Trade Update – No Big Surprises

Well, the Zenon rumour turned out to be a red herring…now I know why I tend to ignore Twitter!

Intake:

Francois Beauchemin (from Toronto, former Duck!)

Jarkko Ruutu (from Ottawa)

Brad Winchester (from St. Louis)

Joel Perrault (from Vancouver)

No. 7 pick in 2011 (conditional)

No. 5 pick in 2011

No. 7 pick in 2011

No. 3 pick in 2012

Wave Bye Bye:

Joffrey Lupul (to Toronto)

Paul Mara (to Montreal)

Aaron Voros (to Toronto)

Jake Gardiner (to Toronto)

Maxim Lapierre (to Vancouver)

MacGregor Sharp (to Vancouver)

No. 6 pick in 2011

No. 3 pick in 2012

No. 4 pick in 2013 (conditional)

From NHL.com: “Ducks added a veteran defenseman (one they know well) while offloading a big contract. Basically swapped one feisty player for two at the cost of a No. 6 pick. Loss of quality D prospect palatable because of Fowler, Sbisa development.”

Beauchy is a known element and he’s fit back in nicely – just like he never left.

Ruutu acclimated almost immediately – yet another example of the Ducks making the right call on acquiring a seasoned guy.

Winchester (yes, like the rifle) is a big winger (6’5”) we’ve been after since last year, but for some strange reason he wanted to stay with the Boobs. Guess we’ll have to wine and dine him and tempt him with bikini-clad hotties to convince him to stay.

I don’t really understand why we picked up squirt center Perrault. Maybe the temptation of getting rid of super-chirpy Maxim Lapee was too much to resist.

However, we are still faced with the problem of lacking top-flight goaltending. Everyone seems to be pinning their hopes on Hiller returning soon. What if he can’t? What if his condition is some sort of permanent brain trauma? Then what? Pray that Timo and/or J.P. over at the Crunch suddenly surge? I don’t like bagging on my boys, but we really need a phenom between the pipes.

NOW.