We've got trades!

NHL Trade Deadline Deals

– After sending Keith Tkachuck to the Atlanta Thrashers last week, the Blues sent Bill Guerin to the San Jose Sharks for a 1st round pick in 2007, Ville Nieminen and prospect Jay Barriball. Guerin is making $2 million this season and will most likely follow the St. Louis trade protocol and re-sign with the Blues once he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer.

– The Red Wings acquired Todd Bertuzzi along with all the letdowns that accompany him from the Florida Panthers in exchange for Shawn Matthias and two conditional draft picks.

– The Los Angeles Kings traded captain Mattias Norstrom, 3rd and 4th round picks in 2007 and Konstantin Pushkarev to the Dallas Stars for Jaroslav Modry, Johan Fransson, 2nd and 3rd round picks in 2007 and a 1st rounder in 2008. That sounds like a damn mess.

– Edmonton fans have been crying as if Wayne Gretzky was traded all over again since the Oilers traded Ryan Smyth to NYI for Ryan O’Marra, Robert Nilsson and a 1st round pick in 2007.

– The Sabres finally traded Martin Biron by sending him to Philadelphia and also acquired Ty Conklin from Columbus. I hope this isn’t a P.R. move to make up for the horrible jerseys they’ve been wearing.

– A whole bunch of other lame trades took place and some guys were put on waivers including: Petr Cajanek, Jason Krog, Brian Boucher, Marc Chouinard and Bryan Berard. Weren’t a whole bunch of teams going after Berard just a season ago?

Overall

The Trashers made some nice moves to acquire playoff experienced guys in Tkachuk and Alexei Zhitnik. They’ve sacrificed *some* of the future but this helps the team now in good fashion.

Most other teams seemed to make moves in order to pacify problems, like Pittsburgh trying to shore up on toughness and grit by grabbing Gary Roberts and George Laraques.

Others just…made moves (NYI, kept Blake and brought in another high priced future UFA?).

Certainly not a spectacular week leading up to the trade deadline but things picked up in a hurry on the final day.