Dose: A Clarkson Redemption?

After seeing Scott Gomez’s old deal get shipped (and netting Ryan McDonagh!) and now David Clarkson being traded - not to mention the outsourcing of contracts like Mike Richards’ and Cristobal Huet - it’s officially time to dismiss the notion that an awful deal cannot get moved.

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(Roberto Luongo is another fine example, as things got so bad for him in Vancouver that even he expressed hatred for his contract.)

Yesterday was a pretty wild one, but with nine games, I’m going to keep this brief to avoid this column going longer than Moby Dick.

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Nathan Horton - He’s done, but you knew that already, right? At minimum, he’s done this season. Poor (rich) guy. The most interesting thing about him is that he now opens the door for the Maple Leafs to do interesting things. Or, you know, make the same mistakes again.

Clarkson - Fits the Columbus Blue Jackets M.O. pretty well, at least if things are going reasonably well - he can score a bit, get some hits and rack up some PIM. He’s basically a very poor man’s Brandon Dubinsky, who was injured last night.

Jaromir Jagr - Now a member of the Florida Panthers, which is weird and slightly disappointing (disappointing mainly because they still face shaky odds of making the playoffs, and at 43, we might not get many more chances to watch No. 68 in the postseason). I’d love to see Jagr skate with someone like Aleksander Barkov and Nick Bjugstad, so this could be fun and add some much-needed entertainment value for Florida.

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Keep an eye on Rotoworld updates as well as this weekend’s Doses (Michael Finewax covers Saturday, Jimmy Hascup’s on deck for Sunday), as there could be some interesting movement over the next few days. I’m back at it on Monday as the deadline roars toward us.

I’ve heard murmurs that it will be a slow deadline, but with these initial moves - it’s still a little surprising to realize Evander Kane actually got out of Winnipeg, even if Buffalo’s not exactly paradise - I’m not ruling out a fun run.

SABRES 6, CANUCKS 3
-- Is it too early to call them the Buffalo Spoilers? They've certainly thrown my FanDuel plans for a loop lately. The rest of the league - whether it be fellow tankers or those hoping the likes of the Canucks stumble - must be cheering Buffalo more than Tim Murray is right now. He really might need to pull a Coyotes with Dubnyk on Michal Neuvirth at this point.

-- Interesting that there was just one penalty called in this one (just 27 seconds in, too), with Buffalo going 0-for-1 on the power play. Might Vancouver have fared a little better with more liberal whistles?

-- Chris Stewart continues to get points and/or PIM, to the level that I wonder if he might suffer fantasy-wise if he gets traded. The notable exception is that his -30 rating would almost certainly stabilize.

-- Kudos to Zack Kassian for generating some offense with the Sedins, but I still think Radim Vrbata is a better fit (same for Alexandre Burrows when healthy).

SENATORS 1, KINGS 0
-- Look, I still have a hard time believing that Andrew Hammond is a long-term solution for the Senators or your fantasy team, yet I think he deserves to get a short-term look by both. Not many goalies can say that shut out the Ducks and Kings on back-to-back nights, especially 27-year-olds who went undrafted and boast skimpy hockey resumes.

I’m probably going to have to retire the nickname “Hammond Egger” in favor of the more popular Hamburglar nickname, too.

-- Mike Hoffman just. Keeps. Scoring.

-- Checking back in with Bobby Ryan, he's having a pretty nice season with 15 goals and 45 points in 55 games played. Barring an epic finish, we'll have to wait for him to find the form that helped him put together four straight 30-goal seasons to start his career, however.

-- Jonathan Quick lost, but in stopping 27 out of 28 shots, it obviously wasn't all on him.

RANGERS 4, COYOTES 3
-- The Rangers under Cam Talbot seem to be all about winning while rarely getting style points. Granted, Talbot wasn't just along for the ride on Thursday, stopping 37 out of 40 shots, but he allows a considerable amount of goals for a guy with a fairly pristine 12-5-3 record.

-- Speaking of which, Mike Smith boasts two fewer wins despite playing a ton of games, as he goes down to 10-29-5 on the season. He easily boasts the most losses in the NHL so far, as Jhonas Enroth comes in second with 24.

-- Feels like the Coyotes are just burning money with Sam Gagner (two goals last night), although they DO have to get to the cap floor somehow, right?

-- Much like Gagner, Chris Kreider's two goals came on the power play on Thursday. Kreider can market versatility that Ganger cannot: 84 PIM, 137 SOG and 129 hits explain his solid 66 percent ownership rate.

RED WINGS 3, SHARKS 2
-- Boy, did this game turn. San Jose generated a 1-0 lead and 14-4 shot edge in the first period, then Detroit generated a ridiculous 31-8 advantage in the final 40 minutes in taking over this game.

-- If I were Ken Holland, I'd be aggressive in trading, whether it means getting a defenseman like James Wisniewski or a few different assets. I see nothing outrageous about the Red Wings acting as if they can win the East ... because they could.

-- Antti Niemi really must have frustrated Darren Helm, who had some golden opportunities within his six SOG.

-- As useful as Brent Burns has been on defense - it's nice that he gets more TOI this way - his monstrous work as a forward is missed in games like these. San Jose's mixed messages regarding rebuilding and contending make them kind of frustrating, and may just land them in the untenable situation that is purgatory between making the playoffs and getting better draft picks.

WILD 4, PREDATORS 2

-- Nino Niederreiter scored twice in this one, including getting his 21st goal of the season on one of the most impressive empty-net goals you'll ever see.

-- Craig Smith notched his 20th goal in an impressive way in his own right.

-- It says a lot about the West that the Wild are just barely in the second wild card spot even after this tremendous run by Devan Dubnyk.

-- Pretty awful night for the usually effective line of James Neal, Mike Ribeiro and Filip Forsberg. All three suffered -3 ratings and failed to get a single point.

BLUES 2, JETS 1 (SO)

-- Sorry to be mean to Jiri Tlusty, but it's difficult for me to avoid giggling at the idea of the Jets puffing out their chests about going "all-in" by adding a pretty marginal forward.

-- Dustin Byfuglien's raucous hit got a lot of attention, but Andrew Ladd was throwing his body around the most frequently, generating 10 hits to go with his assist.

-- With Brian Elliott and Jake Allen providing competent-to-great goaltending, the Blues can set their sites on adding a skater or two. Improving depth on both offense and defense wouldn't be such a bad idea, especially on the blueline.

(That's not to say they're weak in an area, but rather that they're in position for their best chance at a deep run in a long, long time and should go ... well, "all-in.")

BLACKHAWKS 3, PANTHERS 0

-- Teuvo Teravainen has some talent, and seeing him score a goal in his return to the fold is a great thing. Still, it came on only one SOG and he only received 9:50 TOI, so the chances aren't really there yet.

-- As scrappy as the Panthers tend to be, a -27 goal differential doesn't exactly inspire much confidence. It's actually pretty remarkable that the Boston Bruins' even differential serves as a clear dividing point for the East, as everyone above them has at least +20 while everyone aside from the Senators (+6) are well into the minus range.

-- The safest Chicago line might be the stable one of Brandon Saad (one goal, one assist), Jonathan Toews (one goal) and Marian Hossa (two assists). Even so, I'll keep my eyes on how some of the others.

-- Corey Crawford bounced back from a three-game losing streak with his second shutout and 24th win of the season. He may ultimately be Marc-Andre Fleury 2.0 in fantasy: rarely spectacular, but good enough and in a good enough situation to put together numbers that aren't that far from the elite range (especially when it comes to wins and other team-boosted numbers).

MAPLE LEAFS 3, FLYERS 2

-- It has been a while since Jonathan Bernier flat-out stole a game for Toronto, hasn't it? Or it's at least been a rare sight lately. Anyway, Philly more than doubled Toronto's shots in each period (49-17 overall), yet the Maple Leafs won this one in regulation. Those numbers argue that the Buds' rare two-game winning streak might be a TOUCH misleading.

Still, many Maple Leafs fans are really just celebrating the Clarkson exodus, anyway.

-- Stat-oriented fans of the Leafs could really get excited if they trade Tyler Bozak, too, as some rumored. He put himself on solid display with a goal and an assist, giving him 39 points on the season.

-- Michael Del Zotto continues to produce as of late, as Thursday's assist gives him three points in his last four games.

-- He is unlikely to flirt with the 62 (and 56)-point peak of his career, but Mark Streit's done quite nicely this season, generating 40 points in 62 games. His plus/minus isn't so bad as to ruin things, either, as he's at -4 right now.

CANADIENS 5, BLUE JACKETS 2

-- Look, I know Montreal's made some trades, but I'd like to see them make one or two that inarguably improve their team. They're getting the results they often want, but the underlying numbers argue that they'd be at a serious risk of following to a first-round opponent, especially a solid one like the hated Boston Bruins.

(Even if Montreal's been clobbering Boston head-to-head lately.)

-- Andrei Markov has had a nice season, but he's really sizzling lately. He scored a goal and an assist, giving him five points in his past three games. He also generated a +5 rating, much like P.K. Subban did, last night.

-- Max Pacioretty scored 30+ goals for the third season of his career and the third in a row if you throw out that streak-killing lockout nightmare of 2012-13 (when he wasn't far off a 30-goal pace with 15 goals in 44 games). I love that he just keeps bombing away, as he's second in the NHL with 235 SOG, which translates to almost four per game in 61.

-- James Wisniewski has not been playing well - maybe the trade talk is getting to him - as he has a -5 rating and one assist in his past three games. Is he really better off blocking a trade here? Then again, he's been uprooted quite a bit in his career, so I get why he wants stability over Cup contention (especially since Columbus could conceivably compete with better health luck).