FanPost

Evgeny Artyukhin traded to Atlanta

Artoo1_medium Oystrick1_medium
Artoo, in his Star Wars glory, plus my imagined "Oystrick" -- part Oyster, part Ostrich.  Still working on it.

From Jeff Marek's Twitter:

Anaheim trades Evgeny Artyukhin to Atlanta for Nathan Oystrick and a Conditional Draft Choice in 2011.

[UPDATE -- The OC Register Ducks blog offers more:]

The move was made largely to open up a roster spot for winger Dan Sexton, who is expected to be recalled Tuesday. ... The conditional pick is a sixth round pick in 2011 if Artyukhin resigns with Atlanta.

[UPDATE 2 -- More discussion at SBN's Thrashers blog, Bird Watchers Anonymous.  Plus I got this short scouting report about Oystrick from the Falconer:]

He [Oystrick] has plus puck stills and passing abilities and is a good teammate. On the downside, he struggled to stay in NHL condition and tends to grip the stick too tightly in high pressure situations.

[...and, just for fun, here's what I wrote back about Artyukhin:]

To tell the truth, we haven't seen a lot from Artoo this season, mostly because he hasn't cracked the lineup very often.   That is notable, since the Ducks had a stretch last month without Joffrey Lupul, Saku Koivu, and Teemu Selanne, and still minor-leaguers were playing instead of Artyukhin.   Tool-wise, he's excellent -- he's menacingly Pronger-sized and is very fast on his skates, and he has some decent offensive instincts.  But he's also quite clumsy -- he has been suspended twice this season for dangerous hits and is notorious for offensive zone penalties (that's when we use the nickname "ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHtyukhin").

When Artyukhin is good, he is very good -- you'll be amazed when he takes over a game.  But for Ducks fans at least, it only happened two or three times, partially because Carlyle didn't play him very often.  He's a good gamble for his $1M-or-so salary; he'll provide depth at least, along with a few frustrating penalties and an occasional flash of brilliance.  I liked the guy, but Anaheim has fifteen or so forwards -- he wouldn't crack the lineup if it was even reasonably healthy.

I'm still in Olympic hangover tonight, but the trade deadline is upon us -- more on this later.

Go Ducks.

This FanPost was posted by a fan, and it probably sucks and is dumb.

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