50MC’s 2009 NHL Trade Deadline Blog.

This is the end of my Trade Deadline ’09 blog. Thanks for joining me. This has been the busiest day of 50MC blog. I hope everyone can join me for the rest of the year as I plan to update this blog daily.

3:05 pm – Cory Woron from TSN: Gerber is expected to play for the Leafs tomorrow. Burke tried to deal him, but nothing ame of it.

3:02 pm – thanks for joining me today. The 25.5 O/U was way under. According to TSN, Dominic Moore has been traded. Details unknown. Updated: Dominic Moore traded to Buffalo for 2nd round pick. Leafs get great value for Moore here.

3:00 pm – Derek Morris to the NY Rangers for Peter Prucha, Nigel Dawes and Dmitri Kalinin. Rangers gave up a ton, but they needed some defensive help. Phoenix looks like they picked up a lot of really good younf talent today: Lombardi, Dawes, Upshall. Deadline is over, but there is a good chance that some deals can happen a little bit after 3:00pm. What a slow day. 11 trades today. Weak.

2:58 pm – 2 minutes to go and Pierre McGuire has just exclaimed that Jay Bouwmeester is not going anywhere.

2:55 pm – Sportsnet is reporting that Chris Neil will pass through the deadline and remain with the Ottawa Senators for the rest of the season… Also, Alexei Ponikarovski is reportedly going to Nashville for 2 draft picks. This would be a good move for the Leafs.

2:49 pm – Confirmed: Antropov to the NY Rangers for a 2nd round pick, thanks to TSN. Kypper looked a little embarrassed… Burke could not get that sought after 1st round pick, and nobody has to get fired, right Pierre?… 10 minutes to go.

2:47 pm – TSN is reporting that the New York Rangers have actually traded for Nik Antropov. This would make more sense that Nashville. If this is true, Sportsnet may have lost the lead to TSN.

2:42 pm – Breaking News from Sportsnet: Nik Antropov has been trade to Nashville probably for a 2nd rounder. I guess Nashville wants to make a run at the playoffs. I don’t like it for the Preds. Also, Daniel Carcillo to Phoenix to Philly for Scottie Upshall and a 2nd rounder. Wow. Looks like Philly is freeing up room for someone, probably Morris. On Carcillo, man, talk about Broadstreet Bully. This is a perfect fit for Philly. He is going to being so much energy to the team. They gave up a promising scoring forward and a draft pick but if they pick up a defenseman, they will make some noise in the playoffs. I like the move for both teams.

2:37 pm – Rumor Mill says “Vancouver and Florida close to Bouwmeester deal”. Apparently for Mason Raymond and a 1st rounder and possibly Kevin Bieksa. Calgary has forced Vancouver’s hand… 20 minutes to go… according to TSN Burke has been offered 2nd round picks each for Antropov and Moore. Burky is going to wait until the deadline to see if he can get more.

2:30 pm – half an hour to go. 8 trades today. We’ll say 11-13 trades in total this deadline season. Taking the under on 25.5 trades is looking good… REPORT: Sportsnet is reporting that the Leafs have told Martin Gerber to stay put for a little bit because he could be part of a bigger deal. Where could he go? Who would want him? He stinks.

2:24 pm – more on Chris Neil. Sportsnet’s Rumor Mill says that the Panthers are interested… One name that has absolutely not come up today is Tomas Kaberle. Looks like Brian Burke was true to his word in saying that he will keep Kaberle. Tommy can look forward to the same kind of trade attention during next year’s deadline… As for Kubina, he can look forward to it during this year’s draft, when his NTC is invalid.

2:18 pm – BIG name on the block: Michael Russo from Minnesota Star-Tribune is reporting that Marian Gaborik is indeed in play. This is huge. Minny needs to make this trade, as I pointed out in part 6 of Deadline Trades I Would Like to See. This could be one of those deals that just beats the clock, similar to the Marian Hossa trade to Pittsburgh last year. Weird that Hossa and Gaborik are close friends. They even go to bar-mitzvah’s together… Another Czech and close friend of both Hossa and Gabby, Martin Havlat is on the verge of signing an extension with the Hawks.

2:15 pm – 45 minutes left until the deadline… ESPN is reporting that Manny Ramirez has finally signed with the Dodgers. hahahah. Take that Scott Boras, you asshole. I don’t care if you get 15% of that, you wanted $5 million more and the Dodgers took that deal off the table, and you folded. You suck, Boras… Philly Flyers are very interested in Derek Morris.

2:06 pm – Sportsnet’s Rumor Mill is reporting that Samuel Pahlsson is heading to the Blackhawks. Apparently Brian Burke is asking too much for Dominic Moore, so Pahlsson is the backup plan… should I pick up Guerin in my fantasy pool?

1:57 pm – Darren Dreger is reporting that Bill Guerin is going to the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is confirmed. Finally… they are also reporting that the report below about Peter Forsberg has not been confirmed and actually is erroneous.

1:51 pm – Adrian Dater from the Denver Post is reporting that Peter Forsberg is in Colorado and will indeed suit up tomorrow night vs the Detroit Red Wings.. to announce his retirement from the NHL. Forsberg is one of the best players in this era, but with all his injuries, will he be immortalized in the Hall of Fame?

1:47 pm – Jay Onrait’s blog need to be page one material on tsn.ca. Go to Onrait’s all day long blog on the deadline for a good laugh… Sportsnet’s Rumor Mill reads: “Pittsburgh interested in Jarrko Ruutu and Bill Guerin”

1:40 pm – Sportsnet is reporting Dominic Moore to the Blackhawks. Not official yet… Sportsnet has had a live shot on the Maple Leafs’ war room and I have yet to see Brian Burke in there… where is his twitter update to see what he is up to.

1:37 pm – Louis Jean from Sportsnet is saying that Bob Gainey’s phone is not ringing and he feels that his team is good enough to make a run in the playoffs. They have Alex Tanguay coming back, which will be a good addition… On the other hand, Eklund is saying the Habs will make a “big splash”… I’ll go with Louis on this one.

1:30 pm – Recchi on the phone with TSN. James Duthie tries to get him to admit that he found out he was traded while watching TSN, but Rex doesn’t give in. Hahah take that TSN. Atta boy Rex.

1:24 pm – TSN’s Darren Dreger has just reported that Mark Recchi has been traded to the Boston Bruins. Nice. How many time will Rex get traded at the deadline… Neil and the Sens’ talks have broken. He will be traded… switched to Sportsnet. They have Oilers practice on and Shawn Horcoff isn’t on the ice. I wouldn’t read aything into it.

1:19 pm – Chicago is looking for a center. Steve Reinprecht is an option. So is Jeff Halpern and Dominic Moore. Lame.

1:07 pm – Bobby Mac is reporting that if the Panthers decide on trading J-Bo it will be closer to the deadline and it will be to Philly or Vancouver… He is also reporting that the Thrashers’ phone lines are burning up for Colby Armstrong.

1:00 pm – 2 hours left. Only 6 trades to speak of today, with only 1 big one. But it was huge. My under 25.5 trades is looking pretty good… HockeyBuzz seems to be down. They haven’t updated anything for a while… looking at IslandersPointBlank for an Guerin update, but nothing to be found… looking into a Chris Neil update.

12:54 pm – Vesa Toskala is done for the season. TSN is confirming what Sportsnet speculated an hour ago. He is having hip surgery and groin surgery. He will go on the IR immediately. This explains the Gerber pick up. Weird because Vesa has been playing so well of late. Let’s make some moves Leafs, season is over.

12:50 pm – Report: Olli Jokinen will wear #21. Apparently Iginla wanted Jokinen to shave his moustache for #12, but Jokinen said “no way, Jose” (while pronouncing a hard J).

12:35 pm – TSN is reporting 2 trades: Petteri Nokelainen to Anaheim from Boston for Steve Montador and the BIG ONE: Lombardi, Brandon Prust and a 1st rounder for Olli Jokinen. Good trade for Calgary. With Leopold and Jokinen added today they have just hit a home run. They are now among the elite in the West. It is still unknown if Jokinen will switch his number from 12, the number that Jarome Iginla currently wears… 6 trades today so far, but this is the first big one.

12:28 pm – LeBrun, still on Sportsnet, is reporting that the Habs were talking to the Coyotes about Jokinen, but pulled out… the original Bill Guerin deal has also been pulled back and GM Garth Snow is working on “Plan B”. One this for sure is that Guerin cannot possibly return to the Island after being treated like shit for the past few days… LeBrun reports that Washington was the team that Guerin was supposed to go to, but they could not free up Michael Nylander‘s contract.

12:18 pm – Pierre LeBrun is now on Sportsnet and he is talking about Jokinen to Calgary. He does confirm that the deal on the table is Jokinen for Lombardi and a 1st round pick… Laviolette is looking more comfortable. Atta boy Petey.

12:14 pm – the Ottawa Senators have a deal in place for Chris Neil; however, the two sides will discuss an extension for the next 45 minutes. If they cannot hammer out a new contract by 1pm, Neil is traded. This according to Mark Christopher at HockeyBuzz.

12:11 pm – Sportsnet may have stolen Jokinen to Calgary from TSN as Kypper is reporting Matthew Lombardi and a 1st rounder to Phoenx for Jokinen.

12:05 pm – Breaking News from Kypreos and Garrioch from Sportsnet: Martin Gerber has been claimed by the Leafs (Why??), Brendan Morrison has been picked up by Dallas. TRADE: Mikael Tellqvist has been traded from Phoenix to Buffalo for a 4th rounder.

NOON – this is what you call a lull. TSN is on The Reporters again, so 30 minute time out for them. John Garrett at Sportsnet has just made a reference to Missy Elliot. I should give them a point just for that. It’s noon here in the East, 9am in the West and I just finished my chicken fingers. Any type of trade would be more action than we have seen so far.

11.52 am – Breaking News: Alexander Ovechkin has injured his foot in practice today. He had to be helped off the ice. Updated: more information from Tariq El-Bashir. Apparently it was slapper off the boot.

11:48 am – trying to find the new Molson Canadian commercial. The sippy cup is a great invention, especially at sporting evens. Nothing is lost when your elbow is grazed and at $10 per beer, it gets you drunk faster. Don’t believe me? Trying having a few beers drinking a straw… I’m done with looking at ESPN for updates. They are too slow, even with Pierre LeBrun on their team.. I’m also done with TheFourthPeriod. Their site is loading way too slow today and most of their links do not work with Firefox.

11:43 am – looking around. Take it for what it is, but Eklund is reporting a bunch of rumblings, including Erik Cole to Boston (MC2), Panthers are looking at Antropov (MC -3) and the Habs have made a call about Hejduk (MC2).

11:40 am – Sportsnet’s Rumor Mill has Pittsburgh interested in Adam Hall and Nik Antropov.

11:38 am – Breaking from TSN: Colorado trade Jordan Leopold to Calgary Flames to Laurence Nycholat, a prospect and a 2nd rounder (MC3)… Nice boxers, Onrait. 3-1 Sportsnet.. Sportsnet probably had this deal first, but I missed it. We’ll put TSN on the board.

11:32 am – Huge trade from Sportsnet: Andy Wozniewski is traded to Pittsburgh for some dude (MC3)… Apparently the AHL deadline is today as well… Sportsnet is also now speculating the Jokinen to Flames trade. If this happens, give the first point to TSN.

11:26 am – Bob Mackenzie from TSN is reporting that Olli Jokinen to the Calgary Flames is really close. Not official yet, but inevitable. Strong MC2 here. Jokinen is a good fit. He has a good history with Mike Keenan. This would put Calgary to a borderline elite team in the league, but is still yet to be seen if Jokinen can play in the playoffs.

11:22 am – nothing going on. Just looking around on other WordPress Deadline blogs. Haven’t really found any interesting ones. One that I am following is Starscene’s All Day Deadline Extravaganza. It’s pretty funny, up-to-date, what more do you want… Sportsnet has Vermette over the phone. Big surprise: he says he found out he got traded while the boys were watching Sportsnet in the locker room.

11:12 am – just looking around NHL rumor sites. ESPN’s Scott Burnside is reporting that the Philadelphia Flyers are in on Jay Bouwmeester, if not then Derek Morris. Problem is that the Flyers “have about $5 worth of cap space” according to James Duthie.

11:09 am – looks like Doug Wilson has just finished his Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and has announced that Jon Cheechoo will not be traded. This, according to David Pollack at the San Jose Mercury News.

10:53 am – Sportsnet Rumor Mill says Steve Reinprecht is going to the Blackhawks. Decent move. Hawks need a depth center. Personally, I think Dominic Moore may be a better fit in Chicago as a depth center… at TSN, apparently Jon Liu is in Philadelphia talking about options for New Jersey. booooooring.

10:50 am – love to Sportsnet. Like TSN, Sportsnet is now televising how last year’s traded players got traded. Most of them are saying they were watching Sportsnet… TSN is finally reporting Tim Connolly signing… blackberrys are going off at Sportsnet… it is almost 11am Western GM’s are having their morning orange juice. Let’s get it going.

10:46 am – Mark Spector from Sportsnet reports that Edmonton wants to make moves. They are interested in Atlanta Thrasher Slava Kozlov. Not a bad idea. He is a left winger who may fit in with Hemmer. Colby Armstrong also draws interest. They are unwilling to give up top young prospects Andrew Cogliano, Sam Gagner.

10:43 am – Nick Kypreos from Sportsnet is reporting that Tim Connolly has re-signed with the Buffalo Sabres. 2 years at $4.5 million per year. Sportsnet reports it faster than TSN again. TSN is at the round table with Laviolette, Jay Feaster, and Duthie… step your game up TSN. 3-0.

10:34 am – Andy Strickland over at HockeyBuzz is saying San Jose is interested in Chris Neil. I really like Strickland, he seems to know a lot, more than Eklund at least. This deal would make sense. Apparently San Jose got physically dominated by the Dallas Stars, plus Grier and Roenick have recently been injured. I’ll give this a strong MC2.

10:28 am – love to TSN. How much does TSN love it when players say that they were watching Tradecenter when they found out they got traded. Pascal Leclaire just mentioned he was watching on the internet when he found out. Five bucks says that TSN replays that quote tonight on Sportscenter.

10:17 am – Eklund at HockeyBuzz is speculating that the Sharks are interested in Ryan Smyth and Milan Hejduk. Old News. I read this a few days ago. I will try and find the original blog post from the Denver Post (found it! by Adrian Dater). San Jose had a few scouts at the Avs game the other day. Jon Cheechoo is on the table. (MC2)… I just realized there have been more than 3 trades before deadline day. I am still saying under 25.5 trades.

10:08 am – from TSN’s Corey Woron: the contract extension talks between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Dominic Moore are done. He will be traded today. (MC infinity) Not a big surprise here. Moore is not a 1st or 2nd line center as he and his agent believe. If the Leafs can get a decent draft pick (2nd-4th), Brian Burke is having cake.

10:06 am – why did Sportsnet bring in Bruce Garrioch in? He is such an asshole. He thinks he has the inside scoop on everything (Malkin to the Kings.. what a joke). He is also Mr. Know-it-all for the Sens. Who cares. The Sens suck. He just interupted Kypreos and Kypper didn’t look too happy. Let Kypper talk. This is his show… still waiting for Laviolette’s second crack at live TV.

9:55 am – Breaking News from TSN (Bob Mackenzie) THE FIRST TRADE OF THE DAY!! Ottawa sends Antoine Vermette to Columbus for Pascal Leclaire and a 2nd rounder. (MC6). MC is so high because Bobby Mac is the man. Good move for both teams. Sens desperate for a goalie, Clumbus adds some scoring. However, the Jackets still needs to make another move because they need to make the playoffs… Again, a note that Sportsnet mentioned a few minutes ago… 2-0 for Sportsnet.

9:48 am – Breaking News from Sportsnet (Bruce Garrioch): Filip Kuba signs extension with the Ottawa Senators for $3.7 million for 3 years (MC3). Makes sense. If I was a GM, I wouldn’t want Kuba either… Also, if I was Bryan Murray, I would have traded him a long time ago when he was actually producing… they are also reporting that Antoine Vermette is rumored to the Columbus Blue Jackets (MC2)… Good job Sportsnet. TSN still has not reported a Kuba extension, nor Pierre LeBrun at ESPN.

9:38 am – since I am not watching TSN for now, Sportsnet is reporting that Vancouver is in on the Jay Bouwmeester talks. I give this an MC1. I know the Canucks do not want to give up their top tier talent, so what can they give to get J-Bo? They are saying Mattias Ohlund or Kevin Bieksa. Are you kidding me? Now that Pronger is off limits, J-Bo is the best defenseman out there. Jacques Martin is not going to give him up for a pending UFA and a guy who is 1/4 of the player J-Bo is.

9:28 am – REPORT (MC3): did Jason Spezza actually fight Dion Phaneuf last night?WTF!?… Phaneuf levels Heatley.

9:26 am – I still have not seen Bob Mackenzie’s or Nick Kypreos’ face… F’n Reporters are on again. Everytime the Reporters comes on, TSN will lose 30 consecutive minutes of my viewership… Pierre was going crazy again: “the GM that gives a 1st round pick for Antropov should be fired.. INSTANTANEOUSLY!”

9:08 am – boooooooooooooooooooooooring. Nothing happening yet. It is 6am on the west coast. Are they even awake yet? I wouldn’t expect a trade until 11am, when all the western GM’s have had their frosted flakes… Pierre McGuire is getting mad again. This time at the Canadiens. Apparently he wants them to trade for Olli Jokinen, who has ZERO games of playoff experience… I never noticed how big Pierre is. His head is so small and his body is big. Just a wierd body… This video is actually exactly how close Pierre was standing to Dutch. He’s about 1.5 times bigger today:

8:53 am – watching TSN now. Does Peter Laviolette have nothing else to do than to be on TSN’s Tradecenter? He looks a little lost, but as the day progresses, I expect him to look more confident. (MC2)

8:50 am – Just for reference: MC1 = a ridiculous rumor that totally doesn’t make sense. MC2 = rumor that is likely going to go through and makes sense. MC3 = you can put it on the board…. yes!

8:45 am – Nothing happening. I am going with UNDER on the 25.5 over/under for deals. There have already been 3 trades before today that I am willing to count. This could be the most boring day ever now that Pronger is off the market. So far the most interesting part of today is Pierre McGuire yelling at everyone.

8:30 am – Alright. Welcome to 50MC’s coverage of the 2009 NHL Trade Deadline day. Here is what I woke up to: Chris Pronger is off the market. No surprise, to me anyway… Dominic Moore is going to be traded. According to Sportsnet, 6 teams are interested, including San Jose… Right now, TSN is losing my viewership because the have The f’n Reporters talking about stuff. I really do not like The Reporters, especially that guy with the glasses who always sits in the middle. I respect Dave Hodge, but that’s it.