Hockey Trade Rumors

According to TSN.ca the Leafs and Ducks almost consumated a big trade that now is no longer on the table.

Roberto Luongo! Certainly no one expected this. Although he can’t wear the “C” officially, he will be named the 12th captain in Canucks history. He will be the player to argue calls to the ref and such, while Mattias Ohlund will handle the ceremonial aspects (such as the ceremonial faceoff). Very interesting choice for the captaincy, and it certainly comes outta left field.

The Chicago Blackhawks are one of the league’s most exciting and up and coming teams. Interest in hockey has returned to the Windy City and with two young guns, a big free agent pick up and the Winter Classic on the way, there is plenty to look forward to in Chicago.

The Chicago Blackhawks have waived their now back-up goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. ‘Bulin is on the final year of his contract and will earn $6.75 million. go to http://sportsnet.ca/ and watch the clip on the right hand side.

Everyone writes that LA should pick up every player who is placed on waivers because there is a misconception that they are well below the cap floor, go inside and I’ll explain why that’s not necessarily the case.

Roberto Luongo is a world class goaltender that when up against in the playoffs, he can pose a dangerous challenge for any opponent. Unfortunately he isnt a big scorer or top offensive player and at the end of the day, Luongo may not be enough to get his Vancouver Canucks into the playoffs.

The Columbus Blue Jackets showed some marked improvements last season but still were a fair ways away from the playoffs. So in the off season, calls for change were made and significant moves were done to reshape the roster in hopes for even more improvements.

Alright. We’re right in the middle of the pre-season games right now, and there’s still a few teams with vacant captaincies. So I decided to write a quick analysis about the front-runners, the runner-ups and the darkhorses at wearing the C for each team with C vacancy. Here it goes.

Apparently the Toronto Maple Leafs still have a long ways to go to shake off their narrow minded ways.

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080925.wsptleafs2509/GSStory/GlobeSportsHockey/home

According to TSN the Atlanta Thrashers have traded a very minimal package for Mathieu Schneider which consisted of Ken Klee, Brad Larsen and Chad Painchaud.

A year ago the Nashville Predators were heading into a new season with plenty of question marks after losing a large number of players. Gone were the likes of Forsberg, Kariya, Hartnell, Timonen, Upshall and Vokoun while Sullivan missed the season with injury. However the team perservered and still managed to make the playoffs giving the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Red Wings, a run for their money.

After taking a bit of a step back last season, not much was expected from the St Louis Blues this year. So the last thing they needed was one of their blue chip young franchise players to rip up his knee and be out for the season.

But such as they are in the world of hockey, the Blues suffered a tough fate and will be without Erik Johnson for likely the entire season after tearing his MCL and ACL in a freak accident off the ice.

This loss will certainly stunt the growth of the team and of their young star as he was such a major component to the team. With the blueline thin as it was, this could result in a very long season for the Blues.

St.Louis Blues future stud Erik Johnson could be done for the whole season after a freak golf cart accident caused him to tear his ACL and MCL, tsn has reported http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=250455&lid=headline&lpos=secStory_main