Busy Friday highlighted by big trades

The Boston Bruins were big winners Friday night after making some roster overhauls and landing one of the biggest trade-deadline targets this season in defenseman Tomas Kaberle. The Bruins weren’t the only active team, however, as the Atlanta Thrashers, Ottawa Senators, Carolina Hurricane and Colorado Avalanche also made moves.

It was widely expected that Kaberle, who had a no-trade clause on his contract, would be moved by the Maple Leafs this season instead of risking losing Kaberle to free agency for nothing in return. The return ended up being pretty significant as the Leafs received prospect forward Joe Colborne in addition to the Bruins’ first-round draft pick at the 2011 NHL Entry Draft and a conditional second round pick in 2012. But the Bruins were willing to take the hit in order to grab a puck-moving defenseman like Kaberle. The extra offensive push that Kaberle provides should help spark the Bruins’ offense, especially on the power play where Kaberle already has 22 assists.

In order to fit Kaberle under the salary cap, the Bruins made another move with the Atlanta Thrashers where they acquired forward Rich Peverley and defenseman Boris Valabik in exchange for forward Blake Wheeler and defenseman Mark Stuart. With 34 points in 59 games with the Thrashers, Peverley will help offset the loss of injured center Marc Savard in Boston and will give the Bruins another scoring center and good face-off guy.

The Ottawa Senators and Colorado Avalanche clicked for a deal when they exchanged goalies yesterday afternoon. The Avalanche sent goaltender Craig Anderson to Ottawa in exchange for goaltender Brian Elliott. Both goalies are set to become unrestricted free agents at the end of the season and this may be more of a money move than anything else. In fact, rumors surfaced immediately that the Senators may turn around and try to trade Anderson again as Ottawa is selling off most of their assets in an attempt to rebuild their program. But at 29-years-old, Anderson would be a solid goalie to try and rebuild your program with.

Colorado wasn’t done, however, as the team made another significant move early this morning by sending forward Chris Stewart, defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and a conditional 2011 or 2012 second-round draft pick to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for defenseman Erik Johnson (pictured), forward Jay McClement and a conditional 2011 or 2012 first-round draft pick.

With the moves that Colorado is making, it would appear as if the team is pulling themselves out of the playoff race for this season but gearing up for a strong run next year. Johnson will be a huge addition to the blue line for the Avs and still has another year on his contract before becoming a restricted free agent in 2012. When the rest of the team’s blue line gets healthy, the Avs could have a very deep, very solid defensive unit on the ice next season. Plus, the team could have anywhere between $10 and $16 million in available cap space heading into free agency this summer in order to bring in some quality scoring to help replace the loss of Stewart.

With nine days still remaining until the trade deadline, more big moves are still expected. Keep an eye on the Senators as more trades could still be coming. Will they decide to move players like Spezza and Alfredsson? And who can afford Spezza’s hefty cap hit? Brad Richards of Dallas keeps popping up in trade rumors as well. Many pundits think he will not re-sign in Dallas and the Stars, despite being in playoff contention, don’t want to lose Richards for nothing. But the real fun of trade deadline time are the unexpected moves, like the one that Colorado and St. Louis just completed. If nothing else, expect more of the unexpected in the days to come.