As we inch closer to the trade deadline, it’s just a matter of waiting to see which goaltender will be the first to be traded after the roster freeze lifted. There are a number of names floating about -- Tomas Vokoun, Jaroslav Halak, Dwayne Roloson, Tim Thomas, Dan Ellis -- and with Ray Emery out of the season it looks like there is a collective holding of the breath to see what the Flyers do.
Now Philadelphia technically has the room to trade for a goaltender like Roloson, but from all accounts today the team is set to move forward with Leighton between the pipes. That may have changed, just in the past few hours.
All of a sudden it seems that goaltenders have some increased value after it seemed that the market really wasn’t there. The Emery injury certainly opens things up, and with teams like Chicago and Philadelphia in a race to get the best fit, it will be interesting to see how the asking prices change. You’d certainly think that Halak would be more valuable than Vokoun, but word is that Montreal is just asking too much.
Garth Snow suddenly has an incredibly valuable goaltender on his roster (especially if Dipietro’s knee is ok) and Roloson may be on his way to Philly. TSN’s Bob McKenzie maintains that a deal is nowhere near done, considering Roloson is expected to play tonight, but “Dallas Dave” is reporting the deal is done in principle.
We’re not going to speculate one way or the other but it does appear that in the past few hours, especially after word broke that Emery would be having hip surgery, that a trade for Roloson is in the works. We’ll wait and see how this shakes out -- I’m still trying to determine just how much I trust Dave anyway.