Rumor: NHL veteran to be traded within the next 24 hours.

It's hardly the kind of treatment befitting a former Stanley Cup Champion but that's the way the hockey business works. 

On Thursday the Montreal Canadiens announced that they had placed veteran defenseman Mark Streit on the waiver wire, a relatively surprising move given the fact that the Canadiens were actively working to trade him this week. 

However there is now a growing belief that the decision to place him on waivers may in fact have been a manoeuvre to make him a more appealing trade target for rival teams. 

According to Sportsnet insider Chris Johnston, the man who broke the news the Streit was headed to waivers, there are a number of teams who are more willing to trade for a player once he has cleared waivers. Johnston points to the Calvin Pickard trade last week, a move that was made by the Maple Leafs after Pickard had cleared the waiver wire. 

The reasoning behind this is the fact that a team trading for a player who has just cleared can immediately send him down to the American Hockey League without having to place him on waivers. A trade also is preferable to a pick up on waivers because it allows you to send a contract back the other way, even if it is a contract that belongs to a relatively insignificant player. 

No word yet on the teams that have interest in Streit, but there are a lot of rumors suggesting that he will not be a Montreal Canadien for very much longer. 

[pub]