Faceoff Factor

Trade Talk Starts to Heat Up

Michael Farkas | National Hockey League

Nov 8, 02:08 AM | Hype this story!

As we steadily approach Thanksgiving in the States, teams from around the league are “kicking tires” and evaluating holes in their respective lineups. Here’s the latest news and rumors from around the NHL.

Forsberg Forced to Retire?

Oft-injured, free agent forward Peter Forsberg signed on with Team Sweden for the upcoming Karjala Cup as a potential warm-up for NHL competition.

Forsberg started skating with the team at practice but had to leave the ice after about an hour, with his head down in all-too-familiar scene.

“It’s extremely tough and I know that everyone can understand how I feel,” Forsberg said. “It doesn’t feel good, I always try to stay positive, but today is a very dark day.”

Forsberg has been rumored to be going to a different team seemingly every week. Colorado, Detroit, Philadelphia, Ottawa, Modo (of Swedish Elite League) and the list goes on.

“I’m not going to play if it’s not working. I might as well retire.” Forsberg went on, “I’m not going to retire today…I don’t want it to be any major procedures, if it’s a small thing they can fix, I’ll be okay, if not I think I’ll let it be. It’s looking pretty dark.”

“I’ve never been so close to the end of my career.”

New Homes for Hossa

The Edmonton Journal is already searching out potential destinations for soon-to-be unrestricted free agent Marian Hossa. Assuming that the Thrashers do not re-sign Hossa, the Journal suggests Pittsburgh, Boston, Carolina, Detroit, Minnesota, San Jose and Colorado would be a good home for the goal-scoring winger.

Hossa will almost certainly not be traded before the approach of the deadline when Atlanta is officially out of the running and his value in a trade is also not known. Considering the Thrashers were willing to give top prospect (and top ten pick) defenseman Braydon Coburn away for Alexei Zhitnik…the same Alexei Zhitnik that was dealt just a couple months earlier for waiver wire defenseman Freddy Meyer and a conditional pick. Using Alex Bourret to get Pascal Dupuis and seemingly every draft pick this decade to get Keith Tkachuk is just a very confusing scale on which GM Don Waddell works.

The Journal mentions roughly a quarter of all NHL teams, hardly narrowing down anything, nor should it be narrowed at this juncture. But let’s take a quick look at the teams anyhow. Pittsburgh would be a good home, but Ray Shero is not expected to mortgage the future now to make a dramatic move. Boston is pressed for cap space, unless Glen Murray, Peter Schaefer and P.J. Axelsson (or any combination thereof) are moved, it seems like Boston would be out of the running. Carolina could certainly have the cap space, but they probably can’t make the best offer in terms of young talent. Detroit always ends up acquiring players like this at the deadline, once again they can make room for him and can offer up some fair young talent for him. Minnesota has enough young talent that they can spare a nearly-NHL-ready prospect if it brought back Hossa, but they tend to shy away from blockbuster trades of this sort. San Jose and Colorado both have their hands full in some respects with the cap but they have plenty of young talent if they willing to make the room. Of course a lot could change over the next three months.

Loose Pucks:

The Buffalo Sabres are in contract talks with Brian Campbell and Dmitri Kalinin. Reportedly, Campbell is seeking about five-years, $25 million, while the Sabres are looking to get him under contract at five-years, $20 million.

The Bruins may consider waiving Glen Murray and his $4.15 million per year contract if they cannot trade him or if he doesn’t turn around his lackluster play.

Conflicting reports state that Senators defenseman Wade Redden may be willing to take a hometown discount to stay with the Senators. Redden will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.

Eric Lindros is expected to officially announce his retirement, this of course was a foregone conclusion a while ago.

Devils defenseman Richard Matvichuk was unsuccessfully dealt away from the team, instead GM Lou Lamoriello decided to waive Matvichuk. He went unclaimed, but there’s a possibility a desperate team such as injury-riddled Vancouver would pluck him off re-entry waivers. Meanwhile, Matvichuk has accepted his demotion and will report to Lowell (AHL).

Tony Salmelainen has decided to leave the Maple Leafs and sign with Yaroslavl Lokomotiv (RSL). Travis Green (EV Zug – Swiss) and Anson Carter (HC Lugano – Swiss) have also found work in Europe.

Wild center Wes Walz has left the team and is reportedly contemplating retirement. There has been no comment from the Wild at this time. Walz’s agent is requesting that his client have more time on his leave of absence.

HC Lugano (Nationalliga-A [Switzerland]) has reportedly made a contract offer to Coyotes goalie David Aebischer who was waived and demoted to San Antonio (AHL). He has apparently asked for time to consider the offer.

Reportedly, Capitals forward Jakub Klepis is unhappy playing for Hershey (AHL) and wants to be traded or may consider going back to Europe to continue his career.

The Blackhawks may be shopping Nikolai Khabibulin, Sergei Samsonov, Yanic Perreault and Rene Bourque. The Hawks are looking for a left-handed, puck-moving point man for the power play.

Kevin Lowe is finding it difficult to make trades. His untouchables include Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano, Tom Gilbert and their first round pick (from Anaheim) in 2008. The rest of the team is either injured or no one wants them.