The Trade Deadline Rumor Chart is now live. I updated quite a few players already today, with more to come...
Tomorrow I will release my annual post All-Star Sellers and Buyers blog.. here are some rumors from talks on what has been a very busy day on the phones..
Does Jeff Carter = Phil Kessel?
The debate will rage on until Kessel either raises the Cup or Seguin does (as a major contributor), but at the end of the day I still believe Brian Burke made a great move. Now, sitting out there to be had, similar to Kessel when Burke got him, sits Jeff Carter.
In their NHL careers to date, Kessel (born in 1987) and Jeff Carter (born on New years Day 1985) have put up star player number
----------------------GP----G----A-----PT-----Cap Hit
Carter-------------491--191--169--360---5.3 through 2022
Kessel-------------423--154--142--296---5.4 through 2014
----------------------------------------------
So point per game finds Carter at .733 and Kessel at .700.
People can talk about the long Carter contract, but when Kessel hits the UFA market July 1, 2014 he will, assuming he stays a premiere player, likely jump to 7 per or more (given inflating salaries and cap space...) So say all you want about Carter's contract, it will be a bargain come 2014 and over the next 8 years at a fixed 5.3. In fact if even if he returns to a 30 goal pace...(his last three seasons prior to this one were 33, 36, 46 goal years) it is quite possible that Carter (only 27 now) will be the least expensive player to notch 30 plus goals over the next decade.
So this is why Columbus took on Carter's contract, and this is why many in the NHL feel it is contract that a team could take on. Teams like Calgary and Toronto have already shown up in the rumor mill, but today I have heard Nashville (great cash certainty move for them) and rumblings of Vancouver in the last hour.... (not ready to call it an official rumor, but I am checking into it)
So my point here is Carter could really be a steal and a half, and I believe, having been around Jeff a bit, he would thrive in the right market and has grown a lot in this year with Columbus. There in lies the risk, but I am fairly confident that Carter will return again to a 40 goal average...and if he does, he is an an absolute steal.
Quick hit rumors....
* Hearing more about Hemsky to Montreal...not quite an e-4 yet, but a strong e-3.
* Sutton and Gill are now looking better and better with Gleason, Beauchemin, and apparently Suter off the market.
* Another d-man who could be one of those "wow, where did he come from?" type of pickups is Dallas d-man Nicklas Grossman. He is a pending UFA and a solid stay-at-home guy with more toughness than people who don't see Dallas play very often know.
*The Sabres would like to get bigger, yet the Jason Blake rumors have increased today. Looking more and more like Montreal is looking elsewhere.
General Seasonal Reminder...
We are officially in the awesome part of the trade season and you need to remember what "denials from GMs/people in the organization" mean this time of year.. When a GM says "nothing has happened " he means "as of this very instant nothing has happened." The shelf life of a quote from anyone this time of year grows shorter and shorter the closer the deadline looms....
more to come...
Looking for info between blogs or when the next blog is coming?>
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