The Jamie Langenbrunner Sweepstakes Are On

Surprise, surprise. The Devils are so desperate for life that they have asked longtime player and current captain Jamie Langenbrunner to waive his no-trade clause earlier today. Even more surprising, one of the top contenders to trade for Langenbrunner turned out to be the Philadelphia Flyers. In fact, the Flyers played the Devils in the Prudential Center tonight and what only seemed like an awkward game of hide and seek broke out between Paul Holmgren and Lou Lamoriello. At least according to the Flyers reporters, who kept saying that Homer was looking for Lou.

A trade for Langenbrunner would be very interesting, and one that I am not sure is wholly necessary. The Flyers are one of the best teams in the NHL, why do you need Langenbrunner? Is Laviolette that upset with Nikolay Zherdev?

Langenbrunner's contract expires after this year and is due to be paid $2.8M. That's a pretty big cap hit for a team that is currently just under the salary cap, an amazing feat for Holmgren whose strong points in life do not include math. Rumored offers from the Flyers include a 3rd and 5th round draft pick. Eklund has reported for hours now that Langenbrunner to Dallas is a done deal, though no one else is saying that, including the very reliable Tom Gulitti of The Record, who is saying this whole Langenbrunner saga is a big unknown amongst anyone. Flyers reporters are disagreeing with each other, from Panotch quoting Eklund's Dallas report and getting that report over the air on CSN, to Sam Carchidi of the Inquirer's above tweet that has the Flyers still in it with an exact offer, to Anthony San Filippo of the Delaware County Times yelling at me after tweeting a quote from one of his sources that the Flyers were not getting Langenbrunner moments after Eklund's "report" came out and me asking him if Eklund was his source.

Basically, this whole thing is a huge messy unknown that Lou Lamoriello appears to be sleeping on.

Update: Jamie Langenbrunner is a Dallas Star.