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Buffalo bags Brad Boyes from Blues in exchange for 2nd rounder in 2011

St. Louis Blues v Buffalo Sabres

of the Buffalo Sabres the St. Louis Blues at HSBC Arena on February 18, 2011 in Buffalo, New York.

Rick Stewart

After a brief lull, the trade floodgates seem to be opening on the Night Before Trade Christmas. The Buffalo Sabres acquired streaky goal scorer Brad Boyes from the St. Louis Blues for their 2011 second round pick.

It’s tough to argue with Joe’s assessment that adding Boyes might be more of the same, as the team features a variety of hot-and-cold snipers who aren’t particularly useful in their own end. Boyes scored as many as 43 goals one season, yet he only has 12 so far in 2010-11. His streaky shooting tendencies make jokes about his aim (or lack thereof) fairly commonplace among Blues fans.

Boyes is also a bit pricey, as the Sabres will be forced to cover his $4 million salary and cap hit through the 2011-12 season. Then again, maybe that’s not really a big deal for their deep-pocketed new owner Terry Pegula.

On one hand, some will say that Boyes is a bit redundant in the Sabres offense (I lean in that direction). That being said, perhaps coach Lindy Ruff can ride the hot hand between Boyes, Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek and other streaky scorers to emulate the varied attack the team used during the all-too-brief Daniel Briere/Chris Drury days.

If nothing else, it’s nice to see the Sabres showing some aggressiveness since they’re only four games behind the eighth place Carolina Hurricanes (with two games in hand).

From the Blues’ perspective, they shed some salary and a player who might not fit in very well with a young and aggressive offense propelled by the likes of Chris Stewart and David Backes. The second round pick is a nice cherry on top, even if this draft is supposed to be pretty weak.

We’ll be up late to keep track of deals, which might be a good thing considering the fact that the dominoes are starting to fall already.