Lehtonen Trade Details

Eight years ago, the Atlanta Thrashers had what they thought were cornerstones of a future contender, using high first-round picks on Dany Heatley, Ilya Kovalchuk and Kari Lehtonen.

Now, none of those pieces remains for this sorry, sorry (did I mention sorry?) NHL franchise.

Heatley got shipped out of Georgia long ago. Kovalchuk got his walking papers last week. The final domino to fall was that of goaltender Kari Lehtonen. The talented but brittle 26-year-old goalie never really got going in Atlanta. However, his .912 career save percentage suggests he could flourish on a better team. The Dallas Stars are gambling on just that; they acquired Lehtonen yesterday for defensive prospect Ivan Vishnevskiy and a fourth-rounder.

The big loser in this deal: Marty Turco. He’s over the hill and always tanks in the second half. If I’m Dallas, I want to give Lehtonen as many chances as possible down the stretch to prove he can be ”the guy,” as he’s a restricted free agent this summer.

[EaglesLinc]

Dallas is currently going nowhere sitting in 10th place in the West so they might as well change things up in goal.