaders in the first round.
- Is Kamloops doing the same? They're in the same boat as Kelowna. C.J. Stretch and Kurtis Mucha should be available if they're selling. Maybe Tyler Shattock too although he's likely going to be back next year.
- Where will Dallas Jackson of the Cougars end up? He's the one guy off the Cougars who I think is very likely to be moved. He's an overager but can play top-four minutes on most teams and work on your PP. Some contender has to think he's better than one of their current overagers. Cougars could also move Marek Viedensky if somebody wants to upgrade an import spot to a big center with decent hands.
- Tomas Vincour of Edmonton is another option for teams looking to upgrade their imports. But I'm a lot less certain of Torrie Jung moving now than I was a few weeks ago. Jung is 2-12 in his last 14 decisions, with a GAA of 3.68 and a .870 save percentage in that span. Not playing his best hockey right now, that's for sure.
One other note before I end this rambling post here - the two WHL-area teams did not fare well at the World U-17 Challenge this year. Team Pacific finished 5th in the 10-team tournament, while team West finished a very disappointing 8th. Sweden will play Russia for the bronze medal this afternoon while Ontario will play USA for the gold tonight.
5 comments:
Kelowna will definitely be moving Curt Gogol, as he's been sent home to await for a trade after differences with the coaching staff.
They might get some pucks for him, that would be about it.
Nah, as of early December, he was in the Top 3 of the league for Fighting Majors. Someone looking for toughness will take a flyer on him.
I'm sure somebody will trade for Gogol too, I'm just not sure that the Rockets will get much for him, and it won't be a contender that's interested.
Apart from the middleweight toughness, he's not bringing much to a contender, and fighting usually goes down in the playoffs so a guy who can't do a lot else doesn't have much value to a contender.
I think he's a mid-round pick (5th to 7th round) acquisition for a sub-.500 team.
as for sbisa his story keeps changing on a daily basis..from what ive read it more of a hip problem now than abs..preston spoke with him before he left for home and luca figured that the injury is not as bad as first thought.preston figured that this could be a week to week thing and untill luca see's the specialist in switzerland that is the way he is treating it..if regina doesn't trade tuebert, with sbisa and hamonic out for now, whoever has a high end dman to trade will get a fortune for him..gotta love the trade deadline...
Post a Comment