Alls quiet on the NHL trade front

So anybody else out there wonder where all the NHL trades have gone? They almost seem extinct at this point so much so that I went and took a look at last year's player movement just to see if its really as quiet as I think it is. To my surprise, there actually wasn't a lot of movement at this time last year either.

In fact, there were only two deals to even speak of in October last year and believe it or not, the Jackets were involved in one of them when we sent Eric Boguniecki (what ever happened to him?) to the New York Islanders for Ryan Caldwell - who actually is still with the organization with their AHL affiliate Syracuse Crunch.

The other deal was a cap clearing move by Devils GM Lou Lamerillo that sent Vladimir Malakov and a conditional first rounder to the Sharks for Alexander Korolyuk and Jim Fahey.

Looking at last year most of the action started up in November. There were 8 total deals in November but really they were only minor deals -- when George Parros is the biggest name to switch teams then you know its minor.

Really the first in-season significant deal didn't occur until December 15th when the Islanders traded Alexie Zhitnick to the Flyers for Feddy Meyer and a conditional 3rd rounder.

There were a total of 4 deals in December; 10 in January and whopping 49 in February which of course is the trade deadline.

So what does this tell us? Don't expect much action on the trade front until at least November and even then don't look for many blockbusters. We've had a couple of big ones in November - with Joe Thornton and the Sergei Fedorov deals immediately coming to mind - but those are more of the exception rather than the rule. The action really doesn't heat up until late January and then February.

To me that's a little surprising considering that you'd figure teams who get off to slow starts would be looking to shake things up early before the really lose their grip on the season. In the salary cap era though trading dollars is just about as important as trading players as a lot of teams just don't have the room or budget space to take on high priced talent without moving some money of their own which makes completing deals that much more complicated.

So for those of you like me who love trades....especially when they involve Jackets.....don't look for anything from GM Scott Howson soon. In fact I woudn't be shocked to see him stand pat with this lineup until the deadline in February. That could quickly change though if this team gets into major injury trouble.

You can see all the trades made last season here.

-LTL