Now that the rosters have been unfrozen, some deals have been made. Expect a ton more as the trade deadline is on Wednesday. Here are the deals and analysis:
- Pittsburgh Penguins trade a 2nd round pick in the 2010 draft to the Florida Panthers for Defenseman Jordan Leopold.
- Edmonton Oilers trade Defenseman Denis Grebeshkov to the Nashville Predators for a 2nd round pick in the 2010 draft.
- Leopold has 7 goals and 11 assists in 61 games for the Panthers. He is also -7. Expect his numbers to drastically improve on a Pens roster with more than enough talent to complement Leopold's offensive skills. The Penguins are looking to improve their power play (currently 26th in the league at a pedestrian 16.5%), and the addition of Leopold may be a shot in the arm for this team.
- Nashville gets significantly deeper on the back end and don't give up that much to get Grebeshkov, who currently has 6 goals and 13 assists in 47 games this season for the Oilers. The Oilers will be big sellers at the deadline, and they have some talent that a team on the playoff bubble could make an offer for players like Dustin Penner, Sam Gagner, Ales Hemsky, or Sheldon Souray. Grebeshkov is a -16, but attribute much of that to how awful the Oilers are defensively. There are only 5 Oiler starters with a +/- rating above 0 (Hemsky +7, Smid +5, Stone +2, Stortini +2, Penner +2). Nashville's Power Play is around 16.7% for the season, so like Pittsburgh, Nashville wants this to be a shot in the arm for a unit with more than enough talent to get the job done with the extra man. With only 165 goals on the season, expect Nashville to continue to shop around for offensive talent, and if this trade is any indication, they will trade assets if they feel the Predators are a better team as a result of whatever deal is made.
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