St.Louis, Missouri
The St.Louis Blues have pulled off a blockbuster trade today with the Buffalo Sabres. The Blues are sending Steve Webb, Niko Dimitrakos, Scott Mellanby, Kim Johnnson and Buffalos 5th round pick to the Sabres for Greg De Vries, Mark Parrish, Michael Rupp, Jochen Hecht and a NYI 3rd round pick.
"Since taking over the club, we wanted to accomplish 2 things - get younger, and get some quality wingers who can play top 6 hockey. We simply dealt from our area of strength - defence - by shipping one of the leagues premiere offensive dman Kim Johnnson, along greybeard Scott Mellanby. We are sad to see Niko leave, as he had improved tremendously over the last year, and we had big plans for him. But on the other hand we have Michael Rupp coming back, a very versatile prospect in a powerforward mold, who can play all 3 forward positions."
"We are very excited to have Parrish and Hecht join our club, with both players expected to play in the top 6 rotation. We are going to line them up as 1 and 2 on the right side, along with the new comer Mariusz Czerkawski on the 3rd spot. Trevor Linden is either expected to get 4th line duty, or more likely to be moved to center position. Greg De Vries should add to the already defensively strong core of Lidstrom, Semenov, Dandenault and Lilja"
Czerkawski was acquired over the weekend from the NYR in exchange for Johan Hedberg. With Snow, Joseph and Hedberg, the crease was just too crowded.
It is reported that the Blues are still looking to add another top 6 winger and are willing to move one of their Dman for it, with the exception of Lidstrom.
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