EHEC Trade Winds Gust

[Virtual Jarmo]

Mr. Ryan Spurrell put this together on the front page for us. Great job, Ryan!

EHEC Trade Winds Gust
Several GM's Make Big Moves In Hopes Of Securing Our Inaugural Cup

With two weeks of December in the books and Eastside's Hockey Elite Collide rolling towards Christmas, it's anything but cold as several GM's have been busy pulling the trigger on ice melting trades.

One of the biggest blockbusters of the season went down a few days ago as Boston Bruins GM Mike Leib was able to find a suitor for his prized defenseman Zdeno Chara. In a trade that must have taken days to finalize, Chara was on his way to Tampa Bay in hopes of helping GM Justin Cote maintain his strong showing thus far and propel him to a Championship after already obtaining names such as Jagr and Brodeur. Going along with Zdeno were Nashville's 3rd round selection in this year's draft along with future considerations. Anyone would assume the cost of a 7 foot tall, physical and offensive d-man would have to be high and that proved truthful as going the other way in this deal were highly touted 2nd overall pick Victor Hedman, defensemen Andrej Maszaros and Lukas Krajicek plus TB's 5th round selections in the upcoming draft and the following. Later it became known that the Future Considerations portion of this deal has to do with Hedman, If or when Victor reaches the 85 defensive rating plateau in-game, Mr. Cote would receive Boston 3rd round pick that season or the next at Boston's discretion. Needless to say, this deal cannot be fully analyzed until a few years down the road.

After acquiring forward Radim Vrbata from the Coyotes early in the month, many people likely felt Maple Leafs GM Mike Walters was willing to sit back and let his team underachieve without making a big move, they thought wrong. While people were up late fine tuning that Sunday Fantasy Football lineup or analyzing the results of the 107th Ultimate Fighting Championship Pay-per-view, Mike was busy talking trade with Pittsburgh GM Matt Bernier. In the end GM Walters was able to obtain young stud goalie Marc-Andre Fleury as well as solid defenseman Mark Eaton plus Matt's 3rd and 5th round picks this draft year. The price? Young phenom Nazem Kadri whom the Leafs drafted this past year along with goaltender Vesa Toskala. When asked about the deal, Mr. Walters proclaimed "Leaf fans haven't seen this caliber of a goalie in net for them in years!" Needless to say Toronto fans should quickly come to love Fleury, but with 'The Monster' Jonas Gustavsson expected to step in after any Toskala trade and young Kadri the best Leafs draft pick in years on his way out, the full reactions remain to be seen.

With a 3rd high end deal pending league approval, Tomas Kaberle could be on his way to being a Columbus Blue Jacket. With several teams having inquired of Kaberle's services, Toronto is in line to receive forward Raffi Torres, defenseman Rhett Warrener, potentially offensive prospect Brent Regner and the Blue Jackets' 1st round pick in the upcoming entry draft. Stay tuned to see if this deal reaches completion but all signs indicate it will.
As we head into the 2010 year, EHEC is only getting stronger. We are sustaining a solid base of GM's, rivalries are building and trades are more frequent as we approach the Olympic break. The future looks bright.