Morrison Goes to the Windy City

			2011/2012 Stats				2012	July 1st Details
To Chicago	Pos	Age	GP	G	A	P	Cap Hit	Years	Cap Hit
Brendan Morrison	F	36	28	4	7	11	$1.25m	0	UFA
-----------------------
To Calgary	Pos	Age	GP	G	A	P	Cap Hit	Years	Cap Hit
Brian Connelly	D	25	0	0	0	0	$525k	0	RFA

The All-Star weekend has seen its fair share of scuttlebutt and the regular season hiatus is a melting pot of great rumours and other nonsense, but when a trade goes down, you really tend to take notice that the nonsense may not be as such.

On Friday evening, the Calgary Flames sent veteran centre Brendan Morrison to the Blackhawks for undrafted minor-league defenseman Brian Connelly, likely opening more cans of worms than closing down rumours out of the spectacle of a weekend.

In Morrison, the Blackhawks get some depth down the middle, which could be a genuine concern with an upper-body injury to Jonathan Toews, but that's in a worst-case scenario. Morrison is a versatile centre that has some value, if used in the top pivot role for short periods of time and also has bottom six merit, which could be a serious aid to a player like Dave Bolland.  Scoring-wise, he isn't bringing the offense like some may have hoped, but he should still be a reliable source of minutes

In Connelly, the Flames to acquire a little extra depth on the blueline, more as insurance against more injuries down the line, which they have not been very fortunate with this year.  Connelly has plenty of positive numbers in the AHL, but there has been nothing to really suggest that he is a fit for the NHL.  The Flames do have a knack for using depth players in big minute situations, so who knows with Connelly.

The Flames are doing some saving, while the Blackhawks are adding some to their depth and it does look like this is a move that will benefit both teams. The Flames are looking to do something big, while the Blackhawks are just trying to improve upon a formula that has some real potential at the moment.  The Flames are dealing with some long-term injuries, which will make some interesting things comes about when bodies get healthy, while the Blackhawks are okay on the cap side of things this season.

Well, Morrison is only a Box 4 pool player at the moment, getting very little interest out of the draft pool and possibly justifiably so. Morrison's point production hasn't been great and depending on how long Toews is out of the Blackhawks line-up, he could easily find himself in a lesser role in Chicago before too long, so his end-of-season value could be a bit jaded.  Does this make him into a good option for the draft, with the waiver draft upon us?  Unlikely.

2012 Fantasy Draft Results

What team are you going to be cheering for at the All-Star Game? Well, if you're going to be watching at all, I have how the draft broke down for the game itself, so if you want to know where your drafted player landed, this is the place to do it.

The two captains, Daniel Alfredsson and Zdeno Chara, along with their assistant captains, Henrik Lundqvist and Joffrey Lupul, respectively, chose their teams on Thursday night, ahead of the weekend's festivities.

Now, of course, the rookies that are participating won't actually be playing in the All-Star Game itself, but it is nice when they get recognized, so they are recognized here as well.

******					******
Player	NHL	Pool	Points		Player	NHL	Pool	Points
Daniel Alfredsson	OTT	Clayton			Zdeno Chara	BOS	Stuart
Henrik Lundqvist	NYR	Stuart			Joffrey Lupul	TOR	Darren
Erik Karlsson	OTT	Clayton			Pavel Datsyuk	DET	Dale B.
Jason Spezza	OTT	John P.			Tim Thomas	BOS	Wes
Jonathan Quick	LOS	Brenda			Evgeni Malkin	PIT	Dale C.
Claude Giroux	PHI	Clayton			Marian Hossa	CHI	Stacey
Kristopher Letang	PIT	Scott			Kimmo Timonen	PHI	Stuart
Steven Stamkos	TAM	Wayne			Corey Perry	ANA	Derek
Brian Elliott	STL	Dale B.			Carey Price	MTL	John P.
Shea Weber	NAS	Ryan			Phil Kessel	TOR	Wayne
Daniel Sedin	VAN	Niesa			Ryan Suter	NAS	Jani
Dan Girardi	NYR	Brenda			Jimmy Howard	DET	Stacey
Keith Yandle	PHO	Derek			Brian Campbell	FLA	Kristy & Don
Milan Michalek	OTT	Peter			Patrick Kane	CHI	John P.
Henrik Sedin	VAN	Chris			Dion Phaneuf	TOR	Stacey
James Neal	PIT	Kristy & Don			Jarome Iginla	CAL	Peter
Alex Edler	VAN	Stuart			Dennis Wideman	WAS	Munden
John Tavares	NYI	Allan			Marian Gaborik	NYR	Wes
Scott Hartnell	PHI	Scott			Jordan Eberle	EDM	Stacey
Jason Pominville	BUF	Allan			Tyler Seguin	BOS	Allan
Logan Couture	SAN	Dale C.			Jamie Benn	DAL	John P.
Craig Smith	NAS	Derek			Gabriel Landeskog	COL	Stuart
Matt Read	PHI	Scott			Luke Adam	BUF	Stuart

Pavel Datsyuk had the honour of being the first player chosen in the draft, not a bad thing, considering he belongs to the top team in the draft and then Erik Karlsson was the second pick, belonging to the second team in the draft standings.  Kind of fitting, no?

The teams look pretty good on either side, so now it is time to choose your side... some may be easier than others, some not at all.

Horton Out With Mild Concussion

As some people may suggest, there may not be such thing as a 'mild concussion,' but that's what the Boston Bruins are calling Nathan Horton's head injury. The news came down on Wednesday that the jolt that Horton took from Flyers forward Tom Sestito, a blindside hit to the head, which wasn't reviewed by the league (surprisingly), was confirmed to be a concussion, a day after there were rumblings that the team had their suspicions.

The league protocol will keep Horton out of the line-up for upwards of a week, which works well in conjunction with the All-Star break, which is about a week long, so Horton won't have to miss time during the first week of the protocol.  Whether or not he misses any more time after that, the team and player will have to play by ear.

There's no question that Horton has been quite good for the Bruins this season, scoring 17 goals and 15 assists (for 32 points) in 46 games for the team, going into the All-Star break ranked 109th in pool scoring (unofficially, before the Week Seventeen stat audit).  Horton has been an excellent fit in the Bruins organization over the last couple of seasons and when he comes back from this injury, the team will be far stronger and a little bit more rested to take on another one of those playoff runs.

I think with the concussion labelled as being a mild one, should keep Horton on Jani K.'s draft pool roster, as we're about to start up the second waiver draft here soon.  Jani should still be considering his team as being in the mix for some of the money prizes this season, as his team is only 26 points behind 5th and should have a better pick possibility than the teams in front of him.  The climb will be difficult, but as long as his team is healthy and his goalies are starting, he has a shot.

Draft Player News (Jan. 26)

Nicklas Lidstrom was feeling a bit under the weather on Wednesday night, so he did not dress for the Red Wings, as they took on the Canadiens in the last regular season game before the All-Star break. Lidstrom ended an ironman streak of 213 games in the regular season to take the night off and feel better for the weekend and boy, did the Red Wings ever miss him. The team dropped a 7-2 decision in Montreal, not quite what anyone wants to do before a week-long vacation.

I'm sure Niesa S. was disappointed that Lidstrom didn't play on Wednesday, he was her team's only skater game for the last night of the All-Star shortened week and her team is in a tie for 5th place, losing the first tie-break, which is goals for.  She would have needed at least a point to have the outright position in the last money spot.  Nevertheless, she could expect the veteran defender back in the line-up next week, healthy and ready to go.

Sheet Player News (Jan. 26)

Another one of the players sent down to the minors, because a) they don't have to clear waivers to get there, b) it is salary cap effective through this week off if they go and c) they could still use a little bit more development in their game (ie. practice)... Magnus Paajarvi of the Oilers, the Box 7 forward for the team on the selection sheet this year, he was demoted on Wednesday to get some extra action down in the AHL, while the Oilers are on their break for a week. I'm sure injuries with the team will dictate whether or not he gets called up again, but they'll cross that bridge when they get there.

On Thursday morning, the New Jersey Devils announced that they sent down Box 24 forward Jacob Josefson and non-pool defenseman Matt Taormina to Albany of the AHL, just for the same reasons as above. No real surprise here and I would expect both players to get the recall notice when the All-Star weekend concludes.  With only 1 point in nine games, Josefson isn't a good bet for any fantasy hockey this season, but he does have an upside to him, so do keep an eye on him.

Liles Earns an Extension in Toronto

Despite suffering a concussion in December, the impact that John-Michael Liles has had on the Toronto Maple Leafs is arguably fairly significant and the team's management has recognized that by giving the defender a new contract extension. On Wednesday, the Leafs announced that they had signed Liles to a new 4-year deal, reportedly worth $15.5 million, which works out to be a $3.875 million cap hit for each of the four seasons. 

The 31-year old defenseman was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, but with this deal, he has now been taken off the potential market, shrinking the free agent frenzy by one key player.

Liles was acquired from the Avalanche around the Entry Draft in June and the move has paid off in a sense.  In 34 games played this season, Liles has 4 goals and 17 assists (for 21 points), which is a good scoring rate for a defenseman and he has also provided some stability on the Leafs blueline, when he has been healthy.  Unfortunately, he has been out since the end of December with a concussion and there hasn't been many updates about when he will be able to return to action.

The Leafs are a big-spending team and they have no problem hiding that fact.  With Liles now signed on, they currently have 18 regular players (11 forwards, six defensemen and a goalie) signed on for the 2012 season at an annual cap projection of $52.9 million.  This includes Liles' new deal and cap hit for the coming year.

Cap projections for the 2013 season are way too far away to gauge, but even if you compared their projected cap number to this year's ceiling of $64.3, the Leafs still have $11.4 million to sign on four or five roster players, which is plenty of room, given the fact they have a number of high-priced players to fill the core.  This should give them plenty of room for the depth they will wish for next year.

Draft Player News (Jan. 25)

It has started a bit later this year, compared to years past, but the flu bug seems to be getting around the league a little bit more these days.  On Tuesday night, Avalanche forward Ryan O'Reilly fell victim to the flu bug, giving him an early start to the All-Star break.  The Avs themselves fell victim to not having one of their better players in the line-up for the game, losing to the Minnesota Wild, 3-2.  I would imagine the week off will be good enough for O'Reilly to return to the line-up in tip-top shape.

O'Reilly belongs to Peter H. in the draft this year, who picked him in the first waiver draft, seven weeks ago.  In 23 games since the draft, O'Reilly has collected 8 goals and 7 assists in that time, not exactly blowing the doors off, but not doing too badly.  Peter goes into the break in 19th, with a 3-point lead and a game in hand over 20th place.

A touch of the flu kept Rangers back-up goalie Martin Biron from doing what he does best... back-up Henrik Lundqvist. The Rangers called up goalie Chad Johnson to take Biron's spot on the bench for their last game before the All-Star break and sat on the bench he did.  This did not sound like a scheduled start for Biron, so there was no actual loss of minutes for his season, but he did lose the possibility of going in for their number one, if he got shelled by the Jets.  Instead, Johnson sat and watched Lundqvist shut out Winnipeg, giving the Rangers quite the high into the break.

As I said above, there was no loss of minutes for Biron, so this really had no effect on Benson G.'s team.  Benson's team will go into the last evening's worth of action before the break in 8th place, with one skater game left and little chance of making the Mover and Shaker or Basement Dweller.

An unfortunate situation for Brent Burns and the San Jose Sharks, as the defender got caught in an ugly knee-on-knee collision with Oilers forward Ales Hemsky on Monday night, which resulted in Hemsky getting the boot from the game and Burns suffering an injury.  The word out of the Sharks camp is that the injury has been limited to be being only a charleyhorse, but it was scary there for a moment, thinking it could have been much worse.  I would expect Burns to be close to returning when they resume play after the break.

With that being said, Burns did miss Tuesday night's game in Calgary, but he is considered day-to-day, which comes as a pretty big relief to Leon G., who has him in the pool.  Leon doesn't need another player that could be an automatic drop in the next waiver draft, which is coming up pretty soon.  Leon goes into the break in 15th spot, which appears to be locked in.

Sheet Player News (Jan. 25)

A sore foot from blocking a slapshot was enough to keep Flames Box 9 forward Lance Bouma out of the line-up for their last game before the All-Star break against the Sharks. With Alex Tanguay and Brendan Morrison back in the line-up, the team didn't have to use any call-ups or anything to help out with the loss of a body in the line-up.  There was no word as to whether or not the youngster suffered anything more than a bruise on his foot, but the days off for the All-Star break will definitely give his foot time to lose some of the swelling.

The Carolina Hurricanes were already on their All-Star break, beginning on Tuesday, so they decided to make sure that Box 25 forward Zac Dalpe had some playing time during the break, so they assigned him to the AHL for exactly that reason. Teams will send down some of their players that don't have to clear waivers to play in the AHL, making sure their development continues over the next week.  The likelihood is that Dalpe will be called back up to the team when the break ends.

Things have not improved over the course of this season for projected Columbus Blue Jackets back-up goalie, Mark Dekanich, who has been dealing with an awful ankle injury all year long. Dekanich was hurt for the long-term in training camp, finally found a way back on skates, but was hurt in the minors, suffering a setback earlier in the year. Well, it appears that another setback has been had and the Box 16 goalie will not likely play in the league this year, which is a shame, because this was supposed to be a breakout year for him.

Quite possibly, the same path is being given to Sean Bergenheim, that the Panthers gave to Scottie Upshall on his return to the roster from injury and that was just a slow start, lessening the risk of further injury due to rushing back into the line-up.  Bergenheim was a healthy scratch (or so it appears) for the Cats on Tuesday night, as the team hosted the Flyers before the break, giving the Box 23 forward an extra night off before the break.  With almost a week off, I would imagine that both Bergenheim and Upshall will be able to go full throttle when the schedule resumes.

Another young player has been sent down to the minors on Wednesday morning and this doesn't come as a surprise at all. Box 25 forward Eric Tangradi was a healthy scratch on Tuesday night for the Penguins game against the Blues in St. Louis.  Tangradi has been an injury replacement player all year long for the team, which has actually afforded the young centre a fair bit of ice-time this year, given the state of the team's health and all.  An assessment of the team's overall health after the break will likely determine the likelihood of Tangradi's recall.

Getting a jump on development during the break was the St. Louis Blues, who acknowledged early on that Ian Cole likely wouldn't dress for the the team against the Penguins, so they sent him back down to the AHL, likely to get some ice-time there.  Cole has been up with the team for the bulk of the season, but he has been a healthy scratch more often than not this year, but obviously the team sees some value in him being the seventh or eighth defenseman on the roster.

An upper-body injury was enough to keep Jets forward Alex Burmistrov from the line-up on Tuesday night in New York.  As the report goes, Burmistrov suffered the injury on Monday in Carolina, having to leave the game against the Hurricanes and they were not able to return.  There has been no specific report as to what the injury actually is or if there is a timetable for his return, so we'll just call him out day-to-day for the time being, hoping for the best.

Kulikov Has Knee Surgery

The Florida Panthers announced on Tuesday that defenseman Dimitri Kulikov underwent knee surgery on Monday, which is reportedly expected to keep him out of the line-up for 6-to-8 weeks.

The Panthers currently sit atop of the Southeast Division, holding a slim lead at that, but if they are going to be in the playoffs, they would be much better suited to have Kulikov running at 100% when they get to the playoffs, then running at much less than that to try and get into the playoffs, risking further injury.

The eight weeks on the shelf has Kulikov scheduled to return around the middle of March, giving the defender a few weeks to work on his game speed, just before the playoffs.

Kulikov has been enjoying a pretty good season with the Panthers in the 2012 season, scoring 4 goals and 20 assists in 46 games, scoring just above half a point-per-game this year.  He goes out of the line-up ranked 196th in overall pool scoring, 21st among all defensemen.  Unfortunately for him, that will be the highest rank he'll achieve this season, with the extended absence he will have with the injury.

This likely means that Peter H. will be dropping Kulikov at the second waiver draft, which could start just as early as Thursday morning.  Peter will have a pretty high pick in this second draft, since his team currently sits in 19th place, currently in a tie for the spot, but has more games to be played between Tuesday and Wednesday than his opponent, so he could be picking 4th before it is all said and done.

Getting a high pick like this will actually do more to hinder the teams that are fighting for the money than help himself, but that should be just fine by him.

Toews Hits the IR

The Chicago Blackhawks didn't expect to have Jonathan Toews for their line-up on Tuesday night, so with the All-Star break looming, they were able to put their captain on the Injured Reserve, likely retroactive to the weekend.  With a retroactive placement, Toews will get the benefit of being eligible to return to the active roster before they take to the ice again, a week from Tuesday, in Vancouver.

Toews is currently battling an upper-body injury, believed to be an arm or a wrist injury, and it will actually keep him out of the NHL All-Star Game, where he'll be replaced by Flyers forward Scott Hartnell.

Toews has been more than worthy of his All-Star selection this year, as he ranks 13th in overall pool scoring this season with 27 goals and 23 assists in 49 games played with the Blackhawks.  His 27 goals are 2nd in the league to Steven Stamkos, who has 32.

The Blackhawks are one of the league leaders in the standings and the leadership qualities of Toews is certainly one of the biggest reasons why they are so high, so if the injury needs a little bit more rest than just the week of the All-Star break, this could be a pretty significant hit to the Blackhawks going forward.  There is no indication that the injury is that bad, I'm just saying as a general statement.

As far as we can see here, this shouldn't have a big impact on Dale B.'s team, which is sitting with a 10-point lead going into a busy Tuesday night's worth of action. Dale is already without Dustin Byfuglien and Curtis Glencross, but will be getting Christian Ehrhoff back to the Sabres line-up.  His lead should be safe through tonight's action and it will likely be re-evaluated on Monday, when we may get more injury news from his players.