The doors of the Winnipeg Jets locker room had barely stopped swinging after Eric Tangradi’s arrival when they were burst open again by the departure of Alexei Ponikarovsky. The big Ukrainian forward’s term with the Jets lasted all of 12 games, in which he notched 2 goals and no assists while spending the majority of time on the 3rd line.
Assuming that’s the last trade today, the overall exchange today looks something like this:
IN
OUT
- Alexei Ponikarovsky (Devils)
- 7th Round Pick in 2013 (Penguins)
The Jets were always going to have to make a roster move to free up space for the addition of Tangradi. I was assuming that meant the waiving of Grant Clitsome or Anthony Peluso, so this trade comes as a bit of a surprise.
Ponikarovsky had been noticable for both good and bad reasons this season, scoring the only goal of the game against Ottawa on the weekend, but also being guilty of being penalized at inopportune times that ended up costing the team.
The deal shoudl answer any question as to whether or not Tangradi was going to stay with the big club or get sent down to St. John's. The question now becomes how the bottom 6 is going to shape up now.
A current guess?
#25 Eric Tangradi – #8 Alexander Burmistrov – #13 Kyle Wellwood
#17 James Wright -#19 Jim Slater – #22 Chris Thorburn / #14 Anthony Peluso
Not very pretty, but there are few other options at this point. Unless the Jets trade for Ryan O`Reilly…
