(Boston,MA) The New England Sharks traded recently acquired defenceman Sheldon Souray to the Edmonton Lumberjacks today, getting in return former Shark Nick Schultz.
"Last year, we dealt Nick to St. Louis for Jason Smith, said Sharks GM Robert Dumont, and we're happy to have him back".
Both Souray and Schultz have been on a rollercoaster ride this past week. First, Souray was selected by Winnipeg (from Saskatoon) in the expansion draft and he was quickly traded to New England for $2 million cash. Now, Souray finds himself in Edmonton. As for Schultz, he too was selected in the expansion draft by the same team as Souray (Winnipeg) from St. Louis. He was then dealt to Edmonton for the Lumberjacks' 2nd pick.
Schultz joins an already impressive defence corps in Hartford. Tomas Kaberle and Sergei Gonchar make up the top D pairing while Eric Brewer and Tom Preissing make up the 2nd one. Schultz will have to wait until the UFA market gets underway to see who he will be paired up with as the Sharks will go after 3 unrestricted free agent blueliners.
Speaking of blueliners, the Sharks traded Edmonton's 1st pick in 2009 to the Vancouver Jackals in exchange for Portland's 2nd pick in this draft. With that pick, the Sharks selected defenceman Braydon Coburn. The 6 foot 5, 220 pound native of Calgary will join the team for training camp and might get to see some pre-season action. However, it's probable that he will not crack the lineup this year and will be sent down to the Sharks' affiliate, the Halifax Whalers.
"With the loss of Joni Pitkanen to expansion, we decided we needed to take action and draft a big time defenceman like Braydon, said Dumont, and he will have a place on our roster next season for sure. Braydon will be a future #1 defenceman. He has the makings of an all around performer".
Next season, the Sharks will lose Eric Brewer to free agency and that spot will probably be Coburn's to lose.
In other news, the team lost Stephane Yelle and Scott Nichol to waivers today. Yelle was picked up by Boston and Nichol went to Edmonton.
On offence, the team has Heatley, Kariya, Fedotenko and Maltby on LW. On RW, there's St. Louis, Pominville, Boyes and Jarkko Ruutu. At Center, the Sharks have Crosby and Mikko Koivu. It is rumoured that Dominik Hasek is on the trade block and the team is looking for a 2nd line centerman in return. If the team doesn't acquire one, two UFA centermen will be agressively courted.
-Netcam Neely
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