Hockey Trade Rumors

Signs say Walz pondering retirement

Rangers, Thrashers, Leafs looking for defensemen Signs say Walz pondering retirement

On the fourth day of the veteran forward’s unexplained absence, his agent said only that he needed more time.

By Michael Russo, Star Tribune

Last update: November 04, 2007 – 11:21 PM

Four days after being excused from the Wild for “personal reasons,” Wes Walz has still not surfaced and all indications are the veteran center is contemplating his future in the NHL.

Thursday morning, the Wild front office said Walz, one of the most popular players in team history, would be away for “two or three days.” Saturday night, General Manager Doug Risebrough referred questions regarding Walz to his agent, Jay Grossman.

http://www.startribune.com/wild/story/1528356.html

Saku the ‘Racist’

Most of you have have heard about this, and personally, as an Anglophone living in Quebec and Ontario (it’s complicated) I am disgusted with the behaviour that this ‘nationalist’ Guy Bertrand has displayed towards our captain.

First of all, let’s look at what Bertrand was doing when Koivu came up. If you follow Quebec politics at all, you’ll know that ‘Premier Ministre’ Jean Charest recently spoke out against the stance of his oppositions (Mario Dumont’s ADQ, and Pauline Marois’ PQ) on the topic of immigration. Marois and her party want to have immigrants undergo a French test in order to gain citizenship in Quebec. Charest asked his opponents to reconsider their position as he viewed (and I do as well) that it can be seen as racist.

Evidently, while Mr. Bertrand was at provincial public regarding reasonable accommodation for religious minorities, he saw it fit to discuss the ‘supression’ of the French language in Quebec. Apparently, because Saku Koivu, as part of a videotaped pre-game ceremony, introduced his teammates in English only, Mr Bertrand was furious.

Here is a quote from Mr. Bertrand “I have the right to be served in my language,” he said. “He has been playing for 12 years (for the Canadiens). He is married to a francophone. It demonstrates contempt for our language. It is not respectful. ”

Now there are so many things I’d like to call Mr. Bertrand, but if I did so this article would have no chance of being published.

Now if Mr. Bertrand was somehow came across this article, I’d tell him to look at the name of the organization, LE CLUB DE HOCKEY DES CANADIENS DE MONTREAL. Now translate that for me Mr. Bertrand. Secondly, I wasn’t aware that the rest of the world is showing ‘contempt’ for the French language by not speaking it. I am sure that many people on Earth who are not French themselves are married to a French person, yet I did not know that it is contemptuous for them not to introduce themselves and their friends in both their native language and in their partner’s language.

In fact Mr. Bertrand, Saku was speaking a second language when he introduced his teammates, did you forget that he is from Finland? And I’m personally willing to guess that you have more difficulty speaking English than he does, and that you have absolutely no capacity to speak Finnish…

That is my two cents, and I really had to refrain from being offesive.

Rangers, Thrashers, Leafs looking for defensemen

Three eastern conference teams all need defensemen. But they dont exactly need to look for outside help.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have for offensive minded defenseman. Kaberle, McCabe, Kubina, White. And after that they have Colaiacovo, and Stralman… The only true defensive defenseman on that team is Hall Gill. Wozniewski and Kronwall are half decent defensively.

So, at any given time the leafs have 4-5 ofensive minded guys….

The New York Rangers have 9 points from their defense core in 8 games.

The Atlanta Thrashers are spreading their ice time around, giving each defenseman about 20 minutes. Steve McCarthy is playinmg almost 20 minutes a game.

so the Thrashers need a guy who can play a lot of minutes, the rangers need a defensean who can create some offense, and the Leafs need another defensive minded guy.

So, you have to wonder how these teams can help each other out. The Leafs have 3 defensemen who can log close to 30 minutes, and plenty of offensive minded players….

Heres my ideas:

1.

To NYR: Ian White

To Atlanta: Pavel Kubina, NYR 4th round pick

To Toronto: Bobby Holik, NYR 2nd round pick

Rangers get a PP specialist, Thrashers get a guy who can, and wants to play more minutes, and the Leafs get some defense and some draft picks. The leafs could follw this up by signing Markov.

2.

To NYR: Brian McCabe

To Atlanta: Paul Mara, Marik Malik, Leafs 3rd, Rangers 2nd

To Toronto: Steve Ruccin, Niclas Havelid

McCabe could flourish as a Ranger, The Thrashers get short term grunt defensemen, and the leafs once again get defensive help.

3. (options with other teams)

To LA Kings: Raycroft

To Toronto: Labarbera, 2nd round pick

To NYR: Shea Weber

To Nashville: Al Montoya

To Atlanta: Derek Morris

To Phoenix: Jim Slater

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