The Chicago Blackhawks finally made it official, today announcing the re-signings of forwards Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and defenseman Duncan Keith to multi-year contract extensions. 

According to various reports Kane and Toews signed identical five year contracts worth $6.3 million per season, while Keith signed a 13-year deal worth a cap hit of $5.5 million per season. 

These signings aren't surprising as it's been rumored since mid-November the three were all but re-signed. The delay was believed owing to ensuring the Blackhawks didn't violate the NHL's "tagging" rule, which stipulates no team can spend more on payroll for next season than the current season's salary cap, which this season is $56. 8 million.

While the new salaries of the three pushes the Blackhawks

After several weeks of speculation the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes were talking trade the two teams made a deal today although note of the magnitude suggested by some rumormongers. 

Despite rumors the two teams might swap some notable name players ultimately the Leafs today shipped little-used winger Jiri Tlusty to the Hurricanes in exchange for the rights to prospect center Philippe Paradis. 

Tlusty, 21, has split the past two seasons between the Leafs and their AHL farm club and this season spent only two games with the big club. 

While touted as a potential scoring forward Tlusty has struggled to prove himself at the NHL with the Leafs and according to Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford Tlusty will spend this season with Carolina's farm club, although

The past twenty-four hours have been unusually busy for significant NHL player movement, with one being traded and two others claimed off waivers, with the Montreal Canadiens involved in two of the three. 

On the evening of December 1 came word the San Jose Sharks had claimed Canadiens defenseman Jay Leach off waivers. 

The Canadiens had claimed Leach off waivers from the New Jersey Devils back on November 6th. With several defensemen sidelined or hobbled by injuries the Habs needed an affordable veteran and Leach was available. As the Habs claimed him off re-entry waivers they only had to pick up half of his $500K salary for this season.

With the imminent return of veteran defenseman Hal Gill the Canadiens no longer had need for Leach's services and attempted to demote him

TSN.ca reports sources claim Boston Bruins center Marc Savard has signed a seven-year contract extension believed to have an annual salary cap hit of $4.2 million per season. 

This comes as no surprise to Bruins watchers who understand only too well the value of the 32-year-old Savard to the club's offensive attack. Since signing with the Bruins as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2006 Savard has averaged 87 points per season and is considered one of the best - and most under-rated - playmakers in the league. 

A foot injury which sidelined Savard for several weeks earlier this season only further drove home the point as to his value as the club struggled offensively in his absence. He currently has 10 points in 11 games.

If the Bruins failed to re-sign him Savard

Two players cleared waivers on Thanksgiving (November 26) and have been demoted to the minors, while another young Russian player has been loaned back to his KHL team for the remainder of the season. 

First, the waiver news:

The Florida Panthers sent defenseman Ville Koistinen to their AHL affiliate in Rochester on Friday while the Philadelphia Flyers sent defenseman Danny Syvret to their farm team in Adirondack. 

Koistinen, 27, was in his third NHL season but his first with the Panthers after spending the past two seasons with the Nashville Predators. Syvret, 24, started the season with the Flyers after spending most of last with their minor league affiliate. 

Both blueliners struggled this season and eventually wound up losing playing time since the start of the season. 

Last Friday I blogged about keeping an eye on the Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs as it appeared changes could be imminent to their respective rosters. 

At that time the news was full of reports the Blackhawks were believed close to announcing the re-signings of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith but would need to dump some salary first to avoid violating the league's "tagging" rule, while in Toronto the media was buzzing over comments made by Leafs GM Brian Burke claiming he was working on a couple of trade options but failing those he might consider demoting one or more players currently on one-way NHL contracts. 

Since then there's been no activity by other club. 

Over the weekend there was talk the two teams had spoken and it was believed the

Heading into this season expectations were high for the St. Louis Blues. 

Having missed the playoffs in the first three post-NHL lockout seasons the club overcame a slow first half to last season, finishing strong down the stretch to qualify for the 2009 playoffs. 

Despite being swept out of the post-season in the opening round by the Vancouver Canucks the feeling amongst Blues fans and some outside observers was the Blues long rebuilding post-lockout plan was finally bearing fruit. 

So it's not difficult to understand the disappointment felt by Blues fans as their team is stuck in the basement of the Central Division and sitting above only Anaheim and Minnesota in the Western Conference standings. 

So what's with the Blues faltering start to this season?

The most

Two struggling NHL teams today opted to swap once highly-touted now under-achieving forwards, as the Montreal Canadiens shipped winger Guillaume Latendresse to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for forward Benoit Pouliot. 

Latendresse, 22, was a second round pick of the Canadiens in the 2005 entry draft who failed to play up to expectations as a power forward for the Habs. In three seasons in Montreal he managed 29, 27 and 26 points respectively and this season had only two goals and three points in 23 games. 

Pouliot, 23, went in the same draft as Latendresse but considerably higher as the Wild took him fourth overall.

His performance however has been scarcely better than Latendresse; in fact, it's been worse, as he's split much of the past three seasons bouncing between the

- NHL center Andrew Ebbett is on the move again. 

Just over a month after being claimed off waivers by the Chicago Blackhawks from the Anaheim Ducks Ebbett has been claimed again, this time by the Minnesota Wild. 

Ebbett, 26, was placed on waivers by the Blackhawks after only ten games for two reasons; to make room on the roster for winger Marian Hossa's long-awaited debut as a Blackhawk, and to allow the club to free up some much-needed cap space. 

OK, there's also a third reason: he wasn't as good a fit as hoped when the Blackhawks claimed him earlier in the season in hopes he'd provide depth at center. 

After having a strong debut performance last season with the Ducks (32 points in 48 games) Ebbett did not have a good training camp this season and saw action