| | PHILADELPHIA -- Two teams at the opposite end of the
Eastern Conference exchanged left wings Tuesday when the
Philadelphia Flyers acquired enforcer Gino Odjick from the New
York Islanders for Mikael Andersson.
| |  | |
| Odjick |
New York also received a fifth-round draft choice in the deal. It was the pick Philadelphia acquired from Carolina as part of the Keith
Primeau trade.
Odjick, 29, had five goals and 10 assists with 90 penalty
minutes in 46 games for the Islanders (16-34-6), who are last in
the Atlantic Division. Philadelphia (28-16-10) stands second in
the Atlantic and third in Eastern Conference.
"I'm certainly happy to be going to a contender," Odjick said.
"It's tough to say goodbye to your friends on the team that you
have been with for a couple of years, but (Islanders general
manager) Mike Milbury told me I was going to a team that has a
chance to win the Stanley Cup, so that's exciting, too."
A native of Quebec, Odjick has 55 goals and 65 assists in 526 regular-season games over parts of 10 NHL seasons for the Islanders (1998-2000) and Vancouver Canucks (1990-1998). He made his Flyers debut Tuesday night, when the Flyers lost 4-2 to New Jersey.
"To add a 6-foot-3, 277-pound winger who has some aggression and
nastiness about him favors our club," Flyers general manager Bob
Clarke said. "If you're going to go to war, you have to have
the weapons. Our preference is for all these guys not to take
penalties but to play clean and hard. By having this muscle in
our lineup, there will be less reason for other teams to want to
mix it up with us."
Odjick was drafted by Vancouver with the 86th overall
selection in the 1990 entry draft. His best season was
1993-94, when he tallied 16 goals and 13 assists in 76 games.
Andersson, 33, had two goals and four assists in 43 games for the
Flyers over the last two seasons. He was acquired from the
Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Colin Forbes on March 20,
1999.
"Mikael Anderson, who we like a lot as a person, is a real good
penalty killer," Clarke added. "But we felt with the
development of Simon Gagne and the additions of Mark Recchi and
Jody Hull, that we have enough penalty killers." | |
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