Trade Deadline Predictions!

1. Sundin, Tanguay, Hossa, Campbell, Roloson and Jokinen all stay. Sundin and Tanguay won't waive their no-trade clause, Hossa and Campbell are critical to their respective bubble team's chances of making the playoffs, and Jokinen is awesome and has an affordable contract.

2. The Leafs trade Pavel Kubina. They'll get a few draft picks in what will amount to a pure salary dump. San Jose is my guess, they went after Redden supposedly and they'll have to get past Anaheim's monster blue-line corps eventually. Kubina's big, has a good shot and if he can stay healthy might prove useful.

3. No big names. There's so many teams within striking distance of the playoffs that GMs will be unwilling to upset their teams with major deals. Even a team like Edmonton, who've flirted with Pretender status all year, won't concede their season with selloffs. There's some bottom-feeding teams that should certainly dump impending UFA's, like LA's Brad Stuart, Ladislav Nagy, or Rob Blake. Blake said he wouldn't waive his no-trade clause so he won't go, but LA will try and should succeed in moving Stuart and Nagy.

4. Same story in Tampa. The Big Three stays, Boyle will stay unless a big offer comes along but Vaclav Prospal goes to Dallas. Maybe a goalie prospect in return? Or maybe Roloson goes there... no, I'm not going to contradict myself.

5. The story of the deadline will be draft picks. They're the new NHL currency and with GMs everywhere in love with this year's draft depth they'll be in demand for all teams, not just rebuilding ones. Also, I think this off-season will feature more offer sheets, meaning teams will have to accumulate draft picks to offer as compensation if they go poaching. Joni Pitkonen and Jarret Stoll could sure help the Oilers' rebuild if they get a big money offer from some team that Kevin Lowe's pissed off. If Pitkonen gets a $5 million/year contract, that's two first rounders, a 2nd and a 3rd if I understand it properly. Maybe Buffalo tries to get revenge and makes a stupid offer, especially if they lose Campbell to free agency. Kevin Lowe is a genius, isn't he?

6. TSN, Sportsnet, The Score and their websites make lists of Top Ten Best Deadline Deals, Worst Deadline Deals, Biggest Name Players Traded, Best Deadline Day Analysts, Worst Deadline Day Analyst Toupees, etc, etc, etc. These will occupy most of the coverage because frankly, nobody seems to think a whole lot is going to happen. Not enough cap space (though that's a disputable factor), too many teams in contention and too many no-trade clauses mean the best part of Deadline Day will be Jay Onrait's blog. Enjoy!