Every year in December, the National Hockey League establishes a “Christmas Trade Freeze,” a weeklong period ensuring no player can be dealt during the Christmas holiday.
In recent years the two weeks leading up to the “freeze” is usually anticipated as a period when NHL general managers might feel pressured or compelled into making some significant deals.
But as this season has shown that’s not the case. Only three deals of note occurred in the two weeks prior to this year’s freeze:
- The Phoenix Coyotes trading goalie Alex Auld to the Boston Bruins for a minor leaguer and draft pick,
- The Anaheim Ducks shipping center Andy McDonald to the St. Louis Blues in a cost-cutting move for Doug Weight and,
- Just hours before the freeze took effect, the Philadelphia Flyer dealt forward Ben Eager to the Chicago Blackhawks for defenseman Jim Vandermeer.
Trade activity hasn’t been much better leading up to the last two Christmas “freezes”.
Last season, only four trades occurred and of those only two were noteworthy: the Philadelphia Flyers trading defenseman Alexei Zhitnik to the NY Islanders for d-man Freddy Meyer, and four days later the Isles shipped center Mike York to the Flyers.
Only four trades took place before the December 2005 trade freeze, the most noteworthy being Kristian Huselius dealt to the Calgary Flames by the Florida Panthers for Steve Montador and a minor leaguer, and the Flyers trading forward Patrick Sharp to Chicago.
Most pin the blame on this lack of trades in December on the salary cap under the current collective bargaining agreement, or the parity amongst NHL teams since the lockout, but a look at Decembers past reveals teams weren’t really into the giving spirit despite a CBA with no salary cap.
December 2003: Four deals prior to the trade freeze, only one notable: Edmonton trading Mike Comrie to Philadelphia for Jeff Woywitka and draft picks.
December 2002: A whopping five trades, only two of note: San Jose trading defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson to Philadelphia for Dan McGillis (remember them?), and Nashville shipping Mike Dunham to the NY Rangers for Rem Murray, Tomas Kloucek and a throw-in blueliner named Marek Zidlicky.
December 2001: Only two trades: Vancouver dealing Donald Brashear to Philadelphia for Jan Hlavac and a draft pick, and Calgary shipping Jeff Cowan and Kurtis Foster to Atlanta for blueliner Petr Buzek.
December 2000: Five trades, three notable: Philadelphia and Montreal exchange tough guys with Gino Odjick becoming a Hab and PJ Stock a Flyer, Montreal also dealt forward Sergei Zholtok to Edmonton for Chad Kilger, and Toronto traded fading forward Dmitri Khristich to Washington for a draft pick.
Only Kilger is still playing in the NHL. Zholtok died of heart failure during a game in his native Latvia in November 2004, where he returned to play while waiting out the NHL lockout.
December 1999: Four trades, the most noteworthy being the Islanders moving goalie Felix Potvin and two draft picks to Vancouver for Bill Muckalt, Kevin Weekes and Dave Scatchard. Of those four, only Weekes is still an active NHL player.
December 1998: Four trades, two of note: Tampa Bay dealt forwards Daymond Langkow and Mikael Renberg to Philadelphia for Mike Sillinger and Chris Gratton (only Renberg is no longer an NHL’er), and the Buffalo Sabres packed off forward Donald Audette to the LA Kings for a draft pick.
And finally, ten years ago, December 1997: Two trades: New Jersey dealt John MacLean and Ken Sutton to San Jose for Doug Bodger and a minor leaguer, and Tampa Bay shipped Roman Hamrlik to Edmonton for Bryan Marchment in a multi-player deal involving others who didn’t become significant NHL players.
Unlike the weeks leading up to the NHL trade deadline, when the higher level of trade activity at least justifies the even higher volume of speculation, the weeks leading up to the Christmas trade freeze has never been a particularly busy time for trade activity, salary cap or no.
As for most of the growing tide of wild trade rumors that usually appear in early December, they’re best described by paraphrasing a line from “MacBeth”: “They are tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.
i agree with lazys there, i notice philly seemed to be making deals around x-mas just about every single year. interesting. i miss some of those guys that were mentioned.
What gets lost in the mix with the "look at the lack of deals" storyline is at this point most teams don't NEED to deal because everyone is so close in the standings.
In the East, the last place Washington Capitals are six points (three wins) out of a playoff spot. Teams in the 9-14 spots are four points or less out of the playoffs.
In the West, the gap is a little bit more pronounced, with last place Los Angeles 13 points out of a post-season berth. But teams 9-12 are at worst 5 points out of a playoff spot, and all those teams have games at hand.
In short, as of late-December, 27 of the 30 NHL teams stand an excellent shot of making the playoffs with their current personnel. Only Los Angeles, Nashville (perhaps) and Washington (perhaps) arguably have to deal to keep pace with the pack.
Now, the vast majority of teams could use a bit of fine-tuning, but you're not going to see that happen until the number of sellers increases. And that won't occur until we get more of a spread in the standings.
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on December 20th at 11:22 AM.
What do you guys think Edmonton is going to do with their situation before seasons end? I don't expect us to reel in any superstars or first round draft picks with what we've got for trade, but I'm convinced that we're going to lose some guys before the trade deadline. These aren't all of the guys who'll be up for a new contract, but the guys who haven't preformed well.
It really does seem like the Flyers are shipping someone out every Christmas, eh? These deals are even less impressive in terms of results than the much more ballyhooed deadline trades.
In terms of Edmonton, I personally think Stoll and Tarnstrom are goners. Tarnstrom would likely be gone already if there was greater interest, since I figure quite a few teams always look to add offense from the blue. Stoll is more of a longshot due to not being a UFA, but the rumors have been hot and heavy around him for a while now and I think it's with good reason. That said, Lowe has no reason to deal him until his stats get better. As for Sanderson, sure, but there's no market whatsoever.
I honestly don't understand how Tarnstom got 2 million, but as his pay widdles away i'm sure interest for him will grow.
We took Sanderson in the trade with the Flyers because we had to, because they were tight for cash. Good thing he's on the last year of his contract.
Stoll was obviously affected big time by that concussion, because the stats say that he hasn't been the same player since.
Remember when Kevin Stevens did that face plant and busted his face up? Kinda like that. He was a great player before that, but after he came back from that he played horribly.
1) As we wrote on our blog 2 days ago, the X-mas trade freeze, and the associated media generated hype simply is that, just Hype to sell papers or generate traffic to Commercial rumor blogs.
2) There simply is too much parity, linked with the salary cap to see too may big deals right now
http://newfaux.blogspot.com/
Last edited by fauxrumors5 on December 21st at 6:14 AM.
Definatly. I'd love to see a big blockbuster trade, but really when I hear about the Richards/Marleau/Jagr/Lecavier/St.L ouis rumors, it just makes me laugh.
It's fun to mock rumor mongers, because they're almost NEVER correct. In fact I've never seen an internet based trade rumor come true.
That's totally true, and as Lyle often points out, what's really irritating/humorous is that the rumors don't even have to be in the slightest bit possible for some poor souls to take the ball and run with it. My personal favorite subcategory of those rumors is the "real estate" section, wherein a player is going to someplace either because he just sold his townhouse or was seen with an agent in the proposed area looking at houses. Are you kidding me? That's sort of like callers on sports talk radio who say they know the inside dirt because their brother's cousin's pizza delivery man works part time at the stadium and talked to the GM. In any case, Thadd, I agree that they pretty much never materialize, but they get people talking and sometimes they are good enough to even get us talking about them. It reminds me of the Beatles lyrics when people all had their own theory on what this, that, or the other meant, when in reality Paul McCartney and company were sitting there laughing at the absurdity. Sometimes that backwards whispering on Track seven really is just whispering.
Tarnstrom got $2 million because that's a reasonable price to pay for a veteran offensive defenseman. And remember, the Oilers signed him right at the start of free agency, prior to trading for Pitkanen and well before signing Souray. It was July 12 when the Oilers suddenly had three offensive blueliners under contract, and the trade rumours have run steady since then.
On the UFA front, they've got four players terming out: Reasoner, Rourke, Sanderson and Tarnstrom. No big ticket items in the lot. Rourke will likely be re-signed for inexpensive depth. The good soldier Reasoner might be retained (and should in my opinion), although there are kids vying for his roster spot. I don't think Tarnstrom or Sanderson are in the long-term plans.
The RFA front is really interesting with nine players in the mix: Gilbert, Grebeshkov, Jacques, Nilsson, Pitkanen, Pouliot, Stoll, Stortini and Thoresen. (I'm leaving out minor leaguers who haven't appeared on the roster like Drouin-Deslauriers.)
Gilbert, Pitkanen and Nilsson are the highest priorities, and keeping them in the fold will likely soak up much of the anticipated salary cap increase. Stortini and Thoresen should be cheap to retain and provide solid depth. Jacques and Pouliot are both playing themselves down the depth chart. I could see the Oilers flipping the rights to both players, although personally I'd stick with Pouliot.
*** continued ***
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on December 21st at 11:14 AM.
Which leaves us with Grebeshkov and Stoll. Denis is the second coming of Marc-Andre Bergeron (which is fitting since they were swapped for each other): flashings of brilliance combined with moments where you cringe. If he can be re-signed on the cheap, great. Otherwise, I'd ship him off and promote one of the kids in the pipeline.
Stoll. I'm conflicted. My heart says give the kid more rope to get healthy again. My head says he just might now be permanently damaged goods. I think it would be best for both sides to sign a one year deal for about $2 million. If Stoll rebounds, we can talk locking him up long-term. And if he doesn't...
Given the cap situation and the contract situation (the Oilers have already inked the maximum of 50 players), I don't see any major moves ahead either prior to the trade deadline or during the off-season. There will likely be a couple of smaller "tune-up" type transactions (essentially shuffling parts), but I don't get the impression that Kevin Lowe is preparing to go big game hunting.
One caveat: if Katz is successful in his bid to purchase the Oilers, there may be a desire on his part to make a splash to put his stamp on the club.
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on December 21st at 11:30 AM.
I was just running through the list of upcoming free agents to get an idea of who might be in play over the summer...
Did anybody here realize that the Rangers have just two defenseman under contract for next season? And that those two players are rookie Marc Staal and Thomas Pock, the latter of whom is on the farm (and in the doghouse, according to the press)?
There is likely going to be some major reconstruction on the Blueshirts blueline in the coming months...
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on December 21st at 8:39 PM.
Man I used to be a huge Slats fan, but he's done a horrible job of planning the Rangers roster out. They're best defeneseman has been sitting on the bench lately. And that's gotta suck, because that tells me that he's unlikely to re-sign with New York when his contract is up and he goes UFA.
Jagr's age is showing. I refuse to believe that it's just Chemistry that's that's stopping these guys from playing. Something isn't right with them. Shannahan isn't having the worst year out there for a guy his age, but his age is definatly showing this year.
Shannahan - Wouldn't resign him - 5.3mill this year
Henrik Lundqvist - 4.25, will probably sign for 6mill+.
Martin Straka - 3.3 mill. is he still worth this much?
Kasparaitis - gone to russia - 2.989mill
Marek Malik - 2.5 mill - they need him but aparently he's angry with the team right now. not a good thing.
Michal Rozsival - 2.1 mill - worth the 2.1 mill. They need him back and he'll probably demand 3.5+
Sean Avery - 1.9 mill. People saying he'll get 3.5mill elsewhere. I dont think he's worth it.
Al Montoya - 1.8mill - getting pricy for a backup goalie
The Rangers are going to have to look long and hard to pull any tricks come free agency this summer. I know that for sure. They've got a handfull of guys that they're gonna wana keep and they're gonna have to give some of them substancial raises. It'll be interesting to see what Henrik gets is 7 mill possible?
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
