Goodnight, Sweet Prince.

It's official - Rick Nash is no longer a Buffalo Sabre. After lying through his teeth about why the constant stream of hockey figures were visiting the HSBC Arena, Jay Byers has now leapt into contention for the prestigious title of "Most Hated Man In America" - the smart money has him ahead of George W. Bush but just below Tom Brady - by announcing that the beloved winger and top-scoring Sabre was to be traded to the Philadelphia Flyers. The move effectively represents the point at which this season became a complete bust, but as the under-fire general manager tried to point out to the rioting crowd of fans, the move was not about giving up entirely. In return for Nash, Philadelphia gave up unsettled centre Tom Burr, developing grinder Samuli Lehtinen and, the most important piece of the deal, New Jersey's first-round draft pick in the 2012 Entry Draft. Burr is most likely to join the pro team immediately, although his role is not yet known, while Lehtinen will report to Rochester.

GM Byers was quoted yesterday as saying "while Rick is obviously a big part of our offense, we feel his value is not likely to be this high again and so this trade made the most sense." If he was trying to rationalise his actions, it failed miserably, and he had to deliver the second part of his speech cowering behind a wall of bodyguards. From some of his previous actions, such as the pre-season trade that saw Pierre-Marc Bouchard move to San Jose, it's no surprise that Byers prefers to mould the players under his command himself - Valdis Rostoks has benefited greatly from his time in the AHL this year with the Rochester Americans - and this move is simply representative of his continued philosophy.

As it stands, there is an excellent chance New Jersey's pick will end the season at least as a top-ten pick, if not a top-five, and Byers is supposedly very optimistic that he can draft a player around whom the Sabres can rebuild. Targets include Jouko Vaijarvi, the goaltender ranked #1 by the Central Scouting Bureau, and defenseman Aaron Koharsky.