The South Carolina Fire Ants won the draft lottery today, moving from 3rd to 1st. Will the Ants take Connor McDavid or go off the board? We’ll find out in a few months.
The San Jose Hosers held at 2nd while the Portland Winterhawks, who had the league’s worst record (14-56-12) fell to 3rd overall. Still, in what’s shaping up to be one of the best talent pools to date, the ‘Hawks are all but guaranteed a fine player.
The Delta Sturgeon (18-18-4) may only be three points out of a playoff spot, but that didn’t stop them from shipping out one of its top wingers — to division rival Nashville, no less.
The white-hot Knights (30-4-6) add Ladd, who has 29 points in 40 games, to a forward corps that already boasts three of the season’s top scorers, including Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, and Daniel Sedin.
The trade was made during the first half of play but only finalized at the just-opened midseason trade window.
It was one of the deepest drafts in recent memory, and the Delta Sturgeon took full advantage at the 2014 Rookie Draft. With the first overall pick, the Sturgeon chose phenom Nathan MacKinnon, then followed it with Nikita Kucherov at 10th, John Gibson at 21st, and Cody Ceci at 30th.
By contrast, it was a quiet day for trades, with most teams opting to hold on to their picks. The only move was a late round swap between Salem and Vancouver.
The Ice Harbor Storm chose Jonathan Huberdeau to kick off the 2013 Rookie Draft. From there, it was a day of few surprises. Perhaps most notably, the Pittsburgh Hornets cashed in on the deadline deal that sent Brad Richards and Sergei Gonchar to South Carolina – on top of Travis Hamonic, they drafted Justin Schultz and Mark Psysyk with the Fire Ants’ former picks, alongside Alex Galchenyuk (2nd overall), Beau Bennett, and Petr Mrazek.
The day’s trades included:
– Charleston sending veteran defensemen Derek Morris and Marek Zidlicky to Boston for Michael Rozsival and the Banshee’s 3rd (Alexander Urbom) and 4th (Jordan Schroeder) picks
– New England then picking up Morris from Boston for Tim Gleason
– New England shipping out Mason Raymond and Tomas Tatar to Baltimore for Michael Grabner
– Salem trading Luca Sbisa and its 3rd (Tye McGinn) to Boston for Carl Gunnarsson
– El Dorado moving two 4ths for Great Lakes’ 3rd in 2014
– Vancouver swapping its 4th for New England’s 4th in 2014
Round 1
1. Ice Harbor – Jonathan Huberdeau
2. Pittsburgh – Alex Galchenyuk
3. Delta – Brendan Gallagher
4. Baltimore – Vladimir Tarasenko
5. Winnipeg – Nail Yakupov
6. West Virginia – Dougie Hamilton
7. Sterling – Jonas Brodin
8. Farmington – Tyler Toffoli
9. Pittsburgh (from South Carolina) – Justin Schultz
10. San Francisco – Jakob Silfverberg
11. El Dorado – Mikael Granlund
12. Portland – Brendan Dillon
13. Great Lakes – Danny DeKeyser
14. Denver – Emerson Etem
15. Charleston – Filip Forsberg
16. Boston – Alex Chiasson
17. Baltimore (from Nashville) – Charlie Coyle
18. New England – Chris Kreider
19. Vancouver – Ryan Murphy
20. Salem – Torey Krug
Round 2
21. Vancouver (from Ice Harbor) – Nick Bjugstad
22. Delta – Cory Conacher
23. Baltimore – Alex Killorn
24. Pittsburgh – Beau Bennett
25. Winnipeg – Jake Allen
26. West Virginia – Mikhail Grigorenko
27. Sterling – Jake Muzzin
28. Farmington – J.T. Miller
29. Pittsburgh (from South Carolina) – Mark Psysyk
30. San Francisco – Thomas Hickey
31. El Dorado – Nathan Beaulieu
32. Portland – Ondrej Palat
33. Nashville (from Great Lakes) – Max Reinhart
34. Baltimore (from Denver) – Tyler Johnson
35. Charleston – Taylor Beck
36. Delta (from Boston) – Drew Shore
37. Baltimore (from Nashville) – Jarred Tinordi
38. New England – Jamie Oleksiak
39. Vancouver – Andrej Sustr
40. Salem – Eric Gelinas
Round 3
41. Boston (from Ice Harbor via New England) – Richard Panik
42. Delta – Matt Irwin
43. Baltimore – Sami Vatanen
44. Pittsburgh – Petr Mrazek
45. Winnipeg – Austin Watson
46. West Virginia – Mark Arcobello
47. Sterling – Richard Rakell
48. Farmington – Dmitrij Jaskin
49. Boston (from South Carolina) – Nicklas Jensen
50. San Francisco – Antoine Roussel
51. El Dorado – Quinton Howden
52. Portland – Radko Gudas
53. El Dorado (from Great Lakes via Ice Harbor) – Stefan Matteau
54. Denver – Brian Flynn
55. Charleston – Ryan Stanton
56. Charleston (from Boston) – Alexander Urbom
57. Charleston (from Nashville) – Scott Laughton
58. Vancouver (from New England) – Frank Corrado
59. Vancouver – Jean-Gabriel Pageau
60. Boston (from Salem) – Tye McGinn
Round 4
61. Vancouver (from Ice Harbor) – Mark Stone
62. Delta – Michael Sgarbossa
63. Denver (from Baltimore) – Riley Nash
64. Vancouver (from Pittsburgh) – Alex Petrovic
65. Winnipeg – Zach Redmond
66. West Virginia – Bobby Sanguinetti
67. Sterling – Colby Robak
68. Farmington – Chris Brown
69. South Carolina – Tomas Kundratek
70. San Francisco – Jordie Benn
71. Great Lakes (from El Dorado) – Ryan Spooner
72. Portland – Brandon Bollig
73. Great Lakes – Matt Tennyson
74. Great Lakes (from Denver via El Dorado) – Darcy Kuemper
75. Charleston – Alex Stalock
76. Charleston (from Boston) – Jordan Schroeder
77. Nashville – Oliver Lauridsen
78. New England – Mark Barbiero
79. New England (from Vancouver) – Johan Larsson
80. Salem – Eric Gryba
With the 2012-2013 season in the books, teams made their off-season cuts today – and while the list features the usual assortment of fourth-liners and bottom-pairing defensemen, two cuts – Jaroslav Halak and Anders Lindback – are likely to be snapped up by goalie-starved team once free agency opens.
In other news, Saint Louis and Baltimore swapped young wingers, with Nino Niederreiter heading to the Blues in exchange for Jaden Schwartz.
2013 Cuts
Ice Harbor – Maxim Lapierre
South Carolina – Jason Blake, Mike Komisarek, Louis Leblanc
Portland – Brett Connolly
Sterling – Yannick Weber
Denver – Cory Sarich, Anders Lindback
Baltimore – Jaroslav Halak
San Francisco – Cory Emmerton, Raphael Diaz, Bobby Butler, Alec Martinez, Ryan Shannon
Saint Louis – Ian White, Patrick Dwyer, Jacob Josefson
Winnipeg – Chris Tanev
Great Lakes – Tim Brent, Tom Wandell, Darren Helm, Anton Lander, Matt D’Agostini, Jack Skille
Vancouver – Mathieu Garon
It finally happened.
Just one hour before the trade deadline, the Nashville Knights finally found a taker for Sergei Bobrovsky. With a logjam in goal and the specter of losing Bobrovsky’s rights at the end of the season, Nashville pulled off an eleventh-hour blockbuster, sending the netminder along with their first round pick in 2013 to the Baltimore Crab for winger Daniel Sedin and defenseman Mark Streit.
It’s a clear commitment for a total rebuild for the Crab, who also shed Alex Burrows two weeks ago. For the Knights – already laden with high-end offense – it’s a major push for a playoff spot, with division leader Vancouver falling off its first quarter pace.
After more than 11 seasons, veteran winger Daniel Alfredsson is on his way out of the Boston Banshees franchise. The team’s second all-time leading scorer has been traded to the Saint Louis Blues, who continue to load up on experienced talent, in exchange for winger Matt Frattin and Ice Harbor’s 3rd round pick in 2013. It marks the fourth major deal of the season for the Blues and the second move this week for the Banshees.
It isn’t the type of head-turning deal we’ve seen leading up to the trade deadline, but there really are no small moves. Today, the South Carolina Fire Ants acquired the services of defenseman Matt Greene from the Boston Banshees for a third round pick in 2013.
The Banshees have made it known they aren’t giving up – if the playoffs started today, they’d be in – but fine-tuning. In Greene (who was once cut from the Fire Ants, and has 9 assists in 40 games this year) the Ants add another veteran as they try for the post-season. Notably, they’ve now dealt their top three picks in this year’s rookie draft.
The Ice Harbor Storm kicked off the mid-season free agent claim period by reacquiring winger Eric Fehr, who the team had cut prior to the start of the season. And from there, the theme was ‘depth’. Both Pittsburgh and Delta rejigged their bluelines, with the Hornets signing Michael Stone and Chris Butler and the Sturgeon picking up Justin Falk, Joe Corvo, and Clayton Stoner.
Full results after the jump:
Not to be left out of the white-hot trade market, the South Carolina Fire Ants have made a move, picking up veterans Brad Richards and Sergei Gonchar from the Pittsburgh Hornets. That experienced scoring came at a price, as the Ants surrender their first and second round picks in 2013, along with young blueliner Travis Hamonic.
But South Carolina badly needed a player like Richards, who likely slots into the first line, in the absence of Travis Zajac. The Hornets, meanwhile, continue amassing a young defense corps also highlighted by Victor Hedman, Dmitry Kulikov, and Slava Voynov.
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