Trade Dealine Heats Up

The NHL (@NHL) trade deadline is approaching quickly and as teams begin to fall out of contention we are seeing the start of the action. So far Tampa Bay Lightning GM Steve Yzerman has been a busy guy trying to add depth to his floundering team. He traded Dominic Moore (a regular occurrence this time of year) to the San Jose Sharks, and mercifully, Pavel Kubina to the Philadelphia Flyers ending the  awkward sort of limbo they had put him in. The Montreal Canadiens unloaded big defenceman Hal Gill to the Nashville Predators for a name familiar to Habs fans in Blake Geoffrion, Robert Slaney and a 2nd round pick. Geoffrion is of course the grandson of legendary Hab Bernie 'Boom Boom' Geoffrion and Great Grand son of another Hab legend Howie Morenz. Adding Gill gives Nashville even more size on the back end, lots of experience, and a solid penalty killer which they need. If I were in the west I wouldn't over look what this team could do, not simply because of this addition, but because of their overall balance and solid back end, lead by Shea Weber, Ryan Suter (for now) and Pekka Rinne a potential Vezina candidate for goaltender of the year. There will undoubtedly be many more moves as the week moves along but adding depth like this seems to be the way most teams tend to deal with their run to the playoffs as chemistry is so important and moving to many key pieces, even if they are not star players, may cause irreparable damage.