Habs deal Spacek for Kaberle

[germany00]

The Carolina Hurricanes have traded defenseman Tomas Kaberle to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for defenseman Jaroslav Spacek.

Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford said last week that he was not happy with Kaberle's play and if he continued down his current path he wouldn't be with the club much longer. Rutherford found a partner in Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier, who has acquired a player in Kaberle that has 9 assists and a minus-12 rating in 29 games.

In return, the Hurricanes are getting Spacek, who has 3 assists and a plus-2 rating in 12 games this season. Spacek, though, hasn't played since Nov. 12 due to an upper-body injury, but he was cleared for contact earlier this week and was considered a possibility to play for the Habs Saturday afternoon at New Jersey.

After playing in Winnipeg on Friday, the Hurricanes don't play again until Tuesday in Toronto.

The Hurricanes signed Kaberle over the summer and were so convinced he could help them that they immediately traded Joe Corvo to the Boston Bruins. Kaberle, who was coming off winning the Stanley Cup with the Bruins, was far from a hit in Carolina, leading Rutherford to go on XM Radio's NHL Home Ice and blast the struggling defenseman.

"He came into camp and didn't prepare himself properly," Rutherford said. "He came in like the Boston Bruins did after winning the Stanley Cup and enjoyed his summer, and he hasn't caught up. He got off to a slow start by his own doing and now he has to figure out a way to get out of it or he won't be playing with the Hurricanes long."

Kaberle, though, had 2 assists in each of his final two games with the Hurricanes, and helped new coach Kirk Muller pick up his first win Wednesday night in Edmonton.

Spacek has missed the last 12 games after suffering an upper-body injury in the second period of the Canadiens' 3-2 shootout loss to Buffalo on Nov. 14. He also missed five games earlier in the season with an upper-body injury.

 

[dh1333]

Horrible deal for the Canadiens. Taking on Kaberle's 4.2M dollar cap hit for the next few years when they were gonna be rid of Spacek's contract after this season.

 

[germany00]

Horrible deal for the Canadiens. Taking on Kaberle's 4.2M dollar cap hit for the next few years when they were gonna be rid of Spacek's contract after this season.

I agree 100%, and they're skill level is pretty even so its just kind of stupid

 

[Mooche]

Montreal is taking a big risk in this trade.

They are trying to add a jump to that PP I believe, that's really been lacking. However, like said, the Spacek contract is being off-set by Kaberle's joke of a deal, and this just makes the deal dumb.

 

[Mr.Baller]

I'm a die hard fan of the habs and this is just HORRIBLE !!!! FUCK GAUTHIER AND COACH MARTIN BOTH OF THEM ARE DICK SUCKERS !!!!!

This move is gonna kill us during off-season when we are going to have too sign josh,ak,subban and price ! Unless someone stupid like gauthier takes gomez on their team but that aint gonna happen ! fuck it

 

[snipezo]

Is Gauthier high or something?

 

[germany00]

IMO its like the canadiens just filled up their cap space some more lol, but i would also like spacek over kaberle any day.

 

[Sports Hour]

Am I the only one who likes this deal?

Spacek has been so injury prone. He's also very old in hockey terms. And sure, Kaberle is locked up for a few years at a high cap hit. But with good reason. He's still a great defenceman, and the only reason he's been struggling is because he's been bounced from three teams in the past year. He hasn't been able to fit into a system since playing in Toronto's for a many years.

Playing back in a hockey crazy city, he's going to flourish again. Hold me to that.

And he'll settle down the Habs' powerplay, and set-up Subban's cannon. Plus, once Markov is back...that combo is capable of crazy success.

But yes, Gauthier does need to get fired. He also needs to either trade Gomez immediately to free up cap-space, or buy him out of his contract.