Pittsburgh Talking Trade
The Penguins and Oilers were believed to be working out a major trade involving Dick Tarnstrom,D ($1.6 million) and Jocelyn Thibault,G ($1.5) going to Edmonton for Ty Conklin,G ($1.14) and another player before Tarnstrom went down with a knee injury that will keep him out of the lineup for a minimum of four weeks.
Pittsburgh Head Coach Ed Olczyk is not the least bit thrilled with Thibault's play in goal, thus why he has yet to announce a starter for tonight's matchup in New Jersey in what begins a five game road trip. Olczyk confirmed GM Craig Patrick is burning up the telephone lines to make some additional moves after the team recalled Erik Christensen,C and Ryan Whitney,D from their AHL affiliate Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Baby Penguins.
Christensen will start tonight's game between Ryan Malone, LW and Zigmund Palffy, RW on the second line and Whitney will be paired with Steve Poapst. It appears Sidney Crosby will continue to skate with Mario Lemieux and Mark Recchi on the top line moving John LeClair to the third line with Lasse Pirjeta and Konstantin Koltsov.
It is believed the Penguins would like to improve their goal scoring capability alongside LeClair on the third line by acquiring a center to take advantage of the hard-work and speed created by Koltsov at right-wing. Pirjeta has been a major disappointment to team officials and is believed to be on his way off the roster as soon as a move or two is made to replace him on the third line.
Pittsburgh has had a number of opposing team's scouts at Mellon Arena for the last few games and with names such as Mike Comrie, Jason Arnott, and Brendan Witt in the rumor mill, it could be only a matter of time before the season's first major trade occurs.
01. 11. 2005, Will
Tweet
(33572)