3:49 PM TALKCAST COMING AT 4PM

I am hearing that the Wild are closing in on Jokinen....

Gratton to Ottawa is a growing possibility...

Flyers are looking at Brad Richards apparently, although I am not sold on it.


1:08 PM UPDATE

The Preds have interest in Jason Williams.

Hossa likely going down tomorrow, not today.


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I am being told that the Sabres may let Campbell go to the end of the season to negotiate a deal and may have shifted their focus to getting Olli Jokinen.

Jokinen to Montreal is gaining a ton of speed this morning, and Hossa to Detroit as well.

The Rangers are trying to pry Robbie Shremp out of Edmonton for Alex Bourret.

I am hearing the Islanders and Leafs are talking about a deal that would send Fedotenko and a pick to NYI for McCabe. The Leafs want a #1.

The Blue Jackets are trying to get Richards in a multi-player deal, but the Canucks are still on the inside track.

My sources are telling me that they are expecting an answer from Forsberg today and once again I am hearing that maybe just maybe it is tilting towards him returning. Philly and Minnesota leading that one.

The Lightning are talking to Boston, NY, and Philadlphia regarding Dan Boyle.

The Devils and Penguins have a strong interest in Jay McKee. Price for Jackman is too high as of now I am told.

The Flames are trying to make a MAJOR move with a major player that has not been mentioned too much I am told..(looking into that one)

The Bruins are interested in Havlat

The Senators are still hot on acquiring Khabibulin and Fedorov.

as I get it you will get it

from earlier today...

When I was a kid falling in love with sports and following sports one phrase wasn't in my vocabulary: Free Agency.

It is ironic that without that word I wouldn't have this job, traveled to so many arenas, met so many great people, and preparing to do my very own trade deadline TV show (the first ever in America. Get a season ticket to watch, support the site, etc...).

I was a Philly sports fan and it is also incredibly ironic that probably the first truly big free agent signing in all of sports that I remember...Pete Rose to the Phillies....brought me the first championship that I was old enough to fully appreciate. I remember thinking at the time it was awesome, but also feeling a little bit like, "your team wasn't good enough, so someone else had to come in and save the day."

The best thing that ever happened for players salaries in all sports was what Pete Rose did, because ever since fans have come to expect that pending free agents could save the world.

Even after Pete Rose came here though, I still pretended to be Larry Bowa when I played baseball.

What Mats did last night was a throwback to another era.

Can you be mad at him? sure. He ruined the party of the trade deadline for a lot of Leafs fans. We all look at players like commodities to buy and sell, and that's not our fault it is THEIR fault. Nowadays you don't expect your stars to be there forever, because they will jump ship and play for the enemy. The Team Loyalty concept has been ailing for years, and it truly died a few years back when Johnny Damon became a Yankee. That was the ultimate "FU" to loyalty.

Sundin should be knighted for this. I am sorry kids, but he should be.

It is so much like the movie "Indecent Proposal" where a man offers another man $1,000,000 to spend a night with his wife. You must all know for FACT that Mats truly tried to sleep with the enemy. He was willing to prostitute himself out or he would NOT have allowed this process to continue. Mats was willing to do it, but I get the sense he wasn't willing to do it for $10k. Mats obviously based this decision on the fact that the deals weren't strong enough and wouldn't be able to make the Leafs better than he himself playing could....he wanted to do what was best for the Leafs so he allowed the offers to come in.

What Leafs fans will never know is how bad the deals were, and I think you owe Mats the trust that they weren't great. You owe this trust because Mats could have bailed on you all so many times in his prime and he never did. Mats could have taken far more money to go to far better teams and he didn't...He gave the hometown discount, and you owe it to him to give him the hometown courtesy now. He is a Torontonian.

We are guilty of playing fantasy hockey too much by saying, "You need to get something for him, anything." Well you know what----you don't. You need to respect this man enough to know that if a deal was there that really would have helped the team he would have gone against his heart. He almost did, and as over as this feels, I am not 100% convinced that someone may really put an incredible deal on the table for Mats that he won't accept.

I am only 40, but it still amazes me how we accept the fact and fans are so jaded by sports in this era that they are OK with a star player coming back to their old town in enemy jerseys and playing against a team and crowd that the player poured his soul into.

In the locker rooms we will ask that star, "Was it difficult...?" and he'll say, "Yeh, but I am a member of another team now. It is a business."

Sure it is. But it is also a SPORT right? And without that sport the business ceases to exist. Pro sport teams are divided by cities and a local pride that cuts to our very being.

Kids haven't forgotten..I am happiest for the kids of Toronto today.. still wearing their blue and white Sundin jerseys while they skate on an Ontario pond with Bob Cole in their heads...Sundin brings the puck up ice, he beats one defender and another, Sundin eludes the hip check shifts to his back hand and he .....SCORES! SUNDIN SCORES!!! LEAFS WIN!

Those kids didn't want Mats to be traded for a bag of pucks or some Russian prospect head case.

For you older Leafs who have forgotten the basics. think about this: Your captain is still here and has made a bold statement. The kind of statement that still matters to the players he is playing with. He doesn't want to win a Stanley Cup for him. He wants to win one for you.

Sundin I am told turned down a boatload of money from extensions in another city to win one for him or them. If the current Leafs team and fans... a team still in the hunt...can't get a push from this sort of loyalty then the true concept of "team" is dead. I can envision the team using this as a rallying cry. I truly can. The Leafs will still make moves, but they also still may make the playoffs and what an AMAZING hockey story it would be if Toskala gets hot and the Leafs went far.

I know that many of you think I am nuts, but the difference between winning and losing is so small in this NHL that I am here to tell you a gesture this HUGE may just be worth something.

I am on the phones and working like crazy today. I will post continuously for the next two days...and tomorrow is our big show. See details below.

COMING TOMORROW AND STREAMING TO THE ENTIRE WORLD (NOT JUST CANADA)...

THE HOCKYBUZZ TRADE DEADLINE LIVE VIDEO PODCAST


The Show will be hosted by Eklund, Kevin Lee, Andy Strickland and many more from Hockeybuzz. We will be not only reporting our own rumours/trades we are hearing, but commenting instantly on whatever is being reported by TSN, Sportsnet, The Score, The Team Websites, etc. We are also going to be scanning all the other major team and hockey websites. Basically, we want to be your one stop spot for information from everywhere.


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