Roster Freeze

Well , looks like I was dead wrong on the roster freeze, it looks like GMs would rather negotiate deals through the olympics. As a result, I think deadline day may be smaller in scale this season if deals are announced as soon as rosters are unfrozen. Even still, deadline day is mere 3 days after the Gold Medal game that is scheduled for Feb. 28, so teams may already have agreed to deals but wait til Mar. 3 to announce them. Here's all the deals that did happen last week before the freeze, and my analysis of the Kovalchuk deal:
- Chicago receives: Kim Johnnson and Nick Leddy, Minnesota receives: Cam Barker
- A swap of defenders, and the Blackhawks add a more veteran presence on the blue line than Barker, who's youth and energy should help a Minnesota squad struggling to stay afloat. In addition, Chicago gets Minnesota's 2009 first round pick in Leddy.

- Ottawa receives: Matt Cullen, Carolina receives: Alexandre Picard and 2nd round pick in 2010.
- Ottawa gets some baggage out and brings in Cullen, a forward who is certainly a veteran when it comes to the playoffs. Bryan Murray wants this team to advance past the first round, not simply qualify for the playoffs.

- Montreal receives: Dominic Moore, Florida receives: 2nd round pick in 2011.
- Moore is a solid forward who could add some depth to the Canadiens forwards.

- San Jose receives: 6th round pick in 2010, New York (R) receive: Jody Shelley
- Could be the Rangers are tired of getting bullied by the likes of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New Jersey within its own division.

- Thrashers receive: Johnny Oduya, Niclas Bergfors, Patrice Cormier, 1st round pick in 2010, Devils receive: Anssi Salmela, Ilya Kovalchuk.
- Sure, the Thrashers got a good group of prospects in this deal, but I don't think they got near what they thought they would get on the open market with Kovalchuk. Could be that this was the best deal the Thrashers got, and it that is the case, I don't see why Atlanta GM Don Waddell simply doesn't make more of an effort to re-sign Kovie. The Devils get a hell of a rental, and that's what he is in New Jersey, a rental. Expect him to sign elsewhere (Maybe even a mega deal in the KHL) come July 1.