First off, I must admit I was wrong in my opinion Simon Gagne wouldn’t accept a trade to the Tampa Bay Lightning. It’s still a surprising move but I’m guessing part of the reason he agreed to join the Lightning was former Team Canada teammate Steve Yzerman is now their general manager. Gagne has lots of respect for Yzerman and that could’ve been a factor in his decision.

So, out of 26 columns for Hockey Independent breaking down and usually dismissing wild trade rumors, I got one wong. Oh, well, nobody’s perfect, but that’s still a damn good average.

Now, on to today’s fun.

The Bleacher Report recently published a list of 25 players who could still be dealt this off-season.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/420233-26-nhlers-who-could-still-be-dealt-this-off-season#page/1

The list contained the names of some familiar trade bait, like Boston’s Marc Savard, Tim Thomas, Michael Ryder, Chicago’s Patrick Sharp and Brian Campbell, Buffalo’s Tim Connolly, Columbus’ Nikita Filatov, St. Louis’ Eric Brewer, Toronto’s Tomas Kaberle, Vancouver’s Kevin Bieksa, Edmonton’s Sheldon Souray, and of course the aforementioned Gagne.

While I could offer up some disagreements over the possibility of some of those players being dealt nevertheless their names have reportedly been brought up in rumored trade talks, so I certainly won’t dismiss them.

The article also mentioned the names of Calgary’s Jarome Iginla, Florida’s Tomas Vokoun, Anaheim’s Bobby Ryan, Washington’s Michael Nylander, correctly claiming there was no likelihood they would be dealt.

It also suggested the prospects of a trade were low for Florida’s Stephen Weiss, the NY Rangers Wade Redden, Toronto’s Jeff Finger, Carolina’s Sergei Samsonov, whilst Chicago’s Cristobal Huet and Minnesota’s Josh Harding were considered “medium-low”.

I do however disagree with the suggestion LA Kings’ winger Wayne Simmonds has a high likelihood of being dealt. If the Kings weren’t willing to include Simmonds as part of the package for Ilya Kovalchuk last season, I don’t see them using him as bait for a lesser player.

The report also suggested Minnesota’s Brent Burns’ likelihood for a trade as “medium”. While correctly acknowledging their signing of Mark Cullen alleviates some of their need for offensive depth it’s well known Wild GM Chuck Fletcher doesn’t want to part with Burns. Given the number of affordable scoring forwards available in this summer’s UFA market Fletcher could further bolster his offense without parting with Burns.

Finally, they consider Ottawa’s Jason Spezza’s trade prospects as “medium-low”.  Given GM Bryan Murray’s comments following July 1^st that he wasn’t moving Spezza, hadn’t found any interest in the trade market for the center plus Spezza’s “no-trade” clause having now kicked in, the possibility of a Spezza trade is non-existent this summer.

Lyle Richardson
SpectorsHockey.net
twitter.com/spectorshockey