| 2011/2012 Stats | 2012 | July 1st Details | |||||||
| To Minnesota | Pos | Age | GP | G | A | P | Cap Hit | Years | Cap Hit |
| Tom Gilbert | D | 29 | 47 | 3 | 14 | 17 | $4m | 2 | $4m |
| ----------------------- | |||||||||
| To Edmonton | Pos | Age | GP | G | A | P | Cap Hit | Years | Cap Hit |
| Nick Schultz | D | 30 | 62 | 1 | 2 | 3 | $3.5m | 2 | $3.5m |
A deal that has some long-term plans attached to it, on both sides, as the Minnesota Wild acquired offensive defenseman Tom Gilbert from the Edmonton Oilers for defensive defenseman Nick Schultz.
The Wild are seemingly trying to find ways to create some more offense from the back end around the trade deadline, acquiring Kurtis Foster from the Devils earlier and now Gilbert from the Oilers. If the Wild can make that move into the playoffs, they may finally have some real help to do so. Gilbert hasn't been great for the Oilers this year, but the Oilers haven't been great and it cost them a little bit of defense to get some offense.For the Oilers, one of the biggest things missing in their line-up is defensive responsibility. I think they have a lot of faith in Devan Dubnyk, but it is certainly questionable as to whether or not Dubnyk has a lot of faith in his defense. The acquisition of Schultz can go a long way to helping that situation out, not to mention help some of the younger kids improve and have a bit more faith that if they lose the puck in the offensive zone, they'll have more help behind them.
Gilbert belongs to Wes M. in the draft this year, but there is little to no impact on the money, as Wes sits down in 20th spot on Monday.
Both defenders are on the sheet, Gilbert is in Box 11, near the bottom of that box's scoring, while Schultz is at the bottom of the Box 12 scoring layout. No impact here either.
The Winnipeg Jets made a small splash on the deadline, picking up defenseman Grant Clitsome off of waivers from the Columbus Blue Jackets, adding some much needed depth to their blueline, as the rumours swirl about dealing players away. Clitsome had fallen out of favour in Columbus, despite having a pretty good finish to the 2011 campaign, but the Jets are willing to add a piece today to help them with their push into the playoffs, if possible. Clitsome has 14 points in 51 games this season, 98th among defensemen in scoring, which could certainly help.
In the first trade deadline deal of the day, the Montreal Canadiens sent potential unrestricted free agent forward Andrei Kostitsyn to the Nashville Predators, to re-unite him with his brother Sergei Kostitsyn, 
This doesn't happen very often, but when it does happen, it has some pretty big numbers associated with it. For the first time since Week Five in 2010, we have a defenseman as the Player of the Week and he scored 12 points, in order to do so... much like Week Five in 2010. Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators, absolutely went to town on NHL opponents in Week Twenty-One, storming scoresheets from Monday to Sunday, tying the season-high, which was set back in Week Three by Jonathan Quick.
Karlsson played in four games during the week and he made noise in each and every one of those games, leading to this honour at the end of the week.
It wasn't a record-setting week for Clayton C. in the draft, but it was good enough for two things: being the Mover and Shaker and taking 1st place in the draft standings. Clayton's draft team finished up with 46 points in Week Twenty-One, his fourth week this season over the 40-point mark, each time earning him the Mover and Shaker nod in the year. This is also the second week of the season, where he has finished in the lead, the last time was Week Fourteen and didn't last through the next week.
Clayton owes his big week in the pool to Erik Karlsson, who finished as the Player of the Week with 12 points, as well as Patrick Marleau, who had 6 points and then Daniel Alfredsson, Claude Giroux and Taylor Hall, who each had 4 points each. There were a couple of active zeroes on his team, but otherwise, the team was pretty good at picking up points throughout.
It's rough when the pool has a pretty good total of points collected through the 22 teams and you end up in the Basement, but there were two teams that finished up at the bottom for the draft, so we'll have to go to the usual tie-breaker, the least amount of goals for. With 16 points and 4 goals for, Brenda F. has fallen a little further out of the money race, with her first trip to the Basement.
To the sheet pool... we had a slight move in the pool this week, as the top four teams remained the same from Week Twenty, Jeff E., Zac H., Clayton C. and Justin L. all stood firm in their spots, but we had a switch at the last money spot, as Don D. had a pretty good week, overtaking Kendra E. for 5th spot and opening up a 23-point gap at the same time. It's not a very safe distance, but it may take a couple of weeks to work itself back into shape.
Speaking of Don D., his pretty good week ended up being the best week in the pool, as he finished with 69 points, moving up that one position into 5th in the process. Don owes his big week to players like Steven Stamkos (8 points), Martin St. Louis (6), Marc-Andre Fleury (6), Jordan Eberle (5), Mathieu Garon (5), Trevor Daley (4) and Scott Hartnell (4). Don's team has been rather good over the last few weeks, in and around the 60-point mark in each week since the All-Star Break, which has now put him in the money conversation.
Before the Sharks took on the Wild on Sunday night, the team made the decision to scratch Michal Handzus for the game, which could lead to all kinds of rampant speculation about him being in a trade to help improve the team in some way. Handzus may be a good piece to move on Monday, as he hasn't necessarily fit well with the Sharks, having only 23 points in 59 games with the team, but he could provide depth to a team that would need some in return in a deal that helps a contender like the Sharks.
Reports from the game itself saw that Logan Couture left the game with a lower-body injury after taking a couple of solid hits from Minnesota Wild players. Couture left the game in the 3rd period and didn't return and there has been no update, early on Monday morning to say what his condition is. With the trade deadline upon us, any injury to Couture that may be serious, could help the team make a move or two to help the team over the hump in the playoffs.
In the early game, it will be the old rivalry, as the Maple Leafs make the trek up to Montreal to take on the Canadiens for the fifth meeting between these two teams in the 2012 season. The Habs have a slight edge in the season series, going 2-1-1 in the first four games of the season. The Leafs are trying to chase down an Eastern Conference playoff berth for the first time in a few seasons, while the Canadiens are nowhere near playoff contention, but I don't think that will take away from the intensity in the game. Between the two teams, the top name floating around at the deadline is Tomas Plekanec, who has a no-trade clause, but has been rumoured to be on the block, as the Canadiens may look to re-tool and re-structure this season.
In the late game, expansion cousins go head-to-head, as the Buffalo Sabres come to the West Coast to take on the Vancouver Canucks. This will be the only meeting between the two sides this season, since they don't normally get much love from the NHL schedule makers. The Sabres spent a whole lot of money in the off-season, but they haven't managed to stay in the playoff picture, while the Canucks are among the NHL elite, which may not make for a gritty game. The top name floating around the trade rumours on Monday morning is Derek Roy, who has been linked to a number of teams and could be a good fit with even a team like the Canucks. We shall wait and see.
This is a puzzling deal to me in a sense, since the Senators were so high on Lehner as a prospect, but this deal signals that they cannot wait for Lehner to reach his full potential. Bishop will likely take some reps in the Senators net, as they continue to fight for a playoff spot, waiting for Anderson to get better. 
The Florida Panthers have relieved the New York Rangers of some valuable cap space on Saturday afternoon, acquiring forward Wojtek Wolski in a deal that sees a prospect and a pick going the other way.
I don't think this signing has too much to do with the trade deadline, since Willie Mitchell is a very important cog in the Los Angeles Kings machine at the moment, but giving him a contract extension should boost the morale of some of the players there, knowing full well that he will be around for a couple more years.
On Friday evening, the Kings signed Mitchell to a new 2-year contract extension, worth $7 million, which gives him the exact same cap hit that he signed for when he first came to the Kings in 2010. Mitchell was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, but with the Kings in the playoff picture in the West, the 34-year old defenseman was a very unlikely rental player at the deadline.
The Kings are a team to watch with their cap spending, as they have been doing a fair bit of it lately. The move that brought Jeff Carter to the West Coast for Jack Johnson was only a gain of about $1 million against the cap for the 2013 season, but they are still taking on water, in the cap sense. Right now, I have the Kings at a projected annual number of $50.8 million for the 2013 season, which gives them 15 players (nine forwards, four defensemen and both goalies). There are some more players on the list that could hit this projected total, but they have been up and down so much, it's hard to count on them.