The clubs announced the swap of minor league forwards Monday.

Wilson has played in 39 NHL games and has five points in 22 AHL games this season with Syracuse. The Lightning acquired the two-time Calder Cup champion from Nashville last summer.

Sexton has 16 points in 27 games with the Ducks’ AHL affiliate in Norfolk this season. He signed with Anaheim in 2009 and has played in 88 NHL games.

The post Ducks, Lightning swap forwards appeared first on IdealCapper.

Ford will report to the Blue Jackets’ American Hockey League in Springfield, Mass.

Originally selected by Chicago in the eighth round, 256th overall, of the 2004 NHL draft, Ford has 72 goals and 69 assists in 256 career AHL games with Hartford, Lake Erie, Hershey and Adirondack.

The 6-foot-1, 207-pound right winger, a California native who played college hockey at Wisconsin, has four goals and nine assists in 35 AHL games this season.

The post Blue Jackets trade for Matthew Ford appeared first on IdealCapper.

The Hawks recalled goaltender Henrik Karlsson from the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL.

Crawford missed the morning skate as the team prepared to face the San Jose Sharks on Friday night.

“He’s out for today, day to day, upper body,” coach Joel Quenneville said after Friday’s morning skate. “Didn’t feel great (after Thursday’s) practice. That’s where he’s at.”

When asked if Crawford could play Sunday against the Los Angeles Kings, Quenneville said, “We’ll see.”

Karlsson was at Friday’s practice along with goaltender Ray Emery, who is scheduled to start against the Sharks.

Emery is 3-0-0 with a 2.60 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage. He made a career-high 45 saves and stopped all three shootout shots in a 3-2 win win against the Calgary Flames on Feb. 2. “The guys have played well no matter who’s in net,” Quenneville said. “They’ve been consistent. I think there’s confidence no matter who’s in the net in both ways this year. I think Ray is coming off another solid game after a spectacular game in Calgary. I think he’s had a real good approach to the season as well. I’m sure he’s excited about playing today as well.”

The 29-year-old Karlsson was acquired from the Flames for a 2013 seventh-round pick on Jan. 21. He had a 2-2-0 record with a 2.23 GAA and a .919 save percentage with the IceHogs this season.

“Well, he’s big,” Quenneville said of the 6-foot-6, 209-pound Karlsson. “He’s got some NHL games under his belt. He looked all right in practice today, too, so he gives us a nice addition to lineup as far as the organization as well when we picked him up a couple weeks ago.”

Karlsson, who is originally from Sweden, played 26 regular-season games with the Flames spanning the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons. He was 5-9-8 with a 2.79 GAA and a .905 save percentage with Calgary. After beginning his professional career in the Swedish Elite League, he was signed by the Sharks in 2009 and traded to the Flames in 2010.

The post Corey Crawford misses practice appeared first on IdealCapper.

The 35-year-old Redden was placed on waivers this week by the New York Rangers, who bought out the final two years of his contract on Thursday.

Also on Friday, the Blues released 35-year-old defenseman Colin White, who was brought in for a tryout earlier this week. White is three games shy of 800 over 12 NHL seasons. He played in 54 games for the San Jose Sharks last season after 11 seasons with the New Jersey Devils.

Redden, who spent the past two seasons with Connecticut of the AHL, had five goals and 35 assists in 156 regular-season games with the Rangers over two seasons after he signed a six-year, $39 million deal to leave Ottawa.

Under the new labor deal, Redden will earn a pro-rated $3.341 million this season plus two-thirds of the $5 million he was set to earn next season. In 994 career NHL games over 13 years, Redden has 106 goals and 344 assists.

“Wade is a solid two-way defenseman,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said Friday. “We believe his experience will complement and add stability to our defensive core.”

Redden is scheduled for a physical on Sunday, a day after the Blues open the season at home against the Detroit Red Wings. He was the second overall pick by the New York Islanders in 1995.

The post Blues sign Wade Redden appeared first on IdealCapper.

Similar to the situation between Scott Gomez and the Montreal Canadiens, Redden, 35, is being prohibited by the Rangers from playing for the remainder of the 2013 season in the team’s anticipation of buying him out this summer.

The fear is that he could suffer an injury while playing for the AHL’s Connecticut Whale. According to the recently brokered collective bargaining agreement, teams are allowed two amnesty buyouts beginning this summer to get under the salary cap. However, teams cannot buy out an injured player.

Montreal already informed Gomez that he will not be permitted to play before the buyout. The NHL does not feel the Canadiens did anything wrong in how they decided to handle the situation, sources told ESPN.

Redden’s six-year, $39 million contract has kept him buried in the minors since 2011.

The Rangers have been in contact with both the league and Redden’s agent, Don Meehan, on the matter and, according to one source, they have told Meehan that he is free to seek a trade for his client.

The situation is not believed to be acrimonious.

Reached via email, Meehan told ESPNNewYork.com that they are “working on the situation” and that he hoped to have more clarity by Tuesday.

The post New York Rangers hope to buy out Wade Redden appeared first on IdealCapper.

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospect was arrested in October after being pulled over for driving the wrong way down a one-way street. According to reports, he had a blood-alcohol level of .30, which falls under Michigan’s tough “super drunk” designation. He was still in his purple Teletubby costume from Halloween at the time of the arrest, which was later captured on police video.

It added up to an embarrassing, life-altering event — but not a life-ending one.

“That was one of the things that haunts me the most,” Sheahan told ESPN The Magazine. “You hear so many of those horrific accidents. I think about it could have been me. It’s scary. I’m lucky. Now I can look at everything that happened and move on from it. Maybe live my life a little fuller.”

Sheahan is speaking with the media this week for the first time since the incident in hopes that it adds closure to what’s been a dark chapter in his life. But he has no intention of hiding from that night.

Aside from continuing his career with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins with hopes of joining the Red Wings if the NHL lockout ends, he plans on reaching out to speak to other young athletes to provide a cautionary tale.

“It’s so easy to say, ‘Don’t drink and drive.’ So many kids will be in that position and think they’ll be OK,” Sheahan said. “Just have the keys, ‘It’s a short little drive.’ They think it’s fine. But what you could go through, the possibilities of hurting somebody … that’s something I could tell younger athletes.”

Sheahan, 21, said he hasn’t had any alcohol since the incident, although he hasn’t ruled easing it back into his life at some point. He’s focused on taking advantage of the second chance given to him by the Red Wings organization and forgiving hockey fans.

He hopes the incident doesn’t define him. He’s playing some of his best hockey of the season right now, and the 6-foot-2, 2010 first-round pick is the kind of big body Red Wings coach Mike Babcock appreciates up front.

It’s a long road to erase the memory of an embarrassing and potentially dangerous incident, but he’s starting it.

“You read an article like that, and the first thing that comes to mind is, ‘That kid is an idiot,'” Sheahan said. “That’s something I brought on myself and that’s something I’m going to have to prove to everyone — I can be a good person and not make those kinds of decisions.”

The post Riley Sheahan, Detroit Red Wings prospect, is learning, moving on from DUI appeared first on IdealCapper.