The St. Louis Blues have traded defenseman Christian Backman to the New York Rangers in exchange for a fourth round draft pick. This was the most we saw in trades today -- a Paul Mara replacement at best. But there's more than meets the eye...Not only does this mean we get to keep NYR Marek Malik on our blueline, but we've just added another one just like him. Apparently, Backman's level of play and fan sentiment is not dissimilar to our very own Marek 'Lurch' Malik, so it is entirely possible that us bloggers will continue to have plenty 'junk' to write about in our run to the playoffs.
Drafted 24th overall by the Blues in 1998, Backman has 10 points in 45 games this season. Backman, who helped Sweden win the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Torino in 2006, has collected 19 goals, 45 assists and 130 penalty minutes in 228 career games with the Blues. Whatever. I don't know much about him, but HE IS RANKED #987th IN MY FANTASY HOCKEY LEAGUE (which is not a good sign). So much for securing our blueline.
Also, Slats and Gang finally deported Marcel Hossa to the Phoenix Coyotes and our 'trade-bait first round minor leaguer' AHL Wolfpack goalkeeper Al Montoya for Fredrik Sjostrom, "Avery wannabe" Josh Gratton, and AHL goalie David Leneveu. In other words, 'garbage for garbage.'
So the team is the same, which could be a good thing. The team is playing good hockey, more Eastern Conference teams lost marquee players today to the Western Conference, with the exception of the Pittsburgh Penguins (see below).
UPDATE: Uh-oh. Marian Hossa from the Atlanta Thrashers is now a Pittsburgh Penguin. Crap. These guys are scary good.
