Happy Trade Deadline Day!

2:30 - The Ottawa Senators have sent goalie Ben Bishop to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Cory Conacher and a 4th round pick in what's been the most exciting deal of the day thus far. This is a hockey trade, although my immediate reaction is I don't like what Tampa GM Steve Yzerman is giving up here.

Bishop is a good goaltending talent, under team control next season. The Lightning can have him battle Anders Lindback for the starters job. Meanwhile, the diminutive Conacher will go to Ottawa where he is instantly the team's leading scorer this season. The 23-year-old is 2nd among rookies in points but has slowed down considerably since his hot first month to the season.

The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired some depth in preparation for a Sidney Crosby absence, acquiring Jussi Jokinen for a 6th or 7th round pick from the Carolina Hurricanes. Jokinen was on waivers recently, but went unclaimed dude to a salary of $3+ million. The Hurricanes have picked up a portion of Jokinen's salary to facilitate the deal.

12:44 PM - Well so far this deadline is uneventful, to be expected given all the moves that happened yesterday.

The only NHL-level move of the day so far is Scott Hannan going back to the Sharks, with a conditional 6th or 7th round pick headed to Nashville.

The Sharks needed a solid, 3rd pairing stay-at-home blueliner after dealing Douglas Murray a few weeks back to Pittsburgh when it appeared that they would be sellers. Even though they traded Clowe yesterday, a recent five game winning streak seems to have changed their thinking but only slightly. With the way the West is going, another losing streak could do them in especially with little games remaining.

The St. Louis Blues are shopping Wade Redden and the Calgary Flames are shopping Anton Babchuk. Redden has become more of a depth guy throughout the year in St. Louis, but if I were the Isles I would have some interest in Anton Babchuk. He could be worth taking a flyer on if the price is a late round pick.

Since I know people will ask, no, there is nothing further on Brandon Saad. What we heard earlier is probably all we will hear for the remainder of the day. Saad, Jonathan Toews and Pat Kane are seen as the future of the forwards in the Windy City for years to come.

11:33 - Art Staple cites a source saying the Isles are trying to land Brandon Saad from the Chicago Blackhawks. This would be a bold move, and the kind of deals the Isles should be looking into.

I can't think of any way, shape or form the Blackhawks deal this kid. He's a stud, a keeper, and a future star. The Isles have the pieces to move to match what a potential asking price would be, but know the Hawks are VERY high on Saad's future. In my opinion, potential deal would be centered around Nino, and a future 1st round pick.

This is a continuance of the Hawks/Isles rumors from earlier in the week (Streit/Frans Nielsen), so it's possible the talks could be in that direction as well.

11:07 AM - With Sean manning the Twitter account all day, I figured I could offer up my thoughts on the moves around the league throughout the day here by updating this blog post every so often. Always good to have both of our perspectives.

We'll start with the Isles news.

As per Darren Dreger, Art Staple and others, Garth Snow has no intention to trade Mark Streit. Obviously, this is the only decision one can make given the Isles position in the standings. Keep what you already have, kick some tires on what you don't and go from there.

I do not expect, nor should anyone else expect, the Isles to make a move today. But if I were them I would LOVE to add a good, solid, banger-type defenseman. Doesn't have to even be a big name or be anything expensive or crazy. But the Isles and about 17 other teams are looking for something like this.

Yesterday was the day that many teams pulled off their moves, with the Boston Bruins picking up Jaromir Jagr, the New York Rangers giving up draft picks to land Ryane Clowe from the San Jose Sharks, and the Vancouver Canucks adding Derek Roy by sending a prospect and a pick to the Dallas Stars. All three of these moves are solid and helps each of them add an element they were missing. Clowe is struggling this year, but he's a solid player with Ryan Callahan qualities to his game, and the Rangers definitely need that.

Jagr has proved he can still play, and the Bruins needed depth like this. While the moves Pittsburgh has made thus far are impressive, I really like this move for the Bruins and feel it could be quite the under-the-radar move they needed to make while everyone salivates over the Penguins.

What will today bring and is there even anyone else out there left to trade? Well there is, but there's not much. A lot of the players we are hearing about are more suited to be dealt over the summer rather than at trade deadline 2013.

- Chris