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Bob McKenzie

Two Canadian teams are the subject of a lot of speculation right now in the RS

Two Canadian teams are the subject of a lot of speculation right now in the RSHL

Sitting four points out of a playoff spot on the eve of a stretch of games this week that will more than likely make or break the season; the Winnipeg Jets could very likely be major sellers come trade deadline day. Give Joe credit, he has put together a team that on paper looks as if it is one of the strongest in the league. But what is on paper doesn’t necessarily result in wins for a team that upon is arrival in Winnipeg, was sitting fifth in the Campbell Conference. 

In fact, the Jets have put themselves to be the biggest seller of the day and wind up with a pirates treasure full of draft picks and top talent if things do go south this week. Probably the only player not in play would be Mike Richards who is projected to be the team’s top line centre for season 7. He is a virtually untouchable player given his talent and the fact that there are only a handful of teams that have the organizational depth to acquire the 23 year old, and those teams are too far in the rebuilding process for it to make any sense to do such a transaction. 

One player that could bring a good return is veteran goaltender Manny Legace. In the final year of his contract, the 35 year old will draw interest from a few teams who think they are at the point where they can win the championship this year, but don’t have confidence in their backup to carry the load if called upon.  The three teams that will probably not have interest are Atlanta, Dallas and San Jose, all of whom have  strong second tier options. 

Ed Jovanovski is another player who could be on the move. There is no question that Jovo brings lots of talent with him. However, his salary for next year will be over $8m. For a team that will need to protect the aforementioned Richards, and will probably keep around GM favorite Rod Brind’Amour, having  a guy in Jovanovski who will demand that much salary is going to be extremely costly when one looks at the kind of return that he would garden this year. I would say that the only team out of the mix on Big Ed would be the Islanders, who already don’t have enough ice time for the talent that they have on the blue line. 

Finally, there would be a lot of GMs wanting to take a run at centre men Scott Gomez, who arguably has underperformed this season. He was acquired for Miko Koivu and if he can be traded for a first round draft pick, even if it were a later round one, as well as a mid pick or prospect, GM DesMaris would have gotten a pile of value in exchange for the former Jet. 

Perhaps the bigger question to ask in Winnipeg is who stayed? There can be a lot of moving parts come deadline day and Joe DesMaris will be one of the busiest GMs in the league for the next two weeks. 

Quickly it is important to look over to Western Canada and comment on the situation in Calgary. Professional or not, GM Paxton has gone on the record saying that Sergei Federov will be moved by the midnight PT deadline on March 9th. 

Federov brings a wealth of experience with him and his play in recent years has been defensive focused, an asset that has allowed him to pick up a lot of penalty kill time. Yet at 38 years of age and on a contract that has a salary that undoubtedly does not reflect the true economic value that Sergei is worth, the market appears to be rather bare. 

Without making any moves that send another large salary back to the Flames, the market for Federov is down to eight teams, Anaheim, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Toronto, Edmonton, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Dallas. 

Of those eight, Dallas would be just five thousand under the cap and more importantly probably does not have the talent that Calgary is looking for in return. Los Angeles and Pittsburgh both continue to rebuild from within and are more than likely out of the equation. Toronto has interest in Federov but with a lack of draft picks for the upcoming draft and a sparse collection of talent in the system, it would take some maneuvering by Toronto get into a position to make such a trade. Then there is Anaheim who by the accounts of many GMs in the league is M.I.A. 

That just leaves Detroit, Edmonton and Philadelphia as potential teams that Federov can land on. There is a question though if GM Seb Loconte truly feels that his team could do damage deep into the post season and would pull the trigger on a deal that would see Matthew Carle and a potential late draft pick out of Northern Alberta.

By the process of elimination, Detroit and Philadelphia are then the two remaining teams who can make plays. Detroit though will need to decide if it is worth moving assets to just make it to the dance and the Flyers in the mean time will probably want to wait and see what they can get back for one of their other centre men as they already have strong depth with Nylander, Saku Koivu, Straka and Todd White all battling for ice time.

For Inside the RSHL, I’m Bob McKenzie...

2/23/2009
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