BUFFALO, NY ~ The Buffalo Sabres made their first move of the offseason, by aquiring stud young defenseman Joni Pitkanen in exchange for All-Star defenseman Niklas Lidstrom. The move move is a gamble, as loosing argueably the best defenseman in the game leaves a huge hole in the Sabres blueline. The hole will definitly not be filled by Pitkanen alone, at least not this year.
In Pitkanen, though, the Sabres grab one of the best young defenders the OTHL has seen. At only 23 years of age, he has already a full seaso under his belt, and may very well be headed to a Hall of Fame career. Now, that is some very high expectation sof rthis youngster, but so far, he has lived up to them, no matter how unjust they are. "We believe that Joni can be the anchor on our blueline for years to come. with Nik, we were not sure we would be able to retain him after this upcoming season. We had approached him after we traded for him to sign an extension, but he did not have an interst at that time to do so. So we did what we felt ws best for the future of this franchise, and that was to complete this trade. Of course Joni will not be able to fill Nik's shoes, but not many player can. In the near future though, we are sure that Joni will have proved to us we made the correct decision."