Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Hurricanes ship Alexei Ponikarovsky to Devils

Alexei Ponikarovsky, Frans Nielsen

Carolina Hurricanes’ Alexei Ponikarovsky (23), of the Ukraine, and New York Islanders’ Frans Nielsen (51), of Denmark, struggle for possession of the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

AP

Are the Carolina Hurricanes already in “everything must go” mode?

That’s a bigger picture discussion, but however you slice it, GM Jim Rutherford just traded forward Alexei Ponikarovsky to the New Jersey Devils, according to Chip Alexander. It’s tough to see this as much more than a money dump since Carolina only gets defenseman Joe Sova and a 2012 fourth-rounder for its troubles.

After spending most of nine seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ponikarovsky has bounced around the NHL after the Buds traded him to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009-10. Ponikarovsky played for the Los Angeles Kings in 2010-11 before Carolina signed him on the cheap last summer. With just 15 points and a -12 rating in 48 games this season, the Hurricanes basically got what they paid for, so he likely won’t be missed.

The Devils’ perspective is reasonable enough, though. New Jersey needs depth scoring and Ponikarovsky at least has the potential to provide that. If not, they just gave up a middling draft choice and a marginal prospect to give it a try.

It’s a solid low-risk, medium-at-best reward move for Lou Lamoriello ... but then again, that’s pretty much how you’d describe Carolina signing him, too.

In case you’re wondering about that marginal prospect, Sova had been playing for the AHL’s Albany Devils after New Jersey scooped him up as an undrafted free agent from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.