Advertisement

Eddie Lack to Carolina; Anton Khudobin to Ducks for James Wisniewski

Eddie Lack to Carolina; Anton Khudobin to Ducks for James Wisniewski

SUNRISE, Fla. – It was expected that the second day of the NHL Draft would yield some goaltending musical chairs, given the names available for trade and the lack of quality goalie options on the unrestricted market.

The first domino to fall: Eddie Lack of the Vancouver Canucks, who was shipped to the Carolina Hurricanes for a third-round pick in this year’s draft and a seventh-rounder next year. Lack is signed through 2016 for a $1.15 million cap hit.

Which is … disappointing for Canucks fans. First, because the return isn’t what they thought the team would get for a 27-year-old netminder with 84 games of NHL experience. Second because they liked that quirky little knucklehead so much that fans launched a petition to prevent a trade, which in the end worked as well as every other online petition ever has.

That meant the Carolina Hurricanes had a glut of goalies, so they traded the guy with the contract they could actually move: Anton Khudobin.

They traded the 29-year-old goalie to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman James Wisniewski.

This was a great salary dump for the Ducks, as Wisniewski has two more years left at $5.5 million and was a healthy scratch for Bruce Boudreau during the playoffs.

He’s 31 years old and a proven puck mover. He might be a bit of a redundancy in Carolina with John-Michael Liles and Ron Hainsey already there, but his salary will also ensure the Canes are well above the cap floor.

As for Anaheim … is this the end of John Gibson with the Ducks? Word here in Sunrise is that assuming he’s a cooked Duck is a little presumptuous.

MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY