R&R: Moving Day, Part II

I'm going to have to emphasize the point in my last post almost to the point of suggesting that the NHL may be unrecognizable in October. So many players switched teams yesterday. And that was nothing.

Today the big names came out in full force, pen in hand, to sign their lives (or at least a few years) away to brand new clubs.

• Brian Leetch left the Leafs (like Nieuwendyk and Roberts) to head back to Boston, where he went to college;


• Peter Forsberg left the Avalanche (like Foote) to head back to Philadelphia, where he was first drafted into the NHL;


• Miroslav Satan booked some time in Edmonton, leaving Buffalo;


• Bryan Berard signed with Columbus, leaving the Blackhawks behind;


• Mathieu Dandenault sped out of Motor City to play for the Habs;


• Sergei Gonchar is moving to Pittsburgh, ditching the Bruins;


• and the Oilers made some big trades which landed them Chris Pronger from St. Louis and Michael Peca from the Islanders;

In other, less-interesting news, Manny Fernandez of Minnesota, Markus Naslund of Vancouver, and Jarome Iginla of Calgary all re-signed with their respective teams.

The bad news is for Lightning fans. The Carolina Hurricanes signed Cory Stillman last night after I posted. The second-leading scorer and now he'll be playing for one of our prime rivals. We'll have to see that abandoning back-stabber eight times this season.

The only good news in losing Stillman is that we did get Vinny Prospal back from Anaheim last season. We initially picked up Stillman because of losing Prospal to the Mighty Ducks in the first place. Now that we have him back, I guess Jay didn't see much point in keeping both of them.

Stillman was one of our top power play performers, but I'm sure Prospal can more than fill his shoes. It's sad to see Stillman go, but at least he helped us to a Stanley Cup. Something he won't be doing again any time soon.

I'll still be keeping a close eye on the wires until (at the very least) Khabibulin and Lecavalier re-sign contracts here in Tampa. All this waiting around is killing me.


Sorry, I have no pictures for you today. Wait until the season begins, I'll be having more pictures than I know what to do with.