The Puck Stops Here

As the trade deadline approaches on Tuesday, fans are holding their breath waiting for deals to occur. So far, a few have happened such as Brad Stuart to Calgary and Peter Forsberg to Nashville, but there is currently a lull between deals.

One of the most recent deals turned out to be a non-trade and it is an interesting scenario. Alex Korolyuk was traded to New Jersey this fall in a deal to get the Devils under the salary cap. New Jersey had traded Korolyuk back to San Jose for a conditional third round pick. Some of the conditions were that Korolyuk returned to the NHL from Russia and passed a physical. Korolyuk has opted to stay in Russia instead, so there is no deal.

Here is Lyle Richardson (Spector) reporting this odd non-trade.

I am sure some more deals will occur by deadline time (they always do), but I would not be surprised if the biggest deals have already occurred (ie. Forsberg).

NOTE: The official version of the story (from TSN) is that Korolyuk changed his mind about coming back to the NHL. I wonder if any of the Russian mafia types who run many of the Russian Elite League teams helped to convince him that changing his mind was a good idea.