The Anaheim Ducks allowed six goals on opening night to the Colorado Avalanche, so naturally they’re thinking about adding a defenseman or 12. Luckily, the Flyers have a defenseman or 12!
Dreger on TSN: #Ducks are looking for a defenseman. #Leafs, #Penguins, #Flyers involved. Anaheim may part with young forward for D help.
— Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell) October 4, 2013
The Flyers like Erik Gustafsson more than they like Andrej Meszaros for any number of reasons — cap hit, age, injury history, whatever. They’d like to trade Meszaros and get Gus into the lineup, but they know they need to play Meszaros in order for teams to be interested in him.
So, Meszaros played the other night, and he’ll probably play Saturday. Luckily, his results were pretty solid last night — 19 minutes in ice time, a 77.8 Fenwick percentage (that means 77.8 percent of shot attempts while he was on the ice were in his favor). He looked mobile, he looked healthy, he looked useful. All good things for a guy you’re trying to trade.
About those young forwards Anaheim has on their roster: Just about all of their forwards are young forwards. Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu, Dustin Penner, Daniel Winnik, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Andrew Cogliano are the only ones who could be considered not young. Everybody else fits the description. See anybody you like?
