Canucks.com will follow the action live all day long Wednesday, March 4th, right here at Canucks Deadline Central. The Canucks.com crew will be filling you in on all the moves while our expert panel will weigh in with analysis and opinion beginning at 7:00am PST.
Get in on the action and talk about it here.
 CDC |
 Shadrin |
 Scott Rintoul |
 Jeff Paterson |
 Derek Jory |
 Mike Macri |
 Mike the Yankee |
 OSSI VAANANEN |
Claimed off waivers FEB.27.09 |
| 12:49 PST – If you just joined us now, you can read the rest of the blog here. Last hour... NHL's got six hours of live deadline programming today and you can watch it here - just in case you don't have enough sources or opinions to listen to. Check back shortly for post-deadline coverage, including analysis with Kristin Reid and Jeff Paterson and footage from Mike Gillis' press conference. |
|
| 10:59 PST – Alright. One hour to go and still all quiet on the Canuck front. Perhaps Alex Burrows has marched into the War Room and promised management that he will single-handedly deliver the Stanley Cup this year. Management would have no choice but hear him out. |
|
| 11:00 PST – Scratch the Forsberg retirement rumour as well, sources just informed me he's in fact back in Sweden and not even in Colorado. You're welcome for the hard hitting news. |
|
| 11:03 PST – Guerin to the Penguins; maybe he can do what Miro Satan couldn't - finish on a few Crosby passes... Give Ray Shero this - dude likes to deal... Hossa obviously didn't scare him away from getting back in the game this year... Props to the Pens' GM for giving those young guns a chance to do something in the postseason instead of fretting about a subpar season to date... |
|
| 11:06 PST – Just saw Jeff's email on the subject of Recchi... There are two schools of thought about him "in the room"... Some hockey people swear by him, others think he can be devisive... Perhaps the Canucks fit into the latter category - or maybe they just didn't think he had what they were looking for. |
|
| 11:07 PST The long-awaited trade of Bill Guerin is finally complete and it looks like the Pittsburgh Penguins have won the sweepstakes. The Penguins had long been said to be looking for a winger for Sidney Crosby and it was thought Kunitz may have been that winger – although that may still be the case – but Guerin gives them yet another option. It looks like this may come at the expense of Miroslav Satan who cleared waivers earlier today and may have played his last game as a Pittsburgh Penguin. The Penguins only had to give up a conditional draft pick which can only be as high as a third rounder. |
|
| 11:10 PST – I'm still curious what the hold up was with the Guerin trade that's been in standby since Saturday. Maybe another team dropped out before the Pens stepped in. Either way that's a fantastic pick up for the Pens and will help fill in the void left by Satan and Hossa before him a bit differently. He's not going to score a ton of goals, but you can never have enough of the guts and leadership that Guerin has come to personify his whole career. |
|
| 11:14 PST – You know it's a fairly anticlimactic deadline when reference is made to the Guerin "sweepstakes". Are we so quick to forget the deadline exercise in futility that was his stint in San Jose? He was completely ineffective as a rental player. But if there's a team that could utilize his services, it's Pittsburgh. |
|
| 11:24 PST – I hope you're strapped in because the last few hours have been nothing compared to the tornado of deals that should go down in the next half hour. There are still way too many teams that haven't done anything for this deadline to be done. Disturbing moment of the draft for me so far is Pierre McGuire saying that Travis Moen turns his crank. What? |
|
| 11:40 PST The big rumour per Sportsnet right now (the only rumour really surrounding the Canucks on this day) is the Canucks are close to a deal to acquire Jay Bouwmeester in exchange for Mason Raymond, Kevin Bieksa and a first round pick. Jay Bo is a UFA at the end of the season, and one has to wonder if the hold-up right now is if GM Mike Gillis is trying to negotiate a contract extension with Jay Bo before swinging the deal. The Canucks sound like the only team in the running at this moment for Jay Bo. |
|
| 11:43 PST – Is it economic uncertainty? Is it an unwillingness to part with draft picks? Maybe cell phone towers are down around North America this morning... Whatever the reason, it has been SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWW on deadline day... |
|
| 11:48 PST – Upshall and a 2nd rounder to Phoenix for Carcillo... Flyers get instant energy and a physical presence, Coyotes get grit and more offensive upside in return PLUS a second rounder... This clears some salary for Philly as they would have to give Upshall a raise next season as he's an RFA... I give the edge to Phoenix on this one. |
|
| 11:52 PST – Going...going...gone. Nik Antropov to the New York Rangers for a second-rounder and a conditional pick. This is a solid move for both sides, the Rangers get the big Russian and Brian Burke gets a coveted draft pick. Nicely done. |
|
| 11:53 PST - Carcillo for Upshall: Daniel Carcillo is a hard-nosed player that almost seems made to be a Philadelphia Flyer. He has 174 PIMs this season after 324 last year. He hasn’t had the same offensive production as he had at this point last season, but could be a good energy forward. With Upshall, the Coyotes add yet another good young player to their core. With this deal however, the Flyers manage to drop some salary and they’re said to be in the running for Derek Morris as well from out of Phoenix. Antropov to New York Rangers: Antropov is a big centre that can possibly be utilized as a winger in New York and could greatly help with the Rangers’ offensive woes this season. The Rangers don’t have to give up the first round pick that had rumoured to be the asking price for Antropov. Antropov now instantly becomes the team’s leading goal scorer. The Rangers are another team that is rumoured to be interested in Derek Morris, but this could potentially end any thoughts of that. |
|
| 11:54 PST – In about 5 minutes I'm going to start waxing nostalgic about the Cooke for Pettinger trade. |
|
| 11:55 PST – Unless something monster takes place in the next five minutes, quarterback Kurt Warner signing a two-year $23 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals will be the biggest deal of the day. Here I was thinking this was the NHL trade deadline... |
|
| 12:05 PST - And of course, just as I wrote that the Rangers were probably out of the Morris sweeps, Derek Morris gets moved to the New York Rangers. I can’t recall another year where a player has been called over-rated so many times by various panel experts as Derek Morris has today…but maybe it’s fitting for the Rangers who have already got the likes of Redden and Rosival and we all know how big fan favourites they are at MSG. Morris should help an inept Rangers power play even though he’s really struggled at the offensive side this season. The Rangers pay a huge price giving up Dmitri Kalinin, Nigel Dawes and Petr Prucha. A lot of people will be talking about the Flames as being the big winners today, but my vote goes to the Phoenix Coyotes who load up in great young players. |
|
| 12:07 PST – Well I guess Glen Sather decided to give John Tortorella his kind of players... Morris and Antropov bring offense to a team that wants to run and gun under Torts... The moves will help them change the style and make the playoffs, but unless Henrik Lundqvist gets hot like fire, the blue shirts aren't going very far... |
|
| 12:08 PST – Just got official word that the Vancouver Canucks were not involved in any trades today, nothing will trickle down in the next few minutes. GM Mike Gillis will speak to media at 12:45 PST. |
|
| 12:09 PST – If the Coyotes have a future in Phoenix, it looks bright... I think Nigel Dawes can score at the NHL level, and Petr Prucha at least represents the possibility of chemistry with young talents like Boeddker, Hanzal and Turris... As far as sellers go, I think the Yotes did well today... Plus they cleared some big dollars off the books. |
|
| 12:13 PST – The NHL is a strange league. The one year where it finally looks to be somewhat like a buyer's market, we see a flurry of inactivity. On the positive side, if Gillis does end up abstaining from any deals, the team might very well take it as a vote of confidence. Sometimes the best deal is no deal at all. I guess we'll see. |
|
| 12:15 PST - Good, solid move for the Sabres in picking up Dominic Moore from the Toronto Maple Leafs. They don’t give up a whole lot, only a second round pick, and it helps shore up their centre ice position. Whether Moore is put in a scoring position in Buffalo remains to be seen seeing as how the Sabres already have their top two centres of Derek Roy and the recently re-signed Tim Connolly, but they get a major boost to their playoff aspirations with this move. For the Maple Leafs, it seems that all they’ve managed to do today is get draft picks and not any bodies (excluding Gerber) so it will put some pressure on their scouting staff to turn these deals into good ones. |
|
| 12:15 PST – Well Gillis said he was happy with his team, didn't want to upset the chemistry and that's what he did. Once again he stuck to his word. Whether it works or not down the stretch is another matter. And Mike was right...how exciting does the Pettinger/Cooke trade feel now?! |
|
| 12:15 PST – Even though Mike Gillis said he wasn't going to do much if anything, I'm surprised the Canucks maintained the status quo... Sounds like they were talking Bouwmeester right up until the bitter end, but I thought at minimum they'd make a minor tweak to the forward group in an effort to get a different mix on the third line... |
|
| 12:15 PST - Sportsnet just reporting the Canucks have stood pat at the trade deadline and, after watching last night’s game against the Wild, it’s hard to argue with that decision. We may never know how close the Bouwmeester talks progressed but for now everybody can breathe easy. |
|
| 12:22 PST – A lot of rumbling around me about Vancouver standing pat, but I'm all for it. Why mess with any part of a team that is on such a tear? The Canucks have won 11 of 13 with a lot of difference pieces chipping in to make this team successful. Tinkering with the third line would have made sense, instead Mason Raymond and Kyle Wellwood have to play through their funks. High five Mike Gillis. |
|
| 12:22 PST – There's some messageboard chatter about Gillis going hard after Bouwmeester with no intent of pulling the trigger on the deal, for no other reason than showing Bouwmeester that he's wanted by the Canucks organization. If true, it's a shrewd approach, and it could pay off in a big way come July 1st. |
|
| 12:42 PST – Final thoughts – I’d say Buffalo and Calgary were the winners as buyers, with Toronto and Phoenix coming up big as sellers. Overall the deadline wasn’t as intense as I expected, but it was still a fun ride. I’m interested to hear what Gillis has to say about what was offered to the Canucks, but in the end him unplugging his phone and shutting off his Blackberry was the best thing he could have done. |
|
| 12:44 PST – That's a good point... And if we've learned anything over the last couple of years, it's that you can still swing a deal at the draft... Just because the Canucks didn't get Bouwmeester now doesn't mean he won't wind up in Vancity at some point |
|
Canucks.com is the official Web site of The Vancouver Canucks. The Vancouver Canucks and Canucks.com are trademarks of The Vancouver Canucks Limited Partnership. NHL and the word mark and image of the Stanley Cup are registered trademarks and the NHL Shield and NHL Conference logos are trademarks of the National Hockey League. All NHL logos and marks and NHL team logos and marks as well as all other proprietary materials depicted herein are the property of the NHL and the respective NHL teams and may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of NHL Enterprises, L.P. Copyright © 2009 The Vancouver Canucks Limited Partnership and the National Hockey League. All Rights Reserved.