Trades, Trades, and More Trades 2012

February 16: Dallas trades Nicklas Grossman to Philadelphia in exchange for a 2nd-round pick in 2012 and a 3rd-round pick in 2013.

Tampa Bay trades center Dominic Moore and a seventh-round draft pick this year to San Jose for a 2012 second-round pick.

February 17: Montreal Trades Hal Gill and a conditional 2013 fifth-round draft pick to Nashville for a 2012 second-round pick, prospect Robert Slaney and Blake Geoffrion, the 24-year-old grandson of Hall of Famer Bernard (Boom Boom) Geoffrion. Nice pickup for the Preds on the backline. Habs are selling this year.

February 18: Tampa Bay Lightning trades Pavel Kubina to Philadelphia for Jon Kalinski, a second-round and fifth-round draft pick. Needless to say, a nice pickup for the Flyers

February 21: Colorado trades Kyle Quincey to Tampa Bay Lightning for Steve Downie. They promptly trade Quincey to Detroit for a 1st round pick & prospect Sebastien Piche. Old friend Stevie Y. comes to the rescue by trading Quincey to The Wings, which saves the Wings of the distasteful exercise of trading directly with the Avalanche, and the Bolts get a number one in the deal, which never would have happened had the Wings been trying to trade with the Avs. You can say what you want about rivals, but, as Brian Burke once said in a USA Today article some years ago about the trading deadline, rivalries are real, and you seldom see trades made between Wings-Hawks, Wings-Avs, Ducks-Kings, Habs-Bruins, etc...

February 22: Columbus Blue Jackets trade forward Antoine Vermette to the Phoenix Coyotes for a second round pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft (via Ottawa), a conditional fifth round selection in the 2013 Draft and minor-league goaltender Curtis McElhinney. No big deal, I suppose a nice little pickup for the Dogs, while the Jacks are sellers building for the future.

February 23: Columbus Blue Jackets trade forward Jeff Carter to the Los Angeles Kings for defenceman Jack Johnson and a first-round draft pick in either 2012 or 2013. Kings needed a goal-scorer badly, with Carter, they got it.

February 24: New Jersey Devils trade forwards Nick Palmieri and Stephane Veilleux, defenseman Kurtis Foster, a second round pick in 2013 and a conditional third round pick in 2013 to Minnesota Wild for defenseman Marek Zidlicky. Jersey obviously wanted Zidlicky badly to give up this high a price for him.

February 25: New York Rangers trade forward Wojtek Wolski to the Florida Panthers in return for defenseman Michael Vernace and a third-round draft pick in 2013. Panthers show they mean business by aquiring some scoring punch. Rangers, who believe they are close to a cup run, add a defenseman, and shed salary in advance of perhaps a big move(which did not happen).

February 26: St. Louis trades goalie Ben Bishop to Ottawa for a second-round pick.

TRADE DEADLINE DAY, February 27:

Montreal trades Andrei Kostistyn to Nashville for a 2013 second-round pick, and the conditional 2013 pick they had traded to the Preds in the Hal Gill deal. The Kostitsyn brothers are reunited, and it feels so good.

Detroit trades Mike Commodore to Tampa Bay for a conditional seventh-round pick. The Wings unload salary, so that they can bring up Brendan Smith and Jakob Kindl.

Edmonton trades Nick Schultz to Minnesota for Tom Gilbert.

Toronto trades Matt Gilroy to Ottawa for Brian Lee. A rarity. The Leafs and Sens actually make a trade.

Columbus trades Sammy Pahlsson to Vancouver for two fourth-round picks. Canucks wanted some more grit. Jax looking to sell.

Winnipeg trades Johnny Oduya to Chicago for a second and third-round pick next year. Hawks add a little help on the blueline.

Islanders trade Brain Rolston and Mike Mottau to Boston for Yannick Riendea and Marc Cantin. B's turn to an old friend in Rolston.

Chicago trades John Scott to Rangers for a fifth-round pick.

Minnesota trades Steve Kampfer top Boston for Greg Zanon.

Buffalo trades Paul Gaustad and a fourth-round pick to Nashville for a first-round pick. A good deadline period for the Preds.

Buffalo Marc-Andre Gragnani and Zack Kassian to Vancouver for Cody Hodgson and Alexander Sulzer.

Toronto trades Marc Fraser to Anaheim for Dale Mitchell. Just like the Wings with Stevie Y., Brian Burke trades with old friends in Anaheim.

Anaheim trades Sebastian Erixon to Vancouver for Andrew Gordon. A good deadline day for the Canucks.