With NHL trade deadline looming (March 1), several teams have made trades over the last few days.
Last week, the Dallas Stars traded away Patrick Eaves to the Anaheim Ducks for two second round draft picks.
Eaves was the Stars’ co-leader in scoring.
The Eaves trade became a must for the Ducks who lost Antoine Vermette on a 10-game suspension and Eaves’ goal production is better than virtually the entire Ducks roster except Richard Rakell.
Eaves is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
Over the weekend two additional trades were made with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Los Angeles Kings exchanging goaltenders.
The Bolts sent Ben Bishop to the Kings in exchange for Peter Budaj.
Jonathan Quick is back in the Kings net after missing 59 games; he had not played since the first period of the first game of the season (2-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks).
Reports are that Kings general manager Dean Lombardi wanted to protect their crease by bringing in Bishop and his pedigree for the stretch run for the playoffs.
Budaj had been solid for Los Angeles and the reason the Kings are not in a playoff position now is their failure to maintain any consistent offense if it is not named Jeff Carter.
Peter Budaj is heading to Tampa – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Andrei Vasilevskiy almost certainly will be the Bolts number one goalie moving forward with Budaj playing a secondary role in Tampa.
Over the summer of 2016, the Minnesota Wild acquired Eric Stahl in a head-scratcher free agency move. That move has not been a drag on the club. The Wild have the best record in the west.
But this weekend, the Wild decided to divest themselves of the future with the acquisition of Martin Hanzal and Ryan White and a draft pick, for a series first and second round picks over the two years and a deeper pick in 2019.
Hanzal is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
That is by definition a head-stretcher.
“On behalf of the entire organization, we would like to thank Martin for all of his contributions to the Coyotes on and off the ice over the past 10 seasons,” Coyotes general manager John Chayka said. “We wish him the best of the luck in the future.”
Hanzal and White had struggled with Arizona, as everyone has in the desert this season, on a club that has failed to gain much traction.
So where will the next desperate move be made before Wednesday this week?
A number of clubs are within striking distance of playoff spots in both conferences and some of those clubs need post season appearances to validate and justify expensive moves in the recent past.
Others have changed out head coaches and also need to justify those moves.
It is not enough to make a change behind the bench. It is the bench, in most cases, that put club’s in bad positions in the standings.
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