Murray denies three-way trade with Kings and Sharks

One more update at 10:17 - Dean Lombardi reached out to Bucci and said "it is total bull". I guess that's a no. So Heatley will skip the golf tournament so as to not create a distraction, but it we can all take a breath and get used to him being here on Saturday for physicals.

(Update at 10:08) Even though the GMs deny the trade, NHL.com still thought enough of it to post it, as well. Garrioch is getting all kinds of street cred tonight. I mean, the trade hasn't happened, but his story from 24 hours ago is getting picked up across the US now. Now if only the trade would actually happen, and perhaps the Sharks could throw a pick our way, too.

I started thinking about this a bit more and it isn't as bad as I originally thought. Considering we had kinda come to terms with the Edmonton trade return, we're not far off. Stoll is far more useful to us than Penner, in my opinion. Good competitor, no worries about him being fat, etc. Frolov has more potential than Cogliano. Cogs is good, but small. Frolov has consistency issues but solid hands and is on the verge of a 60 point season. What we're missing is the Smid piece. Can we get a top prospect like a Teubert? Or a bubble player from SJ?

One othe guy that interests me is Carolina's Anton Babchuk who is absolutely about to be traded after turning down a $1M qualifying offer. He's a 6'5" defenceman with a howitzer of a shot, but perhaps he has dressing room issues as he's been said to be unhappy there for a while. Not sure if he's a good guy in a logjam, or he's a problem player we don't need.

Update, sort of (9:55pm): Stoll is signed for three more years at a cap hit of $3.6M, Frolov is signed for just this year at $2.9M. Combined, they are good for $6.5M. If this deal happens, it sure would be nice to know if Frolov is re-signing, eh?

For those following their Internet tonight, ESPN's hockey analyst and friend to Another Sens Blog, John Buccigross, is citing sources saying the deal is done. Kudos to the guys at www.the6thsens.com for spotting this on the wire.

Murray has vehemently denied this, saying only that he's talked to a few teams today but that no deal is close. So what is going to give on this? I know I'm biased for Bucci because he's a cool dude, but would he print that the deal has been made when it is in fact nowhere close? Or is Murray just watching his words now while they wait on both Heatley and Marleau to waive no-trade clauses? Don't forget, Marleau still needs to bless this and folks, LA is not that close to San Jose. The benefit for him would be that he's going to have to leave SJ either now or next summer as a free agent. Given that, why not catch on with an up and coming Kings team and settle in as the #2 centre behind Kopitar for the foreseeable future? They have a much brighter outlook than his Sharks!

But we're getting ahead of ourselves again. Let's see if Murray is just being cautious or if Bucci is jumping the gun.