Friday, December 31, 2010

Lapierre Dealt to the Ducks


2010/2011 NHL Statistics
To AnaheimPositionAgeGPGAPYearsCap Hit
Max LapierreForward25385381$900,000
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To MontrealPositionAgeGPGAPYearsCap Hit
Brett FesterlingDefense2410001$525,000
2012 5th Round Draft Pick

The Montreal Canadiens have quickly made a move among some whispers that a player was unhappy in the roster.  The Habs have dealt Max Lapierre to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Brett Festerling and a mid-to-late round draft pick on Friday, just before taking to the ice against the Florida Panthers.  By the sounds of things, this trades looks to be something the Canadiens needed to do with an unhappy player and they took what they could get with a willing trade partner.

Lapierre is a bottom six player at the NHL level and the Ducks do like bottom six guys, but with the loss of Ryan Getzlaf to a possible long-term injury, maybe bottom six isn't what they should be looking for.

For the Habs, they have found some better bottom six support in Max Pacioretty of late, so that easily makes Lapierre expendable today.  I don't think this deal will have a big ripple effect, unless the rest of the Canadiens team feel a boost from the removal of Lapierre's presence.

Salary Cap
For the Ducks, they are the one's taking more of a salary cap hit on, as Festerling will likely be reporting to Hamilton of the AHL, now that he is property of the Habs.  Lapierre adds another $900,000 (annually) to their number, which works out to be about $489,000 in the end.  The Ducks, in an annual sense, have enough room to make this move, so I don't think there are any questions about cap space here.

Implications
None.  Lapierre was not a consistent scorer in 2010 to be a part of the selection sheet pool this year, nor was he good enough to have his name called in the draft this year.  Festerling is a career minor-leaguer, who doesn't have a great deal of fantasy value.  I have my doubts that we'll see either name called in the pools any time soon.

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