Phillips an Islander

[HelloHockeyFans]

Isles Deal Kariya


Paul Kariya (right) pictured above with former Calgary Flame Theoren Fleury will start the 2006-2007 season with the CPHL Minnesota Wild.

UNIONDALE, NY - The signs have been there for a while but Paul Kariya was finally dealt Tuesday to the Minnesota Wild.

Sources now say that the Islanders almost moved Kariya a few weeks ago to the Los Angeles Kings for Michael Ryder and Nick Schultz, but opted out after General Manager Kevin Wu wouldn't budge on moving over upwards of $2M in cap space to the Kings.

It had seemed like Kariya was safe.

It's hardly a secret that the General Manager of the Minnesota Wild has had a recent affection for the Asian-Canadian superstar but until Tuesday an agreement couldn't be made between the two GMs.

A deal was made today though which will see Paul Kariya leave the Islanders along with defenceman Jordan Leopold in exchange for forward Tim Connolly and defenceman Chris Phillips.

"Chris Phillips significantly improves our defense and from our observations during the summer exhibition games, we feel that our young guys up front are ready to take the next step," Head Coach Larry Robinson commented.

Tim Connolly, who is only 26 years old, joins a decent collection of up and coming forwards in Derek Roy, Ryan Getzlaf and Jiri Hudler, all of whom are under the age of 24.

"I'm a promoter of the idea that you build a team from the goalie out. We're confident that Cam (Ward) is our answer in goal and we added a true top-tier defenceman today by acquiring Chris Phillips who will join Souray, Markov and Preissing as our anchors," Robinson said. "We like the fact that Phillips is 28 years old and signed for three more seasons."

[JiriHrdina]

For Immediate Release

The Minnesota Wild are pleased to announce the acquisition of former Wild captain Paul Kariya and defenseman Jordan Leopold.

The pair arrive in the Twin Cities via a trade with the New York Islanders that sees Timmy Connolly and Chris Phillips head in the other way.

GM Farhall commented:

"Its no secret that this organization has regretted dealing Paul Kariya. Although the return at the time was substantial, Paul seemed to really fit in with this team and this city. We have been efforting to correct that mistake for about a year now and we are pleased to see him return finally. Paul is thrilled to be coming back. Getting a young dman like Jordan included in the deal made this a no brainer for us. We feel that we could afford a slight downgrade on the back end in order to make this deal happen."

[Goffie]

Nice deal for both sides!

[Prototype]

Crap... now it's gonna be even harder to get a Nords jersey on Leo.

[Sample00]

wow is that a rough looking theo!