Sunday, November 30, 2008

Another d-man on the block?

The Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch reports today that Hurricanes defenceman Joe Corvo could be available in a salary-slashing move for Carolina GM Jim Rutherford.

I'm not a huge fan of reporting on rumours, especially ones that don't even cite anonymous sources, let alone an actual person with a name. But if Corvo is indeed available he may be worth a look for Habs GM Bob Gainey, assuming of course he's not also in salary-slashing mode in an attempt to squeeze Mats Sundin under the cap.

Corvo has another year left on his contract at $2.75 million per, but his cap hit is a shade lower at $2.625 million. The Habs have a bit under $2 million in available space right now, and sending an impending free agent like Mathieu Dandenault along with a pick or prospect back to Carolina in the deal would take care of that.

Is Corvo worth the trouble? Not sure, but he had 48 points in 74 games last season, including 21 points in 23 games after being traded to Carolina from Ottawa in February.

And one more thing: he's a right-handed shot.

He would appear to me to be the ideal solution to the fourth defenceman problem on the Habs, and would instantly make the top-six quite formidable when Mike Komisarek returns because Josh Gorges would slide back down to the third pairing with Francis Bouillon while continuing his role as an elite penalty-killer.

Again, I'm not sure if Corvo is in fact available, but it could be worth a little fact-checking phone-call from Gainey.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always take Garrioch with a huge grain of salt. He cites anonymous sources & I can't remember the last time one of his rimors cane to pass.

Kevin

Neil said...

Corvo wouldn't be any good in a habs uniform. The reason Ottawa traded him is because he didn't like all the scrutiny he faced playing in Canada. He'd never play in Montreal if that's the case.