In Edmonton, one of the key spots they were likely going to look to improve on was in defense and a deal with the Kings has seemingly done that. The Oilers acquired
Lubomir Visnovsky from Los Angeles for forward
Jarret Stoll and defenseman
Matt Greene.
Visnovsky, 31, signed a huge extension last summer, which will kick in this season, becoming a salary cap hit of $5.6 million a year for the next five seasons. His 41 points (8G, 33A) in all 82 games can atest to those numbers, which makes him a pretty good pick-up for the Oilers.
In return, the Kings receive Stoll, 26, a restricted free agent who wasn't coming to terms with the Oilers and Greene, 25, a good defenseman with still some upside to produce. The Kings did manage to get younger and shade a little money back into the cap space, as they will likely try and be a big player on the market, starting tomorrow.
| To Edmonton | Age | Games | Points | Contract on July 1st |
| Lubomir Visnovsky, D | 31 | 82 | 41 | 5 years, $5.6 million |
| --- | | | | |
| To Los Angeles | | | | |
| Jarret Stoll, F | 26 | 81 | 36 | RFA |
| Matt Greene, D | 25 | 46 | 1 | 1 year, $1.25 million |
Well, this is a deal that Oilers fans can certainly be excited about. After failures with
Joni Pitkanen and
Marc-Andre Bergeron, the team now has a bonafide puck-moving defenseman to spark theif offense from their own end and on the power play. Stock will rise for all the young forwards on the team that have full-time power play ice and quite possibly an extra few wins for the goaltending department, because of it. As for the Kings, Stoll could be a centre worth raving about, as his numbers suggest he'll come in fairly high on the depth chart. If there would be a summer wager put forth, I would see it likely that he and
Dustin Brown may have some good chemistry, which would certainly boost Stoll's numbers from last season. That would be something to watch out for.
The Red Wings kept another piece of their Stanley Cup winning puzzle together with the re-signing of defenseman Andreas Lilja to a 2-year contract extension. The deal is believed to be worth over $2 million for the duration of the deal, which should bring the salary cap total up to around $39.6 million for 16 players.
Monday, the last day of buy-out announcements brought a couple more. Alexei Zhitnik was bought out from the last year of his deal, valued at $3.5 million, after being acquired from the Flyers for young defenseman, Braydon Coburn. Zhitnik will now become an unrestricted free agent, with some mild appeal, but it is questionable as to how much. Zhitnik finished last season with 8 points in 65 games between Philly and Atlanta.
Sunday evening was also a big night for the Colorado Avalanche, as they signed two of their key defensemen.
Carter played in all 82 games for the Flyers in the regular season, scoring 29 goals and 24 assists, quickly becoming one of the go-to-guys on the team. Carter also notched 11 points in the 18 playoff games the Flyers took part in this Spring.
The details of the contracts were not available right away, but with the releasing of the three players, there was a little more room to spare to sign the two centres, something GM Darryl Sutter obviously wanted to get done this summer.
The Ducks have decided to part ways with Todd Bertuzzi on Friday. Bertuzzi, 33, has one year remaining on a 2-year deal signed last summer and will be bought out on Monday, when he clears waivers.