Red Wings acquire Brad Stuart; Holland: 'We think he's a perfect no. 4'The Red Wings acquired defenseman Brad Stuart from Los Angeles Kings Tuesday, just before the end of the NHL trade deadline.
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The Wings gave up a second-round pick in 2008 and a fourth-round pick in 2009.
Stuart, 6-foot-2 and 28 years old, has five goals and 16 assists and is a minus-16 in 63 games this season. He’ll be a good second-pairing addition, likely to be paired with Niklas Kronwall – which also means that on a nightly basis, either one of Chris Chelios, Andreas Lilja and Brett Lebda will be a healthy scratch.
General manager Ken Holland said he expects Stuart to be at practice Thursday.
“He gives us one more defenseman,” Holland said. “We think he’s a perfect no. 4 for us. He can play a little bit on the second power play, he can kill some penalties, he gives us some size, he’s abrasive. We played against him last year in the Calgary series, we thought he played real well against us. He gives us depth.”
The Wings tried to sign Stuart last summer, but he turned them down because he wanted to stay on the West Coast.
In other updates from Rexall Place, where the Red Wings finished their morning skate in preparation for tonight’s game against the Oilers: Kris Draper said his groin felt much better, and he expects to be in the lineup tonight.
Marian Hossa was traded from Atlanta to Pittsburgh just as the NHL reached the 3 p.m. trade deadline, and earlier in the day, former Wing Sergei Fedorov was traded to Washington.
Fedorov was one of the guys the Wings were looking at to upgrade their offense, which, could use a boost.
The Colorado Avalanche, enmeshed in a battle to make the playoffs, have made a big splash over the past two days, signing Peter Forsberg Monday and, Tuesday, adding Adam Foote and Ruslan Salei. With Joe Sakic back from injury, joining a lineup that also includes Paul Stastny and Ryan Smythe, make the Avs a team to contend with down the stretch drive.
San Jose, too, made a great pick-up in Brian Campbell, who gives them the power play quarterback they badly need. Steve Bernier, I think, wasn’t a bad price to pay; he’s not the hardest worker I’ve seen. Buffalo also gets San Jose’s 2008 first-round pick, but the Sharks had to do something to jolt their back end.
In other former Wings news, Martin Lapointe went from Chicago to Ottawa for a sixth-round pick in the 2008 draft. This is a great, cheap pickup for the Senators; personally, if the Wings could have gotten Lapointe for this price, I think it’d have been a better move than to re-sign Darren McCarty, because at least Lapointe has shown he can still play in the NHL.
Draper said his groin tightened up Monday “about halfway through the skate and I just came off as a precautionary measure. Today I skated and I felt pretty good, so I want to go.”
Kronwall (clavicle) will be back Friday, and Dominik Hasek will back up tonight. Jimmy Howard said he will be flying to Hamilton, Ontario, this afternoon to rejoin the Grand Rapids Griffins.
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