Hockey Trade Rumors

In case anyone saw the report that ESPN put out stating that Jiri Dopita would be out for the entire season, that news is incorrect. He has a strained MCL and a hairline fracture in his knee and is estimated to be out from 4-6 weeks. This time is still very questionable, but he will not be out all season. He is already riding a stationary bike with no pain. What a break for the guy though, changes his whole lifestyle to come to the US while they are at war plays 2 periods and tears up his knee from a cheapshot, that’s gotta be frustrating.

Rangers notes for tonight against Buffalo, including lines and news.

Mario Lemieux who has been bothered by a hip flexor the past two weeks or so, will sit out tonight against the Anaheim Mighty Ducks the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The lines will remain the same except for the fact that Kevin Stevens will move from the 4th line to the 1st line to replace Lemieux, and Krzysztof Oliwa will replace Stevens on line 4.

Now that the season has begun, HTR will expect many submitted articles during this season, probably too many. HTR will only post SIX articles a day as the maximum. Follow this short guideline:

1)-Avoid writing articles on a game.

2)-Avoid writing articles based on your predictions, ie. standings, trophy winners…etc.

3)-If an important and interesting event occured in a game, then you are free to write an article about it.

4)-Injury updates are acceptable, (someone say something about Dopita).

5)-Analysis of your team is acceptable.

Try to not overload the sent submitted articles.

Thank you,

TradeMan & HTR Staff

Today the Lightning re-signed Lecavalier to a four-year contract. Terms were not disclosed. Lecavalier has been holding out since the start of the season. He will not join the team for their opener against the Islanders. He will likely join the team for their game on Sunday.

“Nothing really new” was Tom Poti’s answer when he was asked if there had been any progress in negotiations between his agent, Jay Fee, and Oiler GM Kevin Lowe. Eventually this situation will rectify itself one way or the other, and quite possibly sooner rather than later.

Since the Board has been slow lately I thought I would pass the following rumours along. (One trade the other UFA news)

The panthers opening night roster is set for their game Thursday against the Flyers.

Goaltender Martin Brodeur has signed a 5 year deal extension with the Devils, worth $40 million dollars. Brodeur’s salary for this season is just $4.8 million dollars, and next season’s salary will largely increase to $8 million dollars. Although the contract does not include bonuses, Brodeur does have the choice of earning $8.9 million dollars in any of the 5 seasons.

Goalie Dan Blackburn, a rookie in Rangers camp, has signed a deal with the club. After and impressive pre season, it appears that Blackburn will be splitting back up time with Peter Skudra behind Mike Richter. Terms of the deal were not announced by the Rangers.

Just enough time left for me to get in my last licks before the regular season is finally underway. I noticed some noteworthy roster cuts, there’s already an injury or two, and perhaps I’ll throw out a prediction or two.

A bit of a surprise to the Pens organization and fans present at the Icoplex, the Pens pratice facility, on Monday.

The final cuts have just been announced and the roster is down to the required 23 players. The final decisions were the toughest and 6 NHL level players were cut, players that would have made the rosters of several teams in the league.