It already seemed like the Minnesota Wild asked Marek Zidlicky to waive his no-trade clause to go to the New Jersey Devils once this season. That either didn’t totally happen or the two teams couldn’t cross the t’s and dot the ... lower-case j’s.
Regardless, it seemed inevitable that the coach-bashing defenseman would end up out of Minnesota, and now Nick Kypreos and Devils beat writer Tom Gulitti are indicating that it could happen for real this time. Kypreos even threw out everyone’s favorite trade deadline buzzword of “imminent,” so it’s time for Devils fans to get excited/depressed depending upon how each one feels about the offensive blueliner.
The natural question of what the Devils will give up hasn’t been cleared up just yet. Kurtis Foster seems like the logical choice because a) Zidlicky downgrades him from “marginal” to “virtually irrelevant” and b) he didn’t dress tonight. That being said, Wild beat writer Michael Russo reports that Foster at least isn’t aware of being shipped.
Update: Foster texted Russo that he has, indeed, been traded. Expect an official post soon that discusses the trade a bit more in hockey terms.
Either way, it seems like Zidlicky will take his easy hockey-hating talents to the Jersey Shore soon enough.
If it falls through again, I’ll never trust the word “imminent” again.
(Or at least not for a few hours.)