NHL Trade Deadline - Jaromir Jagr a Bruin (and other links)

Editorial note: This links post has been temporarily hijacked to say that Jaromir Jagr is officially a Boston Bruin. The return in the trade for Dallas is a conditional second round pick that can become a 1st rounder if the Bruins go deep into the playoffs, Lane McDermid (a useless face puncher), and Cody Payne, who finished 8th on his OHL team in scoring this season, so he’s not exactly an elite prospect. Think of a very poor version of Brady Vail.

Unfortunately this means that we have to hate Jagr now. But let’s be honest here, he’s made that pretty easy. Two straight summers Jagr has used the Canadiens as leverage while professing his desire to play here with his best buddy Tomas Plekanec in order to get a better contract in Philadelphia and Dallas. Now he joins the worst possible team, a team the Canadiens are likely to have to go through in the playoffs. Jagr is a jackass. -Andrew

How lucky have the Habs gotten with rookie Brendan Gallagher? The 147th overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft is obliterating expectations, excelling in a top six role as a first year pro. He leads the team in EV points per 60, is second in EV shots per 60, and according to Christopher Boucher “has produced more [individual] scoring-chances per-minute played than any other Montreal player.” Boucher also ranks the Edmonton native fourth on the team by individual scoring-chance ratio. Max Pacioretty undoubtedly helps Gallagher’s stat line, but the kid has been amazing and deserves recognition. Look for Andrew’s considerably more thorough half-season review of Gallagher in the coming days.
In summary, Gallagher’s awesome, the Habs are awesome, and the EOTP community is awesome. Seriously folks, we’ve broken web traffic records because of your loyalty and contributions to the site! Although the links are not as great as you guys, they’re pretty dang good too. I hope you enjoy.

Habs News and Analysis

There’s not much roster news to report. Colby Armstrong suffered a lower injury after colliding with Carolina’s Patrick Dwyer last night. No specific details have been released, although it looked like a right knee injury. Meanwhile, congratulations are in order for Nathan Beaulieu and Jeff Halpern after Monday’s game. The rookie defenseman recorded his first NHL point while the veteran centre scored his first goal of the season.
Carolina blogger Corey Sznajder, of the wonderful Shutdown Line, has scoring chance data and a recap of yesterday’s game from a Hurricane fan’s point of view. Sznajder notes that the Pacioretty-Desharnais-Gallagher line went beast-mode, generating 11 of Montreal’s 15 even strength scoring chances.
Friend of the blog Mathieu Roy takes a look at the Habs trade deadline situation. He notes that given the players available, fitting a Ryane Clowe or equivalent rental into a healthy lineup will be challenging. He urges Habs fans to not be disappointed if Bergevin and company choose to stand pat.
In case you missed it, our very own Laura Saba was on A Winning Habit’s “Habs Cast.” Brandon Prust and Nathan Beaulieu are discussed. Check it out!

General News and Analysis

Brandon Worley of Defending Big D notes, using files from Pierre Lebrun and Renaud Lavoie, that the Dallas Stars have informed Jaromir Jagr that he will be moved “prior to the 2 p.m. CT deadline on Wednesday.” Worley gives his thoughts on the situation, noting that “Boston, Montreal and Philadelphia are the teams reportedly in on the Jagr talks.”
A somewhat significant deal, worthy of some linkage, happened yesterday! Calgary traded Jay Bouwmeester, their 2013 leader in ice time and top “tough minutes” defender, to the St. Louis Blues for the Blues 2013 1st-round pick, minor-league d-man Mark Cundari, and goaltender Reto Berra of the Swiss League. Here’s reaction from Backhand Shelf’s Justin Bourne, rage from Matchsticks and Gasoline’s Mitch Smith, and joy from St. Louis Game Time’s community.
Arctic Ice Hockey’s Daniel Lipson identifies some potential trade targets that he describes as “under appreciated or undervalued in their current environments.” Included are profiles on Edmonton’s Magnus Paajarvi, Buffalo’s Christian Ehrohoff and Andrej Sekera, and Washington’s Mathieu Perreault.
HockeyAnalysis.com’s David Johnson continues his crusade against what he feels is the exaggeration of quality of competition in player analysis. According to Johnson, player usage “will never make a good player have bad statistics or a bad player have good statistics.”
In one of the most pointless trades in the history of the universe, the Philadelphia Flyers have swapped cinder block Harry Zolnierczyk for Duck goon Jay Rosehill . I’m only linking to Broad Street Hockey because the comments are hilarious.
The Fitzgerald triplets, best known for their seminal work as heroic babies in the“Baby Geniuses” film series, have committed to play Division 1 NCAA hockey at Bemidji State University. This is just fucking strange, so I thought I’d post it.
HockeyAbstract.com’s Robert Vollman has built a tool that allows users to generate their own custom player usage charts. Here’s an explanation, including a video tutorial, on how to work the program and here’s the program itself.