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Kaberle to Habs for Spacek PLUS Next Steps for Flyers |
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Confirming what has been reported elsewhere by now: The Montreal Canadiens have acquired Tomas Kaberle from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for defenseman Jaroslav Spacek.
As regular readers know, I've always been a HUGE Kaberle fan but there is no getting around the way he's underachieved recently. But there is no denying his ability or past track record of success, and the Habs were looking to make a bold move.
As for Spacek, he's been about as reliable and underrated as they come, and had generally done a real good job for Montreal. At 37, he's getting up there in age -- 33-year-old Kaberle is no kid anymore, either -- but is still a very good NHL defenseman.
Kaberle is in the first season of a three-year contract that pays his $4.25 M per season on the salary cap. Spacek will be an unrestricted free agent after the season. He's in the final season of a 3-year deal that carries a $3.83 M cap hit.
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What's next for the Philadelphia Flyers now that it has been revealed that the mysterious lingering "virus" experienced by Chris Pronger was, in fact, a concussion that was not diagnosed upon initial testing?
That really all depends on how much longer Pronger is out. He is still recuperating from recent arthroscopic knee surgery but revealed shortly before he had the procedure that he was still feeling the effects of what the team was calling an illness.
We all know the process with concussions: It all depends on when the player becomes symptom free and can eventually remain concussion free through the process of off-ice, no-contact on-ice and, finally, full practices before being cleared to return.
Some of the urgency for the Flyers to find a replacement for Pronger has been lessened by the strong play of the remaining top four defensemen on the team. Kimmo Timonen has been excellent all season and -- to varying degrees -- Matt Carle, Andrej Meszaros and Braydon Coburn have all stepped up their games with Pronger out of the lineup.
However, Paul Holmgren realizes that the team absolutely cannot afford another one of its top defensemen to go down for any length of time and that Pronger's status is going to be iffy for the rest of the season -- and, quite possibly, the rest of his career.
As a result, I expect the team to continue to search for a trade with teams throughout the NHL. Decent defensemen usually come at an inflated price -- and top-pairing ones come at a staggering premium if they are available at all.
I don't think Philly will make a trade for a defenseman right away but sooner or later they may be forced to.
Be back later today with a rumor blog....
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