Two NHL team's hook up for a 4 player trade on Saturday morning!

We have a significant trade to announce in the early hours of Saturday morning.

According to a breaking news report from Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press the Philadelphia Flyers and the Montreal Canadiens have orchestrated a trade involving 4 different players. Whyno reports that the Flyers will be moving forward Dale Weise and defenseman Christian Folin to the Habs and in exchange the Canadiens will be sending center Byron Froese and defenseman David Schlemko back the other way as part of this deal. It's unclear at this time if there are any additional pieces in the form of picks or prospects moving either way.

This move is interesting a number of levels, but will be especially interesting for long time fans of the Montreal Canadiens organization. Prior to becoming a member of the Philadelphia Flyers organization Dale Weise really made a name for himself in the NHL as a member of the Habs roster. Weise of course has never been what you would consider a star level player but did manage to endear himself to the ultra passionate fans in Montreal with his clutch ability as well as his knack for finding very timely goals for the Canadiens. Weise was reportedly not happy when he left Montreal the first time around and that no doubt only served to make the fans who loved him all the more loyal to him. I highly suspect that Weise will be welcomed back with open arms by fans at the Bell Center, and if he plays tonight against Toronto expect some very loud cheers when his name is first called. 

Outside of the return of Weise to Montreal this seems like a relatively low end hockey trade involving players with similar money at similar stages of their career. The Flyers will save roughly $400,000 in salary cap space by orchestrating this move but I don't think that such a small amount of cap room will end up being the primary motivator behind this deal. No doubt Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher has other irons in the fire but I find it hard to believe that $400,000 in cap space would be enough to get him to pull the trigger on a four player swap. 

More likely the Flyers wanted to shed some offense for depth on the blue line, and vice versa, and with Schlemko and Weise clearly being the key components of this deal it seems like that was the most likely catalyst for this deal.

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