Tavares Top Pick, Pronger and Boumeester Traded

Day one of the draft has wrapped up without any major surprises as far as the draft picks themselves go.  John Tavares, despite all of the secrecy, was eventually  selected first by the New York Islanders and Victor Hedman second to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Perhaps a bit of a surprise was Brian Burke not wheeling and dealing to get Toronto into that top spot as some speculated but it probably depends on who you ask. Biggest trade of the day was certainly Chris Pronger to Philadelphia for Joffrey Lupul which means the Flyers are putting a lot into next year as Pronger may or may not play past next season and Lupul just signed a four year extension. One might think the Flyers would try to dump salary but Pronger’s salary is much bigger than Lupul’s and Pronger probably will not play much longer. What the Flyers ultimate plan is will play out when free-agency stars July first but for now it’s a bit of a questionable move in my view.

Day two of the draft has started out with a bang as Jay Boumeester has  been traded to the Calgary Flames for Jordan Leopold and a third round pick. Finally the Boumeester saga can end as rumors have been floating around about him since the latter stages of last season. Calgary must see an awful lot in Boumeester for not only have they essentially traded two players for him but the deal includes Jordan Leopold whom the Flames picked up at the trade deadline in March. Calgary certainly needed to sure up their defense if they want to make a serious push in the playoffs for that was a major let down last season. Although Boumeester is still set to be a free agent come July 1^st the Flames will more than likely make him a lucrative offer that Boumeester will want to take as he is from Western Canada and is rumored to really want to play in that area. If the Flames do sign Boumeester that should make them favorites to win the Northwest Division as long as Kiprusoff can stay fresh by playing much less than 76 games.  As times goes on we’ll see how big these moves really are but for now they are the most newsworthy changes of the offseason.

Kiprusoff Struggles: Team Needs to Step Up

Miikka Kiprusoff has not been playing well as of late and despite his respectable 9-6 record, entering Thursday he had a very modest .889 save percentage accompanied by an embarrassing 3.31 goals against average. As a result of these poor numbers many people want to put pressure on him saying if he does not play better the Calgary Flames cannot be successful. Although that may be true it is about time some of the other players on that team felt some heat (no pun intended). Kiprusoff has bailed them out time and time again over the years when they have put lackluster defense and streaky offensive production in front of him. This team has way too much talent to rely so hard on goaltending. Jerome Iginla has carried his weight but he too can only take the team so far without adequate help. The Flames invested way too much money and time in the off-season bringing in the likes of Todd Bertuzzi among others as well as sewing up Dion Phaneuf and Robyn Regehr long-term to lay so much at the feet of Kiprusoff and Iginla. It is still early, and the team is not in any real trouble just yet but despite their recent six-game-win-streak if the Flames do not shape up they will be facing another first round playoff exit square in the face.