Just minutes after Ottawa sort of inexplicably lost Cory Conacher on waivers to the Buffalo Sabres, they turn around and make a brilliant move -- acquiring the super-underrated Ales Hemsky from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for a third and fifth-round draft pick. These picks obviously have very little value. Additionally, Edmonton's retaining 50% of the salary in the deal.
I wrote just
three days ago that a smart team would acquire the underrated, and almost certainly undervalued Ales Hemsky at the trade deadline. He's a possession-driving machine that's been buried on awful Edmonton Oilers teams for many, many years. His value has inexplicably taken a hit because of this.
I don't know if Hemsky gets this sinking ship floating, but it makes the team significantly better. And I'm guessing that this move will coincide with some sort of extension.
Great, great move. And obviously Bryan reads the Ottawa Citizen.
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UPDATE: Chris Phillips will not be traded. He's been extended -- two years, $2.5MM annual.
UPDATE: And it's official. Per
Hockey Central, Cory Conacher has been claimed by Buffalo.
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Amidst all of the wild trade rumors in Ottawa these days, one of the big stories to percolate yesterday was the waiving of forward Cory Conacher, acquired one year ago in the trade for Ben Bishop.
Conacher's sort of fallen out of favor with the coaching staff and/or management this year, though you wouldn't have known it yesterday -- even after being placed on waivers, he was skating various shifts on the team's top-line, and was on the ice in the final minute as the team desperately searched for an equalizer.
There's a lot of buzz in Buffalo that the team's made a waiver claim, and we should have confirmation on who that is shortly. Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News thinks it's Cory Conacher:
So, from top-line winger, to maybe traded for absolutely nothing to a division rival. This, of course, predominantly due to the fact that Conacher couldn't sustain his ridiculous 17% Sh% with Tampa Bay, and pulled a miserable goal output in 2013-2014. I think there's a belief that Mike Hoffman's passed him on the depth chart, but who knows.
I'll be back with more updates later. Today might be more crazy than anyone anticipated -- at last check in, Bruce Garrioch and Denis Potvin suggested that the Anaheim Ducks were
calling on center Jason Spezza.
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Thanks for reading!
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