For months, Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray has been looking to make a trade for a lop line left winger to work alongside Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry.
Surprisingly, the Ducks have settled on a rental player as a solution to their pop-gun offense.
Try as they might, the Ducks cannot score goals this season. They have the talent and the want, however, they cannot find the back of the net. Consequently, they are in dire straits in the Western Conference standings. Anaheim enters Saturday's action having scored 86 goals in 43 games played. They have surrendered 102 goals against and now have a -16 goal differential.
At one point, the Ducks were hunting Buffalo's Tyler Ennis as a candidate to kick start their top scoring line. There have been other considerations as well.
Bob Murray found his man early this morning.
The Ducks have acquired left wing David Perron and defenseman Adam Clendening from Pittsburgh in exchange for left wing Carl Hagelin.
Perron, 27, is a pending UFA who is earning $3.8 million this season. Clendening earns $761,000.
Hagelin was a huge disappointment in his first season in SoCal after experiencing success in The Big Apple. Hagelin has three years remaining on his contract at $4 million per season.
Anaheim now has $7.3 million in available salary cap space with the February 29 trade deadline looming.
The Ducks are a serious contender in the Jonathon Drouin trade sweepstakes.
The Ducks sent their director of personnel to AHL Syracuse on Friday night to scout Drouin.
My intel tells me that Anaheim, Montreal, and St. Louis are the three teams that are heavily pursuing Drouin. A trade could happen as soon as today.
In the meantime, the Ducks have added an experienced left winger and a depth D-man to bolster their lineup.
per ducks.nhl.com:
Perron has scored 20-plus goals three times in his NHL career, including a career-high 28 in 2013-14 with Edmonton. He has appeared in 542 NHL games with St. Louis, Edmonton and Pittsburgh, scoring 133-179=312 points with 412 penalty minutes (PIM). The 6-0, 200-pound left wing played 43 games with Pittsburgh this season, scoring 4-12=16 points with 28 PIM. His 105 hits this season ranked second on the club.
A native of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Perron spent six seasons with St. Louis before being acquired by Edmonton with the Blues’ third-round pick in 2015 in exchange for Magnus Paajarvi, Edmonton's second-round selection in the 2014 NHL Draft and Edmonton's fourth-round selection in 2015 on July 10, 2013. The year following his 28-goal season, Perron was acquired by the Penguins for Rob Klinkhammer and Pittsburgh's first-round selection in the 2015 NHL Draft on Jan. 2, 2015. In 2006-07, Perron led the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) in rookie goals (39) and plus/minus (+37), while ranking second in points (83) with Lewiston. The team won the QMJHL Championship and advanced to the Memorial Cup in 2007.
Clendening, 23, has scored 1-4=5 points with 20 PIM in 30 career NHL games with Pittsburgh, Vancouver and Chicago. He appeared in nine games with Pittsburgh this season, recording one assist and a +3 rating. Selected by Chicago in the second round (36th overall) of the 2011 NHL Draft, Clendening made his NHL debut with the Blackhawks in 2014-15.
Hagelin, 27 , collected 4-8=12 points in 43 games with Anaheim this year. Hagelin was acquired by Anaheim from the New York Rangers in exchange for Emerson Etem and a second-round selection in the 2015 NHL Draft on June 27, 2015. He has scored 62-79=141 points with a +46 rating and 144 PIM in 308 career NHL games with the Rangers and Ducks.
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Oh, great. Here come the Washington Capitals and their traveling freak show.
The 29th ranked team in the NHL hosts the best team in the NHL on Saturday night.
The Caps may play center Mike Richards in Buffalo.
“You don’t want to be that guy messing up the drills or chucking pucks at people’s feet,” said Richards, who has not played an NHL game since April 9 for the Los Angeles Kings. “My legs are feeling better, my hands are feeling better. It’s just the progression of a shortened training camp maybe, but I feel good.”
Caps head coach Barry Trotz Trotz may put the 30-year-old center into action in Buffalo.
“He’s getting used to how we do things,” Trotz said. “He’ got to feel real comfortable so when we throw him on the ice he’s just thinking about playing hockey.
Trotz said he’s not adverse to Richards playing in back-to-back games this weekend, especially if he keeps his ice time to a minimum Saturday night against the Sabres.
Trotz said he’s considered letting Richards play in the Capitals’ six games leading up to the NHL All-Star break, then sending him to the AHL Hershey Bears to play games while the NHL goes on hiatus. Richards would be recalled from Hershey once NHL games resumed after the ASG.
Per CSN Washington, Richards also has a hearing scheduled for January 28 in Manitoba for allegedly taking a controlled substance across the Canadian border last summer.
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A little bit of chicken fried and cold beer on a Friday night.
And the Buffalo Sabres on....
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The Washington Capitals are in Buffalo on Saturday night. Mike Richards will likely make his Caps debut in Buffalo.
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