Roster Deadline Causes Flurry of Trades

The Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild, the NHL’s newest teams, have yet to play a game, but they made their first impact in the league Monday.

Fearful of losing players they could not protect in the upcoming expansion draft, several general managers made significant deals.

General managers for 26 teams (recent expansion clubs Atlanta and Nashville were exempt) had until 3 p.m. PDT Monday to submit lists of protected players to the NHL office.

The league will make the lists available today. Teams could protect up to one goaltender, five defensemen and nine forwards or two goalies, three defensemen and seven forwards.

The Blue Jackets and Wild will each select 26 players June 23 in Calgary.

Pierre Gauthier, Mighty Duck president and general manager, landed rugged defenseman Patrick Traverse from the Ottawa Senators, who could not protect him. Rather than let Traverse go for nothing in return in the expansion draft, the Senators dealt with the Ducks and acquired minor-league defenseman Joel Kwiatkowski only hours before a noon trade deadline.

Likewise, the Ducks had no plans to protect winger Ed Ward and sent him to the Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils for a seventh-round pick in the 2001 draft.

Saturday, the Ducks acquired goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere from the Calgary Flames, who could not protect him.

“These were opportunities that usually don’t happen but did because of expansion,” Gauthier said. “We were very aggressive. We played general manager of the other clubs and put ourselves in their shoes and determined who they would protect and wouldn’t protect.”

The Ducks were not the only team to benefit from rivals’ concerns about the expansion draft. Minnesota dealt draft picks to acquire goalie Manny Fernandez and defenseman Brad Lukowich from the Dallas Stars and defenseman Andy Sutton from the San Jose Sharks.

San Jose also sent forward Jan Caloun and a ninth-round pick in the draft to Columbus for future considerations.

The Philadelphia Flyers acquired center Mark Janssens, a former Duck, from the Chicago Blackhawks for a ninth-round pick.

In Anaheim, the addition of Giguere would seem to indicate the Ducks have opted to protect Giguere and veteran Guy Hebert, plus three defensemen, including Traverse, and seven forwards. Gauthier indicated Giguere and Traverse were on his list of protected players, but he refused further comment.