Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Vandermeer to Philly


Another deal was swung on Tuesday seeing defenseman Jim Vandermeer (non-pool) go from Chicago over to Philadelphia for forward Ben Eager (non-pool). As you can see, this really isn't a big pool matter this season, nor will either of these guys be picked up in Week Twenty, but I thought it as a bit of an interesting deal.

I don't know about you, but I got the feeling that Chicago wanted to get tougher. Eager has 62 penalty minutes in 23 games this season to go along with no points at all. He is mainly known as a grinding winger who doesn't mind mixing it up at all with the fists. And beyond Martin Lapointe (non-pool), the Blackhawks didn't have that sort of toughness in their line-up. This could be a good fit to keep the opposition honest when it comes to Jonathan Toews (Chris) and Patrick Kane (Marcus).

On the other end of the spectrum, the Flyers have been a team with a blueline that isn't the most mobile. Vandermeer's youth and offensive upside was certainly something to take advantage of and the way the Flyers are building their squad, it's becoming a good feeding ground for young blueliners. Chicago have a good stable of young defensemen, so one was obviously expendible for a deal to bring some toughness to the table. Vandermeer should get some solid minutes in Philly to start and if he's the guy they need, he could be a workhorse.

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