DiPietro's status in question, depth issues on the backline.
Of course with nineteen games left it's not the beginning, New York remains barely on the outer fringes of a playoff race. (see previous entries for details)
The deadline has now passed and it was not general manager Garth Snow's finest day but if you were expecting first rounders and big names for Dwayne Roloson you should have checked the market because teams were not paying that price in Philadelphia, Chicago or Washington for goaltending.
No doubt the same teams that were not lining up to pay Martin Biron last July were in no rush to take his remaining contract given his season to date either.
Having written this circumstances were tough and beyond the general manangers control in some cases. Today was a time most teams were playing conservative in the front-loaded contract, post-lockout capped NHL and as usual the injury problems have hit this team for two plus years became a big factor.
This was a very mild deadline with the major moves coming before the Olympic break.
The general manager had no idea Andrew MacDonald would break his foot the game after dealing Andy Sutton but now a minor league player in Dylan Reese comes up to attempt to do the impossible and replace Andrew MacDonald's twenty five plus steady minutes on a day Snow could have tried to add someone with an NHL background today and where the toughest questions for him need to be asked.
Even Aaron Johnson has more NHL background than Dylan Reese and was traded for today with Martin Skoula going from Pens to Leafs to New Jersey.
It also says something Garth Snow (for now) did not try yet to recall Witt and risk losing him to re-entry waivers. That defensive depth chart is very thin right now.
As much as I wanted to see Doug Weight go to a team in a playoff spot with perhaps Richard Park this team is still in some realistic contention and the return for them at best would have been low round picks or conditional compensation.
If you expected Snow to do better there you have not been paying attention to the market.
The goaltending front is back to square one and even tougher because we don't know where things go from here with Rick DiPietro. If he returns it's three goalies for two spots where in reality for games to matter you need one hot goalie stealing points and one occasional backup.
Not three players.
Dwayne Roloson enters this summer signed for next season.
Up front, I guess a left wing comes up to replace a right wing in Hunter or Bergenheim leaves the bench for now.
What's next is New York plays a very different Atlanta team but one that added Chris Chelios (via AHL pending waivers) plus a few players.
Maybe a few players get hot like Blake Comeau has, many are overdue for a hot streak. Garth Snow stood by his players or frankly the market was not worth moving them for the return which is really the bottom line w/new injuries for this day.
Note-ALL NYIFC Trade deadline feeds, links and sections have been removed. Prospect blog was updated to include all Bridgeport transactions.
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