What the f*** is up with that Staal for Johansson trade?? Am I missing something
I figure there's a corresponding move for Minnesota. Although out of necessity, Buffalo did use Johansson as a center last year but I'll admit that I didn't go out of my way to watch too many of their games to see how that experiment went.
Surprised that Staal didn't have Buffalo on his 10 team no trade list. At least according to Pierre LeBrun's article this morning, it sounded like Staal/his agent miscalculated and didn't even consider that Buffalo would be interested.
As for Minnesota, I thought a Zuccarello for Turris swap could work for both sides assuming Zuccarello didn't use his NTC. Bill Guerin wasn't the GM who signed Zuccarello, so he might have no qualms about moving him. Minnesota is overloaded with wingers and needs help at center and Nashville is the other way around. Both guys have 4 years left at 6 mil AAV (Zuccarello has an extra million in real cash over the four years).
Edit: Elliotte Friedman pointed out that Minnesota head coach Dean Evason was an assistant coach in Washington for Johansson's first two seasons and thinks he can play center. Friedman also said that Guerin wanted to shake things up in the locker room as he thought this group might be a little too comfortable.