Ottawa- On the same night where Daniel Alfredsson scored a hat trick in a 4-0 win over the Boston Bruins the Senators have finally traded their captain after he has reportedly been on the trading block for the last few days, although it looked like Alfredsson would remain a Senator after very little interest was shown in acquiring the talented superstar.
The deal sees Alfredsson and Kevin Bieksa head to Chicago while David Legwand, Jeff Tambellini, Zbynek Michalek, and Ottawa's first round pick, which had been previously traded, is heading back to the Sens. The surprise move in this trade might be the fact that Kevin Bieksa was included in the trade although rumours are already starting the Bieksa will end up back in a Sens uniform sooner or later.
"Trading Alfie was a very hard decision to make, but I want to not only win now, I want to build a team that will continue to contend for many years to come," said GM Rob Botham, "so while I'm sorry to see Alfie leave, I'm excited about the young core we are building and will be able to keep around for a long time, and hopefully once his contract expires we might be able to bring Alfie back home."
Certainly Tambellini and the first round pick were major pieces coming back in the trade but the impact David Legwand should make on this team can not be over looked either, not only will Legwand help the team this year but at only 26 years of age it is expected that he should be around a long time to help a young group of kids develop into the core of Ottawa's team in the future.
One of those youngsters will of course be aforementioned Jeff Tambellini, who was said to of been one of the players Ottawa had their eye on right from the beginning of negotiations. Tambellini will join promising youngsters like Alex Edler, Mason Raymond, Ryan Kesler, David Backes, Jussi Jokinen, Ray Emery among others and several other prospects who might not have top end talent but should have long term careers.
It is expected that Jochen Hecht will move over to the RW as Legwand will center one of the top two lines, while Jeff Tambellini will report to Ottawa's farm team, both players should be in their respective teams line ups for there next games.
-- Edited by Sens at 02:30, 2008-01-16
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