Neech

Carolina added Joe Corvo, who brings much needed help to the powerplay. The loss of Stillman isn't that big, his production had dwindled significantly. He had 5 points in the 15 games prior to being dealt. The main issue I have with Wamsley's analysis is saying the Bruins are in. They're looking good, especially with their games in hand, but Buffalo or Philly could take their spot.

Has his first day eating nothing but KD and oreos.

No, Ryan Parent is in the AHL, he's played seven games this season with the Flyers. Upshall is 24, it's more likely that he'll be a bottom-liner than a top six guy. Esposito is not yet a bust at the age of 19.

Cherapanov? Anyways, once again, you've already stated your prediction for Esposito, but we'll have to wait several years before anything is proven. Yeah, they CAN be that good, and I think you would be all alone in a group of GMs on the subject of your evaluation of either of those guys being better than both of the Pitt players. Plus, there are two 1st rounders involved for Atlanta.

He isn't even slumping.

Well 24 months is a long time. If anything he's happy that one of the goalies ahead of him on the depth chart was traded away. He'll get a chance to play a few games this year, maybe more if Price doesn't seize the number one job. He's 22, and not many goalies are in the NHL let alone starting at that age, so he'd have to be irrational and impatient to demand a trade.

I'm just judging THIS MOVE. I'm not a Waddell fan. I still hold that it was a better return than Philly got for Forsberg. Upshall and Parent are in roughly the same league as Christensen and Armstrong, except the latter are NHL regulars now. Atlanta was a team that lacked depth, and these guys help that. Yeah, Esposito's stock fell pretty badly, but that doesn't mean he's done. We can argue about how good he'll be all we want, but we'll find out for real in several years.

I'm only talking about this deal, his moves last year were terrible. I'm not defending Waddell as GM here. Esposito might look pretty good feeding the puck to Kovalchuk on his wing. Even a late first-rounder in this year's draft should be pretty valuable. Christensen and Armstrong may be third-liners on Pittsburgh, but they're roster players on a good team, and they'll definitely make Atlanta better in the short term. Armstrong is a valuable player, an agitator. Christensen has a lot of upside, although he is regarded as a bum for his inconsistency. At the very least he helps win shootouts.

You don't see the upside for his team? He got two first-rounders, plus two GOOD young roster players. He got a better return than Philly did for Forsberg. We're 3rd in the league in goals for, an offensive star isn't a desperate need for us.

Um, you really need to let that quote go, it's clearly gotten to your head. I believe it was actually something more like "winning the Cup in Montreal would be amazing", I don't think there was any reference to his dreams. It seems like an obvious comment that anyone who knew anything about how hockey-mad Montreal is would make when posed the relevant question. Not saying I don't think he'll come here, I would love to see him in the Montreal uniform as much as the next guy. Actually, I just imagined it, him skating around in the red jersey with a blue helmet, the wildness of the crowd during his first few games, him scoring a breakaway goal in OT and the Bell centre imploding... There's just not much to show that it's any more likely now than it has been before.

More like it was either Huet or Halak, but Huet is a UFA who's going to cash in.

Oh well, so much for the rumour thread. We could rename it 'The Dream Thread' where we fantasize about Vinnie. Actually it could have always been called The Dream Thread.

What a great guy, I'll still have love for him after he's gone. The biggest testament to his character is what Price said about him, "he was like an older brother to me." Huet acted like this to a young guy who everyone predicted would take his job from him, and who ultimately did.

We're still giving them an upgrade in the most important position in the game. Huet is close to Vokoun and Lehtonen for the best goalie in the division. Huet has been an all-star.

I think we'll have more success landing an impact free agent in the future. We've shown ourselves to be a good young team with a bright future, and our organization seems to be well run with character people.

This is how I feel about the trade. But Huet wasn't getting it done, and Price didn't deserve a demotion. Halak deserved a shot. So although this makes our goal-tending weaker on paper, Halak in the place of Huet could be an upgrade, and very likely is compared with Huet's recent play.

Very eloquent tribute to him.

Dude, forget the other kinds of pizza, get the chicken pizza. Drunk or sober, it's anything but over-rated. Huet was always a great guy, it seems like his teammates really loved him. Ah, if you're starting on Crescent street, go one block East to de la Montagne. Just below St. Catherines there's Dany's pizza, it's freakin delicious. Try the spinach pizza, I know that doesn't sound very appetizing, I'm not the biggest fan of spinach myself, but it's great. But you can't go wrong with the chicken pizza at Al-Taib.

Even Hal Gill netted a 5th along with the 2nd. Probably could have gotten another mid-round pick, or mid-level prospect. At least 2009 is supposed to be a good draft year.

That's double pizza, probably, just west of Guy. The Mexican slice is the best they have, but it's nothing special compared to what you could have gotten. You should have walked to Guy, gone up the street a bit to Al-Taib and ordered the chicken pizza, it makes me drool just thinking of it.

I'm VERY happy that we didn't send a package like Pittsburgh did for Hossa. I would have been sad to see Emelin go, let alone Higgins.

I mean the Bernier-ful Sabres.

Double pizza is meh, nothing special. Really greasy. The big delivery chains in Quebec pretty much all suck to varying degrees. Montreal has great pizza, but at smaller places.

Good game by the boys, we had a few lulls but came out with a real response in the third. The Plex line was dominant, I'm surprised they didn't pot a few goals, A. Kosty especially was flying. Good to see Higgins get on the scoreboard, he was playing like he meant it, although the goals were the result of other people's good work. He did his best impression of Markov when he set him up, it was great. You could tell Grabovski really wanted to get some points, but it didn't work out. He was still decent, and actually looked threatening with his speed at times. I was very happy for lil Teets when he scored, the announcers were commenting on how he hadn't taken a shot in 7 periods, and I think he has a great shot, very precise. A game that we needed to win, and we did it. But after all, it was the Hossa-less Thrashers we beat here, Buffalo on Friday will be a much bigger test.

I agree with the idea of trading Huet. I just wish we could have gotten more for him. The best part of this is that Halak will get a chance.