Yahoo! and theScore team up for NHL Trade Deadline coverage

The NHL trade deadline is coming up fast, and there are still plenty of questions to be answered around the league. Will the Dallas Stars succeed in trading Brad Richards for a first-round pick, a top-flight prospect and a major international airport? Will the Pittsburgh Penguins’ efforts at rebuilding the 2001 team succeed with the return of Jaromir Jagr? And will Bryan McCabe finally be the guy to give New Yorkers what they truly want — an NFL title for the Giants?

To answer these questions and more, theScore has teamed up with Yahoo! Sports to give NHL fans in-depth coverage of Deadline Day on Monday the 28th.

And the coverage won’t just be on TV; you can get updates and insight from the staffs of both of these excellent sports journalism organizations online through mobile devices, at theScore.com and Yahoo! Sports, theScore’s XM Satellite Radio station and theScore iPad Edition.

Fans of Greg Wyshinski’s excellent Puck Daddy blog will not be disappointed, as Wyshinski will have over five hours of coverage on theScore Satellite Radio, giving updates and breaking down the deals. Personalities from both theScore and Yahoo! will be updating their Twitter accounts frequently, so you can keep up to date that way as well.

All these ways of keeping up to date will be definitely useful at this year’s deadline, which might not see too many blockbusters, but could certainly see a lot of smaller moves as contender teams stock up for Stanley Cup runs.

Of course, no trade deadline talk would be complete without sure-to-be-inaccurate predictions, so here are mine for the 2011 NHL Trade Deadline. Honestly, if even one of these predictions come true, I’ll be pretty proud of myself. My standings in the office fantasy league do not belie psychic powers on my part.

• Brad Richards isn’t going anywhere. He’s too hurt, the asking price is too steep and the Stars are better off with him.
• Who says you can’t go home? Jason Arnott will be moved, and my money’s on the Predators to take the veteran center back.
• The Canucks will add a depth defenseman for the playoffs; salary must be moved, and my prediction is that Raffi Torres is done in Van City. This move officially makes the Swedish National Team — I mean, the Canucks — nigh unstoppable.
• Philadelphia won’t go for a veteran goaltender. When you score as many goals as they do, and you’ve got a deep pool of budget goalies playing with a hot hand, you don’t need to blow the bank on a guy like Tomas Vokoun.
• At least one Maple Leafs fan will commit suicide when Brian Burke invariably does something stupid on Monday.

How interested are Techvibes readers in this year’s trade deadline? Anyone got any bold predictions for 2011? Feel free to post them here, and don’t worry, your NHL predictions can’t be any worse than Pierre McGuire’s.