Ottawa- Ilja Bryzgalov has known his time in Ottawa was coming to an end it was just a matter of time, and it looks like that time has come as a massive 7 player trade has been agreed to between Ottawa and St. Louis.
While in a second trade that has just been completed Zybnek is on the move as he heads to Dallas in a 3 player trade.
Ottawa's first deal sees Bryzgalov along with Curtis Sanford prospects Luca ****i Mario Bliznak and Ottawa's 5th round pick (09) head to the Blues while Chris Mason, Jimmy Howard, Ben Maxwell and St. Louis's 2nd round pick (09) are coming back.
"This is a trade that has been talked about for a while now and with a few tweaks finally got done," said the Sens GM, "We feel (Chris) Mason can come in and provide some solid goaltending for us right now and we also got some solid youth in the deal. While (Jimmy) Howard might not be the goalie prospect he once was projected to be we feel that he can be a solid 1A goalie given the opportunity and we really like what (Ben) Maxwell brings to the team we feel that he has the potential to play on the 2nd line and at the very worst will be a very good 3rd liner that can play on the PK and get some PP time."
The second trade sees Michalek go to the Stars while Carl Sneep, Adam McQuaid Dallas's 5th round pick (09) and $500,000 are coming north to the Sens.
"We think Michalek is a great player and will only get better, but this team needs to get younger and we feel we have picked up a couple of very good prospects in Sneep and McQuaid."
"Sneep is a big kid (listed at 6-4) can skate really well will play a ton of minutes and is putting up great numbers in college right now, we had our eye on this kid for a while and was hoping to draft him in 07 but couldn't acquire the pick needed. McQuaid is another big kid but is a bit more of a project although we feel he can develop into a solid stay at home defenseman," added the GM.
Ottawa also completed a minor trade with Chicago sending Robbie Schremp to the Blackhawks for prospect Bill Sweatt and $1,000,000.
"We thought Schremp was a risky player, he has tons of skill but the heart isn't always there, we feel Sweatt is a bit safer of a prospect while he might not have as much high end talent as Schremp we feel he will definitely be able to contribute to this team," said GM Rob Botham.
It is believed that Ottawa is still looking to make moves and in fact it has been rumoured that newly acquired Chris Mason could also possibly be on the block already.
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