Trade Deadline Open Thread

Today is looking like it will be a slow day for San Jose considering the acquisition of Ian White last week, but never rule out Doug Wilson's ability to surprise. He's kind of good at that if you didn't know.

The Sharks most pressing need is that of a backup goaltender, but with Antero Niittymaki practicing and possibly coming back as early as this week, the thoughts of making a waiver claim on a guy like Ty Conklin or Curtis McElhinney are probably a reach. Conklin is probably the best out of the bunch, and we'll know by 9 PM Pacific if San Jose has claimed one of them (again, it's unlikely considering Niittymaki is practicing).

Other than that, here's some things to be on the look out for:

-- LA has been looking for a scoring winger the entire season, and with Marco Sturm being waived, it sets up a situation where many feel Dean Lombardi may strike. If the Kings get a high-profile player it could be a major factor in the West.

-- Brad Richards. Does he stay or does he go?

-- Chicago looking for a defenseman or center to strengthen their depth.

-- Vancouver is looking for a depth forward. The Canucks are constantly dealing with defensive injuries, but with many of those players projected to be 100% by the time the postseason comes around, adding a forward makes them even stronger than they already are.

-- Will be interesting to see what teams buy and sell at the deadline in the West-- still a lot of parity from the third to twelfth seed, although we suspect Columbus will be selling or standing pat.

Let the insanity commence. Considering everything that's happened over the last week however, today's deadline is going to have to have some big shockers in order to live up to the hype usually associated with the day. Not a lot of high profile targets still left on the table.