Hockey Trade Rumors

People said at the beginning of the summer that next years talks would be of Adam Foote and Sergei Fedorov, but as it turns out, just a few games into the season, Pavol Demitra is the first big name player to be involved in trade rumors and speculation.
Demitra reportedly isn’t happy under Jacques Lemaire, and wants out. There will certainly be many teams interested in the Slovakian sniper. So who am I looking to?

Well, the Colorado Avalanche still have some cap room to play with, and Joe Quenneville is Demitra’s old coach in St. Louis I believe, and if the Avalanche lose out on Peter Forsberg, they’d probably still be interested in a scoring center. The Avalanche may decide to focus on defense instead, as their offense is absolutely stacked. I mean really, Sakic, Stastny, Smyth, Hejduk, Wolski, Brunette and the rest. They’re already a scary team, and Demitra would make them clear cut favorites in my books.

The Ducks still need to replace the offense from Teemu Selanne, and you know, even the offense from Scott Niedermayer, who put up about seventy points lsat year. They don’t have as good a top line center as they think. Look at Andy McDonald’s numbers without Teemu Selanne for just a minute.

The Islanders sound like a decent option. They have a boat load of cap space, and they could use the help down the middle. The problem is, would they be interested in a rental? If they don’t want a rental, then they’d have to re-sign him, along with EIGHT UFAs this summer (Simon, Vasicek, Satan, Comrie, Fedotenko, Martinek, Dubielewicz, and Hunter), as well as three more RFAs, (Gervais, Bergenheim, and Tambelini). Still, Mike Comrie and Mike Sillinger aren’t number one centers, and they could use the help.

Dallas needs all the offense they can get honestly, and Modano/Demitra as a one-two punch would be lethal, and would really open up the ice for Mike Modano to increase his points totals, because there’ll be some pressure off him, with more offensive threats on the team. They’ll have the cap space for Demitra if they can hold on for another couple of weeks.

Now of course, this wouldn’t be a Leafy article without some Toronto speculation. Apparently the Leafs want help at center, and have been looking at Dave Scatchard. Well, Demitra is certainly better than Demitra, but the problem is that of cap space. Of course, the Leafs don’t have a lot, but some teams may get desperate, take a chance on Raycroft, and there’s always some minor league send downs they can make, but I think if the Leafs get Demitra, it’ll be a trade deadline acquisition. I also think the Leafs have the assets to add him, with Minnesota loving defense, and the Leafs have plenty of defensive prospects. I really think a guy like Phil Oreskevic could flourish under Jacques Lemaire.

And, just looking forward, I have a feeling the next guy we talk about will be Bobby Holik, once the Thrashers struggle.