Aggressively pursuing a deal between a few teams after tonight's OT loss, GM Tomayko was able to add the scoring touch and net pressence of Ryan Smyth to the Canadiens roster.
Here is the deal:
Montreal gets: Ryan Smyth
Calgary gets: Nick Foligno/Pavel Kubina
"We originally planned on committing to Foligno as a corner piece to this franchise's up and coming prospects of last year's draft. He has a great 5 year deal at 1.5 million. Especially after the season he is having, we couldn't place him on the trade block. When a couple of trades went down hill fast and another that is prolonged to later contacts, we were anxious to make a deal. We had to add Kubina to the deal to make us cap compliant, and we will be looking strongly for a defensive replacement. In the mean time, we expect Ben Lovejoy to come up and fill the void of a 7th defenseman."
As for Ryan Smyth's addition, GM Tomayko stated: "If Ryan didn't have a 2 year contract, we wouldn't even be having this press conference, and the Flames wouldn't have 2 of our former players. Ryan has been around the league and has held his own throughout his career. We're getting a boost in scoring on the left wing. You can expect Ken (Hitch****) to be scrambling the lines the coming few games to accomodate our new winger. We're excited to add Ryan to the mix, and we're excited to get back into playoff position!"
Smyth is just loving the new environment. Scoring the only 2 goals in regulation for the Canadiens, Smyth recieved the 1st star and helped the Canadiens break their losing streak.
GM Tomayko is excited about his current lines, "We have a great set of 4 lines. Our top line consists of our leader and best passer, Saku Koivu, feeding the puck to our top scorers (Tyler Kennedy and Ryan Smyth). Mike (Ryder) was the unfortunate one dropped down to the 2nd line, but he will sit and wait for excellent passes between new 2nd liner, Weight, and the anchor, Arnott. Our 3rd line is as gritty as you can get (Neidermayer/Fedotenko/Chimera), and you won't want to mess with our 4th line (Carter/Tootoo/Crombeen). Our biggest fear was losing some defensive talent in Kubina. Woywitka stepped back in the roster and will need a few games to get back in the swing of things. We've called up Benny Lovejoy in case of an injury. We're still searching for the pieces to turn our squad into a championship team. We've had VERY intensive talks with a team this evening about acquiring a franchise player and defensive defenseman, but unfortunately we were a player off on both sides of the deal. We really loved the deal, but we weren't able to trade one of our prime prospects. If anyone asks that GM, we were willing to give up a great package for a great player. We're definately looking for those final touches."
