In an unexpected move Montreal Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey today announced he was stepping down from the position, handing the job over on an interim basis to assistant GM Pierre Gauthier and would remain with the team in an advisory role.

The move, as TSN's Bob McKenzie noted, raises questions over the timing of Gainey's decision, coming so soon to the Olympic break, but as Gainey pointed out in his press conference he felt he's done his best during his tenure and feels it's time to pass the torch. 

It'll be speculated Gainey was pushed out of the role rather than left of his own accord but McKenzie believed Gainey lost his appetite for the job and probably felt he wouldn't be returning after this season anyway. 

Gainey leaves the Canadiens slightly better than he found them when he took over as general manager in June 2003. Back then the Canadiens have gone through a very dark period, missing the playoffs in four of the five season prior to his taking over the role. 

The Habs did make some improvement during Gainey's tenure, making the playoffs in four of the last five active seasons (not counting the lockout), advancing to the second round of the playoffs twice, and topping the Eastern Conference standings in 2008.

That however isn't considered success for a franchise as storied as the Montreal Canadiens, where expecations for a championship are extremely, even unrealistically, high. 

Gainey in his first seasons as general manager hoped to rebuild the struggling Habs via the draft, and by 2008 it appeared as though his efforts and those of his scouting staff were paying dividends. 

Young players who came up through the Canadiens system - goaltender Carey Price, defenseman Mike Komisarek and forwards Christopher Higgins, Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn, Mark Streit, Guillaume Latendresse and Maxime Lapierre - played key roles in the Canadiens improvement in 2007-08 under the guidance of Gainey's hand-picked head coach Guy Carbonneau. 

Veterans acquired by Gainey - like Alex Kovalev and Roman Hamrlik - were also significant factors that season.

His free agent signings in the summer of 2008 - Alex Tanguay, Robert Lang and Georges Laraque - had Canadiens fans dreaming of a Stanley Cup run in 2009, the 100th anniversary of the club's founding.

The early promise of 2008-09 rapidly turned into a nightmare as the club fell apart in the second half of the season.

Lang, Tanguay and Laraque were sidelined by injuries, Kovalev and team captain Saku Koivu slumped, Streit had been lost to free agency while most of the promising youngsters struggled under the weight of heightened expectations amidst rumors they were enjoying the Montreal nightlife too much. 

Gainey replaced Carbonneau behind the bench late in the season but couldn't do anything to stop the bleeding. The Habs barely made the 2009 playoffs and were swept in the first round by the Boston Bruins. 

Gainey defended several of his players following that series -including Price, who played terribly - and promised to address the club's problems in the summer of 2009. 

He cut loose long-time Habs Kovalev, Koivu and Komisarek to free agency, passed on re-signing Tanguay and Lang, and went on the biggest spending spree in team history. 

Higgins and prospects were shipped to the NY Rangers for expensive playmaker Scott Gomez, while unrestricted free agent forwards Mike Cammalleri, Brian Gionta and Travis Moen plus veteran blueliners Jaroslav Spacek, Hal Gill and Paul Mara were signed, some to expensive contracts. 

Gainey also found an experienced replacement for Carbonneau, hiring former NHL coach of the year Jacques Martin as his new bench boss. 

The moves were seen by critics as Gainey rolling the dice, hoping these big moves would significantly improve the Canadiens roster and in turn keep him employed as general manager. 

This season's results thus far have been mixed as the Habs were sitting sixth overall in a very tight Eastern Conference playoff race heading into this week. 

Injuries have been a factor as well as the difficulty of players adjusting to new teammates and a new head coach, but the bottom line is this year's Canadiens are considered a marginal playoff club and not a serious Stanley Cup contender. 

Perhaps looking at his club's performance Gainey saw the writing on the wall and opted to move of his own accord rather than await the ax to fall at season's end. 

The most obvious question now is what this move means for the Canadiens in the immediate future. 

Gauthier is a very experienced hockey man, having previous management tenures in Anaheim and Ottawa as well as in the scouting department, so it wouldn't be surprising if the Canadiens ownership removes the "interim" from his title last this summer. 

He addressed the issue of trade speculation surrounding goaltenders Price and Jaroslav Halak, suggesting he'd likely retain both for the remainder of the season. They're restricted free agents this summer and it's believed one of them could be traded. 

Gauthier also said he's had talks with the agent for center Tomas Plekanec, who's an unrestricted free agent this summer. 

Whether Gauthier pulls the trigger on a major move before either the two-week Olympic trade freeze beginning this coming Saturday or by the March 3rd trade deadline is anyone's guess but barring a monumental deal there's little he can do at this time to vault the Habs into Cup contention this season.  

The Canadiens have some genuine established talent as well as some promising youth but they were unable to take the next step under Gainey's tenure toward becoming Stanley Cup contenders.

It remains to be seen if his replacement will have better luck.

After several days of efforts between the Carolina Hurricanes and San Jose Sharks to work out a deal which would ship defenseman Niclas Wallin to the Sharks - including a recent report the deal had fallen through - both clubs today announced the deal was official. 

The Hurricanes in return receive the Buffalo Sabres second round pick in the 2010 entry draft which the Sharks have previously acquired. 

A reader informed me it's believed Wallin didn't wish to waive his "no-trade" clause while he was on the road in order to have time to return home and spend some time with his family prior to going to the Sharks. 

Wallin had previously spurned efforts by Hurricanes management to trade him but this time with Carolina out of playoff contention and his contract coming to an end he's agreed to go to a potential Cup contender in San Jose. 

He should make a good addition to the Sharks blueline corps, given his skills and experience in the Stanley Cup playoffs, having played in two Finals with Carolina, including their championship run in 2006. 

It's been rumored Sharks GM Doug Wilson might not be done dealing between now and the March 3rd trade deadline, perhaps pursuing bigger fish, but the remainder of Wallin's $1.75 million salary for this season pushes the Sharks up against the cap ceiling for this season. 

If Wilson has other trade plans it'll have to involve moving comparable salary in the return. 

With Wallin now dealt the focus of Hurricanes management will be finding takers for winger Ray Whitney and center Matt Cullen prior to March 3rd. 

For several weeks there was speculation the Detroit Red Wings might make a cost-cutting trade to make room for the return of their injured players. 

On February 6th the Wings shipped forward Ville Leino to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and a fifth round pick in 2011. 

Leino, 26, had been considered a promising forward for the Wings but this season hadn't played up to expectations, with only 7 points in 42 games despite seeing an increase in ice time and responsibilities due to the unusually high number of injuries to the Wings roster. 

With defensemen Andreas Lilja and Niklas Kronwall along with scoring star Johan Franzen set to return very soon to active duty Wings general manager Ken Holland had to free up cap space but faced a difficult decision, either put Leino on waivers and risk losing him for nothing or trade him in hopes of getting some affordable value back. 

Ultimately Holland choose the latter, and in Tollefsen gained an physical sixth or seventh defenseman to provide additional depth to his blueline whose $600K cap hit for this season was cheaper than the $800K cap hit for this season and next on Leino's contract. 

Flyers fans might consider this move perhaps a precursor to a bigger deal, perhaps anticipating Leino to be "flipped" in a package offer for a more experienced and talented player, but given their own limited cap space it's quite possible this might be the biggest deal they make leading up to the trade deadline. Time will tell. 

The Nashville Predators retained another affordable key player, re-signing checking forward Jordin Tootoo to a two-year contract extension. 

Tootoo's new deal will pay him $1.15 million in 2010-11 and $1.35 million in 2011-12. The average cap hit will be $1.25 million per season.

The 27-year-old winger has been a popular, physical presence on the Predators checking lines since his debut in 2003-04, and is currently on pace for a career-best 20 point season. 

Tootoo's new contract means the Predators now have over $37 million committed to 15 players for next season, but they'll have several players - goalies Pekka Rinne and Dan Ellis, defenseman Dan Hamhuis and forward Patric Hornqvist - eligible for significantly higher raises. 

Having committed less than $44 million toward payroll for this season they'll have to expend considerably more to retain all their key free agents or else risk losing some to this summer's free agent market. 

The Atlanta Thrashers have finally cut ties with franchise player Ilya Kovalchuk, shipping him along with defenseman Anssi Salmela to the New Jersey Devils.

Heading the other way is rookie forward Niclas Bergfors, defenseman Johnny Oduya, prospect forward Patrice Cormier and the Devils first round pick in 2010. 

Leading up to this trade it was believed Thrashers GM Don Waddell would get a much better return for Kovalchuk than the one he got for Marian Hossa two years ago. 

Looking at this return from the Devils it's clear Waddell didn't get much of a return for his franchise player. 

Bergfors, 22, was earlier this season considered a potential rookie-of-the-year candidate but his offensive production has considerably declined since late December. 

He's gone scoreless over his last thirteen games with the Devils and was even made a healthy scratch in one game. Bergfors is currently on pace for 18 goals and 40 points this season; not bad, but he's certainly no replacement for Kovalchuk's offense.

Granted, the Thrashers weren't going to get back a player comparable to Kovalchuk but one can't help wondering if they could've gotten a little better return than Bergfors, who's probably going to become at best a second line winger.

Oduya, 29, is a good second-pairing defenseman wh html_removed o can chip in offensively. He's had two 20-plus point seasons and missed 15 games this season to a groin injury. Oduya is in the first year of a three-year contract paying him $3.5 million per season. 

He's a good addition to a Thrashers defense corps which currently boasts promising Zach Bogosian and veterans Pavel Kubina, Ron Hainsey and Tobias Enstrom, but he's not going to help replace Kovalchuk's offense. 

Cormier, 19, was captain of Canada's silver medal-wining club at the 2010 World Junior Hockey Championships  but is also currently suspended from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for the remainder of the season and playoffs for a vicious elbow to the head of Quebec Remparts defenseman Mikael Tam during a game last month. 

Despite this and other questionable on-ice incidents Cormier was considered amongst the Devils best prospects and could evolve into a physical scoring forward in the future. It remains to be seen however if he'll develop as hoped. 

As for the first round pick, that's not going to be very high in this year's draft. Barring an unforeseen late-season collapse by the Devils this pick will likely be between 25th-30th overall. Waddell could perhaps package that pick with another player in a future trade.

What's puzzling many observers is why Waddell shipped Kovalchuk to an Eastern team when his Thrashers are still battling for a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, and why he accepted what's considered a lesser return from the Devils. 

If this return was the best Waddell could get it doesn't speak well for whatever else he was offered by other general managers, who were likely skittish about giving up too much for a rental player, particularly one who'll be seeking the salary cap maximum of $11.3 million per season on a ten-twelve year contract in this summer's unrestricted free agent market. 

This move probably won't go down well with the Thrashers dwindling fan base, which could be ready to throw in the towel on this long-struggling, seemingly rudderless franchise. This trade appears to be simply another lousy one by a team with a recent history of making bad trades. 

As for the Devils, this move is yet another example of why general manager Lou Lamoriello is considered amongst the best in the business. 

He lands on a short-term basis one of the most lethal goal-scorers in the game in Kovalchuk, who has only been out-scored since the lockout by Washington's Alexander Ovechkin, without giving up much in return. 

It'll be interesting to see how well Kovalchuk meshes within the defensive system of Devils coach Jacques Martin Lemaire, but I daresay he'll have an immediate positive impact upon the Devils offensive production, which has been struggling in recent weeks. 

This could be the move which makes the Devils amongst the favorites to contend for the Stanley Cup this season. 

Even if it doesn't pan out, the return wasn't a significant loss for the Devils given their depth in prospects and skills in developing quality talent.