First off I want to thank everyone for their support today, I want to thank the Hockeyleaks.com team for helping me out today, and I want to thank our readers for being around all day. I have recieved many emails thanking me for today and I really just want to thank you. When I started Hockeyleaks as a blog almost two years ago I never thought more than 25 people would read it. We set new forums and chat records today, and when I get my numbers tomorrow morning I feel that we will have beat our Hits record, which was set last deadline day at 850 000 hits. I think we topped a million today, I'll let you know.
Lets now look at the 5 best deadline teams. For a re-cap of all of the deadline trades check out Hockeyleaks.com.
1. New York Islanders: They are on the outside of the playoffs looking in, so what do they do? They go out and get the biggest name available in Ryan Smyth, plus get a guy like Richard Zednik to improve this team even further. Not only did they make two great deals, but they held on to Jason Blake, who many thought was on his way out. If DiPietro the Islander defense can step up, the Islanders could be very scary.
2. Pittsburgh Penguins: The Pens needed toughness and boy did they get it in Gary Roberts and Georges Laraques. They also added some depth on defense and in goal, and I'd say the Penguins have really improved over the last 24 hours.
3. San Jose: Bill Guerin just adds to this team's really dangerous offense. They kept everything else in tact, plus they added Rivet just a few days ago. The Sharks are proving they are one of the top teams in the West.
4. Detroit: A little bit of a gamble on Bertuzzi but if he pays off Detroit will have added one of the best power forwards in the league. Kyle Calder should re-find himself in Detroit as well.
5. Dallas: Getting Norstrom today is another great pick up and shores up their defense in front of Marty Turco. They already brought Nagy in and also added Baumgartner, so the Stars are looking like they are ready to make a serious run. That being said, they lost this years and next's first round draft picks, so failure would hurt this team quite badly.
Still trying to figure out why Gelinas wasn't dealt, or maybe he was and we don't know it yet? I know Calgary was very much in this.
More later including what you can expect from Hockeyleaks.com in the future.
