Christmas Day Special

*OFFICIAL TRADES*
3/4
#1- Colombus trades Pascal Leclaire and a 2nd round pick to Ottawa for Antoine Vermette. The Jackets are the winners in this deal. Leclaire is a good goalie, but is coming off ankle surgury, and is going into a situation very similar to that in Colombus was last season, a team struggling to find an identity. Not sure how he'll help other than giving them an everyday starter. Leclaire said on a TSN interview, "They're a great team...It'll be a good challenge...I don't see myself as a savior."
#2 - Colorado trades Jordan Leopold to Calgary for Lawrence Nycholat, Brian Wilsona and a 2nd round pick. Familiar face into a familiar place as Leopold returns to Calgary. Leopold is a UFA at the end of the season so it will be interesting to see what happens there.
#3 -Tampa Bay trades Andy Wozniewski to Pittsburgh for Danny Richmond. A small trade that could easilly go under the radar. A pair of "who?" players, don't invest to much into them.
#4 - Phoenix trades Mikael Tellqvist to Buffalo for a 4th round pick. I do not know much of Tellqvist, but Darren Pang seems very high on him. He's a good goalie, he does provide a safety net in case Ryan Miller is out longer than expected, and they only gave up a draft pick for him [as Pierre McGuire stated.]
#5 - Phoenix trades Olli Jokinen and a 3rd round pick to Calgary for Matt Lombardi, Brandon Prust, and a 1st round pick. Calgary gave up on waiting for Lombardi to gel with Iginla and traded him while his value is still very high becasue of his age, contract and ability. Jokinen is onto yet another team after not exactly working in LA, NYI, FLA, and PHX. Should work better with Iggy though.
#6 - Anahiem trades Steve Montador to Boston for Petteri Nokelainen
#7 - Tampa Bay trades Mark Recchi and a 2010 2nd round pick to Boston for Matt Lashoff and Martins Karsums
#8 - Islanders trade Bill Guerin to the Penguins for a conditional draft pick. It starts at a 5th, which becomes a 4th if they [PIT] make the playoffs, and a 3rd if they win a round.
#9 Senators trade Chris Neil to Florida.


*OFFICIAL - Contract extensions for the following players:
-Alex Burrows with Vancouver - 4 years/$8 million [$2 mil/year]
-Filip Kuba with Ottawa - 3 years @ $3.7 mil/per
- Tim Connolly with Buffalo - 2 years @ $4.5 million/per
- Erik Eresberg with LA - 2 years. money to come soon.

*OFFICIAL Waiver News:
- Martin Gerber [OTT] & Eric Reitz [NYR] to Toronto - Toskala is out for the remainder of the season with groin problems. This is a very surprising situation considering that last night, Toskala stopped 49 of 52 shots against the Devils and was playing great hockey. I guess the Leafs are playing it very safe and shutting him down now.
- Brendan Morrison [ANA] to Dallas
- Craig Adams [CHI] to Pittsburg
- Miroslav Satan clears
- Gary Roberts clears - Many questions out there about what he will do next.

*RUMORS
- Chris Pronger - Off the block? Doubtful, but thats what is being rumored out of Anahiem.
- Jonathan Chechoo - San Jose Mercury News says from in interview with Sharks GM Ron Wilson, "I've gotten many calls, but that guy is not in play."
-Blair Betts - interest from Detroit
- Matt Stajan, Alex Ponikarovsky- all being actively shopped by Toronto
- Chris Higgins - On the block by Montreal
- Martin St. Louis - Rangers? dont know if i buy that one
- Chris Neil - a deal with the Senators will not get done today. Look for him to be traded with San Jose a suitor.
- Kari Lehtonen, Marty Reasoner, Slava Kozlov - shopped by Atlanta
-Ryan Smyth and Milan Hejduk - EJ Hradek says they will NOT be moved out of Colorado. - Bill Guerin - Deal looming large over Long Island.
- Marion Gaborik - drawing interest from Vancouver
-Derek Morris - Phoenix and Montreal are talking, Philly now getting involved too, Rangers now in.

Deals that could be close:
- Nik Antropov - has agreed to be part of a deal [TFP]. announcement could come soon.
- Dominic Moore - Chicago - contract extension couldnt get done with the Leafs


SIDE NOTES:
-When asked by an interviewer who would be on the block today, Burke had to restrain himself from using profanity on live TV, real class act there.
-TSN just had a commercial promoting the Winter Olympics in 2010, part of the commercial said "i predict a Canadian will win Gold on Canadian soil, for the fist time, ever." Could that really be true? I know canada hosted the 1988 games in Calgay, but did no Canadain win a gold in that Olympic Games? According to Wikipedia, a Canadian did not win gold in Calgary.