The trading starts

Yesterday the Penguins traded Ryan Whitney to Anaheim for Chris Kunitz and a prospect (TSN).

Basically, the two hot trade deadline commodities are proven playoff players and puck-moving defensemen. In fact, ever since the lockout it feels like every NHL team is constantly looking for a "puck-moving defenseman". I mean, Minnesota were so desperate for one they even brought Petteri Nummelin back from the Swiss league. Apparently they figured that a guy who was dropped by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2001 could be an offensive force in the league five years later. But I digress.

In Whitney Anaheim gets a fairly good offensive defenseman who happens to be having a bad year, who might even be able to step into Scott Niedermayer's shoes when he retires. Obviously Pittsburgh is hoping Kunitz will finally be the winger who "clicks" with Crosby. He's no sniper, though, and so far Crosby hasn't shown any ability to transform 20-goal scorers into something more. This is unlikely to be a major differencemaker for the Pens. Besides, given their distaste for veterans, once Kunitz gets a few more years under him the Pens will let him go.

Kunitz has three years left on his contract at $3,725,000 a year, so swapping Whitney's $4 million for him only saves them a quarter million for next year. So their cap troubles are pretty much unaffected.

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Whitney was probably the proverbial first domino in this year's deadline crunch. Now that he's gone, the premier offensive D-man on the move if probably Filip Kuba. He and Tomas Kaberle will now be getting more attention, and with Burke unwilling to part with Kaberle except for a high price, Filip Kuba's stock just went way up.

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A good column on the Hockey News on Washington's winning windown. Edward Fraser maintains the Caps need to make a playoff push now, and I think he's right. Certainly they're going to be in salary trouble in 2010 when both Nicklas Bäckström and Alex Semin have a contract year.

I also agree wholeheartedly with his assessment that the Caps are going to need some grit and defensive power to make a more complete playoff team. At times, the Caps defense is wide open, and they're going to need a proper shutdown unit.

There are some excellent two-way forwards to be had, and I for one think the Caps should definitely try to get either Chris Neil or Jarkko Ruutu from Ottawa, and I'd be thrilled to see either Gary Roberts or Mark Recchi join the team from Tampa. However, the Caps have absolutely no cap space. In fact, they're over the cap at the moment. The biggest problem? Michael Nylander's monster contract. With two more years at $4,875,000, Nylander is actually the third-best paid player on the Caps roster.

Looking back now, it's almost impossible to understand what possessed the Caps to sign him to such a monstrous contract. He's managed just 7+20 points in 57 games this season, and the amount of money he's being paid is crippling the Capitals. In 2007 he was coming off an 80-point season; he was also 35 years old.

In the current economic climate, with the cap expected to stay the same or even drop, it's almost unthinkable for any team to be willing to take on Nylander's huge salary. Who wants to be paying a 39-year-old 40-point scorer five million a year?

If the Capitals go into the playoffs with the current roster and can't add some shutdown players, it's going to be largely because of the huge contract they gave to Nylander.

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Some brief notes:

* my opinion of Milan Lucic continues to fall. In last night's Ducks-Bruins game he dropped the gloves with Mike Brown, and after Brown fell to the ice he kept pounding on him, punching him in the back of the head. Fighting advocates are big on the "Code", and I think somebody might want to remind Lucic that it's usually been part of the "Code" that when your opponent falls to the ice, the fight is over. Lucic still has some growing up to do; right now, he's not a fighter, just a punk.

* It was a good night for Jokerit players on Long Island: Sean Bergenheim scored a shorthanded goal and Tim Stapleton, making his NHL debut, scored the game-deciding shootout goal in last night's Leafs-Isles game. Stapleton played for Jokerit before signing with the Maple Leafs, and we loved the guy. Go Tim!