Trades will be minimal until post christmas

Deals in the National Hockey League have become few and far between.  This is especially the case early in the season.  Many people neglect to acknowledge the fact that we are not even 20 games into the 2001-2002 season and every team ‘supposedly’ wants to pull the trigger on a deal.  The truth is every team is always talking trade to see how they can improve their team, and because less trades happen in the the NHL then ever before these quick inquiries not even near serious talks get reported when five years ago that would be far from the case. Expect many trades to happen in mid february with a few taking place before hand and of course the bulk of the deals will take place at the deadline.


Examining a few of the oft mentioned rumors:


Bobby Holik: Bobby Holik is not going anywhere in the next little while and probably not until the summer. The only way he gets traded is for a trigger man to replace alex mogilny. That trigger man will not be either of Tony Amonte or Teemu Selanne, mention of those two names comes from columnists errrr fans of the team that want it to insantly improve. The truth of the matter is the devils are in no immediate need to trade Holik who is a lot more valuable in the playoffs when he goes against other teams big time centers, then now when line matching is not as intense. If they were to trade him for a sniper he alone would only land a 25 goal scorer at the most. That would give the Devils more goals and less checking and come playoffs Holik supplies both. Don’t look for that deal to happen unless the devils get overwhlemed by a team that does not know what they are doing.


Joe Nieuwendyk: Won’t be dealt anytime soon. The Stars are injury prone at second and third line center with Turgeon and Niewy manning the middle. With both oft injured, look for the other to pick up the workload for the other. If Nieuwedyk was dealt and Turgeon went down I don;t think the stars would want his replacement to be Shaun Van Allen. Also any rumors of Nieuwendyk for Alfreddson, Havlat or Hossa throw it out the window period. The Sens will not accept a player climbing into his mid 30’s with bad knees for a rising star. Also take into account Nieuwendyk’s large 5.5 million dollar salary.


Tony Amonte: These rumors are a little trickier. With Chicago playing as well as they have in a long time don’t expect their best, big ticket player to go anywhere soon. The fans of chicago would not take kindly to the dealing away of their best player and a guy who has honored, which he should, his 3million dollar plus salary which is lower then market value. I expect Amonte to re-sign in early January or after the season concludes.



Thanks for reading my article


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