The Oilers have been giving Khabibulin more playing time lately and it’s helped both the club and the 40-year old’s trade value.  Perhaps none more so than last night’s 3-0 victory in St. Louis that saw Khabibulin make an astonishing 43 saves for the shutout.

His stats on the season are impressive albeit a small sample size.  Through seven games started this season for Edmonton, Khabibulin is 3-3-1 with a neat 1.93 GAA and a 0.941 save percentage proving that he can still make the big saves when needed. A value that will have many clubs inquiring about his services over the next week.

It’s not surprising to learn that Khabibulin could be moved by the trade deadline.  The Oilers have made it clear that Devan Dubnyk is going to be their number one netminder moving forward and acquiring what would likely be a draft pick for Khabi is better than losing him for nothing after this season when his contract runs out.  The club won’t re-sign him so why not take a draft pick for him and part ways now.

Both Nick Kypreos and Doug MacLean of Sportsnet get the sense that there is a market developing for Khabibulin.  They note that clubs that are in need of some veteran goaltending such as the Toronto Maple Leafs could be phoning Oilers’ GM Steve Tambellini about the former Stanley Cup winner’s services.  They also mention that clubs that have had interest in other netminders like Roberto Luongo, Ben Bishop, Jonathan Bernier and recently Miikka Kiprusoff could be drawn to the lower price tag of Khabibulin versus paying a king’s ransom for any of the aforementiond four.

“I think he fits right in there with a lot of teams,” said MacLean. “I think you can get Khabibulin for the right price point and he can come in and bring you some stability and security … I think he’s a second-round pick for Khabibulin.”

Time will tell if the Oilers move the veteran goalie, but all signs point to a deal being had in the next week.  Stay tuned, we’ll keep you updated as this story breaks.

Senators forward Jason Spezza will be out of the lineup Tuesday when the Sens host the Washington Capitals.  According to Sportsnet’s Ian Mendes, Spezza is out with an upper-body injury but it doesn’t sound too serious.

Head coach Paul McLean told Mendes that Spezza’s injury shouldn’t be cause for concern with Senators fans.

“MacLean says that Spezza will not play tonight. He will be further evaluated, but sounds like he’s day-to-day.”

The Edmonton Oilers could have veteran goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin back in the near future according to the Edmonton Sun.  Khabibulin has been recovering from hip surgery that followed the injury last spring.  His timetable for his first start is not yet known but the Russian native feels strongly that he’ll be ready to go sooner rather than later.

“I feel pretty good in practice now, I guess whenever there’s a chance to start again, I’ll probably be able to do that.”

Meanwhile, the Colorado Avalanche were without their captain Gabriel Landeskog during last night’s defeat to the Oilers and the news this morning is much better than anticipated.

Landeskog was sidelined with head and leg injuries after being the victim of a Brad Stuart, open-ice hit on the weekend.  It was originally thought that the captain was out indefinitely, but according to Adrian Dater of the Denver Post, Landeskog’s condition could be day-to-day.  Should this hold true, the Avalanche could have Landeskog back within the next week or so.

The club is not ruling out a concussion but they aren’t calling the injury one either.

If you’re interested in writing for Fansided, please fill our application here.

Toronto vs Minnesota

There were only 10 games on the night of January 19th. Out of these 10, there were two games that went into a shootout. Those teams were Detroit Red Wings vs Phoenix Coyotes and the Calgary Flames vs the Los Angeles Kings. The Red Wings won with a turnaround goal by Todd Bertuzzi. (more…)