June NHL News

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SoSH's Doug Neidermeyer
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Between here and everywhere.
So...consider the source.

But Barstool Sports, via Spittin Chiclets, via Sean Avery is reporting Nazem Kadri has been traded to Winnipeg for Jacob Trouba.

As the kids say - Big, if true.
 

PedroSpecialK

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Jets' beat writer Ken Wiebe has denied that there's a trade in place. Would make sense for both teams though

 

Fred in Lynn

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I guess that’s a pretty fair swap. The Flyers get the better player but not by that much, and Washington gets about $3.3M in cap space, which they really need. The Flyers have about a billion dollars in cap space ($30M after Niskanen) so even with some big UFA signing and new contracts for Sanheim, Konecny, and Provorov they will have room that I expect Chuck to blow through pretty quickly (alas). Gudas has one year left, Niskanen two.
 

RIFan

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I guess Washington is looking to lead the league in games suspended with Gudas and Wilson on the same team. Two of the biggest dirtbags in the league.
 

veritas

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I guess that’s a pretty fair swap. The Flyers get the better player but not by that much, and Washington gets about $3.3M in cap space, which they really need. The Flyers have about a billion dollars in cap space ($30M after Niskanen) so even with some big UFA signing and new contracts for Sanheim, Konecny, and Provorov they will have room that I expect Chuck to blow through pretty quickly (alas). Gudas has one year left, Niskanen two.
Based on last season, this isn't true. Niskanen's underlying numbers fell off a cliff. Gudas was a more valuable player by every metric I've seen. Historically Niskanen has been better, but the Flyers are betting on last year being an aberration and not natural decline. Which is a big risk for a 32 year old.
 

Fred in Lynn

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Fair enough, but if you change the arbitrary time frame to anything over one year it is true. Tell you what - let’s take out the “big risk” part and split the difference. It’s only a modest risk at most. Niskanen isn’t going to be a top-pairing defenseman, he has just two years left on his contract, and the Flyers have a ton of cap space and young defensemen to plug in should the wheels completely fall off him.
 

veritas

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Olli Maatta is only 24. That just blew my mind.

Kind of a weird deal for Chicago. I know they need to get better on D, but they also have 3 great NHL-ready prospects there, and Maatta just adds to the logjam in front of them. I wonder if this points to one of Seabrook/Keith being moved/bought out/retiring/LTIR/etc.
 

coremiller

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Jul 14, 2005
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Erik Karlsson appears to be staying with San Jose.

https://twitter.com/tsnbobmckenzie/status/1140615322174664706?s=21
Also, the first buyouts over the weekend were Dion Phaneuf in LA and Andrew MacDonald in PHI.
Huge deal for the Sharks. They've historically had a difficult time attracting marquee free agents.

Obv Karlsson will need to stay healthy. But until Burns (33) starts to decline the Sharks will have the league's best blue line and with Couture/Hertl/Meier/Kane up front they should remain a contender for several years. Doug Wilson has done a much better job managing the transition out of the Thornton/Marleau/Pavelski era than I thought possible.

This likely means they'll have to dump at least one of Justin Braun/Brendan Dillon as a cap casualty and Pavelski/Thornton will probably have to take hometown discounts if they want to stay.
 

cshea

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8 years at ~$11.5 AAV per McKenzie. I’d be a bit nervous about the term and money.

That leaves them with $12.5mm or so with only 16 guys signed. Guessing that if Joe plays another year he’ll do so on the cheap with a contract structured in bonus’ like Bruins have done with Chara to keep the cap hit down. It is going to be tough to keep Pavelski without moving money out. Meier and Lebanc’s new contracts will eat up most of the remaining cap space after the Karlsson deal.

This also closes the books on the trade with Ottawa. The final haul for other Sens:

Chris Tierney
Dylan DeMelo
Rudolf Balcers
Josh Norris
2019 2nd (FLA)
2020 1st (SJS)
2031 2nd (SJS)

That’s a really good haul. I’d be fascinated to see what a front office with competent ownership could do with what the Sens have now in terms picks, prospects and young roster players they got from this trade and all the others. They have an absolute mountain of picks headed their way, they already have 12 picks in 2020, 7 in the first 3 rounds(!).
 

coremiller

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8 years at ~$11.5 AAV per McKenzie. I’d be a bit nervous about the term and money.

That leaves them with $12.5mm or so with only 16 guys signed. Guessing that if Joe plays another year he’ll do so on the cheap with a contract structured in bonus’ like Bruins have done with Chara to keep the cap hit down. It is going to be tough to keep Pavelski without moving money out. Meier and Lebanc’s new contracts will eat up most of the remaining cap space after the Karlsson deal.

This also closes the books on the trade with Ottawa. The final haul for other Sens:

Chris Tierney
Dylan DeMelo
Rudolf Balcers
Josh Norris
2019 2nd (FLA)
2020 1st (SJS)
2031 2nd (SJS)

That’s a really good haul. I’d be fascinated to see what a front office with competent ownership could do with what the Sens have now in terms picks, prospects and young roster players they got from this trade and all the others. They have an absolute mountain of picks headed their way, they already have 12 picks in 2020, 7 in the first 3 rounds(!).
They will almost certainly dump at least one of Braun and Dillon, maybe both; they are paying those guys a combined 7m next year, and they don't need to be paying their 4th/5th D-men that much. They won't get much in return but somebody might throw them a mid-round pick or 2. That clears up some room to pay the forwards.
 

veritas

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Similar to the return for Hamilton. Teams won’t pay for RFAs who are looking for market value.

Doesn’t bode well for the Krug market, who is a similar asset with 1 year left
 

cshea

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He’ll sign, no doubt.
Well that's only for the rights to Trouba. He's an RFA so they have to sign him too. Friedman said the Rangers weren't allowed to talk to him before trading for him. Taking a gamble that he wants to be there.
They’ll sign him. He’s restricted, what’s he going to do, not sign? I guess worst case scenario for NYR is a 1-year arbitration contract that takes him to UFA, but even then the cost is a bottom pair defenseman and a mid-first round pick, which was acquired from the Jets in the first place. If things go south they can probably get a similar package in return at the deadline.

They essentially traded half a season of Hayes and Neal Pionk for a top pair defenseman. Good piece of business for New York.
 

RedOctober3829

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He’ll sign, no doubt.

They’ll sign him. He’s restricted, what’s he going to do, not sign? I guess worst case scenario for NYR is a 1-year arbitration contract that takes him to UFA, but even then the cost is a bottom pair defenseman and a mid-first round pick, which was acquired from the Jets in the first place. If things go south they can probably get a similar package in return at the deadline.

They essentially traded half a season of Hayes and Neal Pionk for a top pair defenseman. Good piece of business for New York.
Oh it's a great trade no doubt. Just have to factor in signing him to a big-time contract is part of the acquisition cost as well. He should get like $7-$8 million/yr right?
 

PedroSpecialK

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They also got Brendan Lemieux in the Hayes swap.

Outstanding work by Gorton - he's jump-started that rebuild and has them in a place to make some noise on draft day and with UFAs. Bolded below are guys with expiring UFA deals who could be dealt mid-season for more futures, underlined are RFAs currently:

Kreider - Zibanejad - Namestikov
Chytil - Strome - Buchnevich
Lemieux
- Nieves - Vesey
Andersson - Howden - Fast

Skjei - Trouba
Staal - Shattenkirk
Claesson - DeAngelo
Smith (oof)

Lundqvist
Georgiev

$4.5m also committed with Girardi's buyout and Spooner's salary retention

Currently committed: $63.9m
RFA Estimates: Trouba ($7.8m), DeAngelo ($3m), Buchnevich ($2.8m), Lemieux ($1.2m bridge), Claesson ($0.9m) = $15.7m

Estimated cap hit is $79.6m, so $3.4m in space with those estimates. However, it gets interesting if they can move Brendan Smith's corpse, he's only got a 10 team list at this point - that opens them up to $8m in cap space and lets them load up a bit more up front.

Fun fact: Brad Richards' amnesty buyout ($0 cap hit) is on the books through $2025-26 at just over $1.05m per year
 

cshea

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They also got Brendan Lemieux in the Hayes swap.

Outstanding work by Gorton - he's jump-started that rebuild and has them in a place to make some noise on draft day and with UFAs. Bolded below are guys with expiring UFA deals who could be dealt mid-season for more futures, underlined are RFAs currently:

Kreider - Zibanejad - Namestikov
Chytil - Strome - Buchnevich
Lemieux
- Nieves - Vesey
Andersson - Howden - Fast

Skjei - Trouba
Staal - Shattenkirk
Claesson - DeAngelo
Smith (oof)

Lundqvist
Georgiev

$4.5m also committed with Girardi's buyout and Spooner's salary retention

Currently committed: $63.9m
RFA Estimates: Trouba ($7.8m), DeAngelo ($3m), Buchnevich ($2.8m), Lemieux ($1.2m bridge), Claesson ($0.9m) = $15.7m

Estimated cap hit is $79.6m, so $3.4m in space with those estimates. However, it gets interesting if they can move Brendan Smith's corpse, he's only got a 10 team list at this point - that opens them up to $8m in cap space and lets them load up a bit more up front.

Fun fact: Brad Richards' amnesty buyout ($0 cap hit) is on the books through $2025-26 at just over $1.05m per year
They’re also getting Kakko in the draft.

Dreger saying they’ll continue to be active in the trade market, names like Kreisler, Vesey, Namestikov, Buchnevich being tossed around.

https://twitter.com/darrendreger/status/1140947167739297792?s=21
 

cshea

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Sounds like the Jets are going to go boom again, lots of Ehlers smoke out there. TSN saying the Jets offered Ehlers to the Hurricanes for one of their righty defensemen.
 

coremiller

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Flyers are back to being the Flyers! They acquire Justin Braun from SJS for a 2019 2nd and 2020 3rd.
That's a pretty good return for the Sharks in what was a pure salary dump of a 32-year-old with one year left on his contract. They badly need draft picks, too, having dumped so many picks to acquire Kane, Karlsson, and Nyquist.
 

burstnbloom

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They literally JUST waived Andy MacDonald, did they miss not having a gaping wound of a possession player on their backend already?
 

PedroSpecialK

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To recap, the Flyers gave up a year of Gudas, a high 2nd, and a high 3rd for the privilege of burning $9.55m on Niskanen and Braun, and $2.77m on the Gudas retained salary and MACDonald buyout. Unbelievable use of over $12m in cap space.
 

burstnbloom

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To recap, the Flyers gave up a year of Gudas, a high 2nd, and a high 3rd for the privilege of burning $9.55m on Niskanen and Braun, and $2.77m on the Gudas retained salary and MACDonald buyout. Unbelievable use of over $12m in cap space.
When you put it all together it doesn't sound great. Wow. Chuck Fletcher, you're doing great, buddy.
 

PedroSpecialK

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Hahahahahahaha, that is insanity. The combination of Hayes, Niskanen, Braun, Gudas retention, and MacDonald buyout ($18.87m) now nearly equals the Marchand / Bergeron / Pastrnak AAV ($19.67m) almost exactly.

How to Drain Your Cap Space starring Chuck Fletcher.
 
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veritas

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Seems about right for Hayes. I'm not sure what Philly is doing big picture, but that's what a player like Kevin Hayes costs these days. That's why you don't build your team through FA. Also why Krejci is not overpaid...
 

veritas

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Dreger speculating $9.5m/y for Duchene. Yikes.

Also this mickey mouse league is still trying to figure out what the salary cap will be. Rumors it could be under $82m. It was generally expected to be $83m
 

cshea

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Dreger also reporting that Puljujarvi still wants out of Edmonton. Edmonton looking to facilitate the request, but they won’t give him away. He is prepared to play in Europe if nothing materializes before the season starts.
 

cshea

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Teams may not know the cap ceiling until Saturday. What a league. Go into the biggest trade/signing period of the year without knowing exactly how much you can spend. But hey, they made sure they got the important stuff done like settling on the 2020 draft location today!
 

TheRealness

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Dreger speculating $9.5m/y for Duchene. Yikes.

Also this mickey mouse league is still trying to figure out what the salary cap will be. Rumors it could be under $82m. It was generally expected to be $83m
I found this article to be pretty good regarding the cap situation the next few years.

Teams may not know the cap ceiling until Saturday. What a league. Go into the biggest trade/signing period of the year without knowing exactly how much you can spend. But hey, they made sure they got the important stuff done like settling on the 2020 draft location today!
Looks like it will be $81.5-82m, and teams that are hard up against it are pushing back and want it $83m.
 

Fred in Lynn

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To recap, the Flyers gave up a year of Gudas, a high 2nd, and a high 3rd for the privilege of burning $9.55m on Niskanen and Braun, and $2.77m on the Gudas retained salary and MACDonald buyout. Unbelievable use of over $12m in cap space.
Can we have a moratorium on commenting about this subject? It’s too painful. This last week of Fletcher has been a replay of all the things that made Holmgren a bad GM. I have no idea why I thought they’d stay the course that Hextall set. Depressing.

I like the AMac buyout, although I don’t know why they didn’t just demote him and pay him the $4M AHL rate. They have the cap space for it. I also don’t mind the acquisition of Niskanen. It’s a short-term contract and he’s still a decent player. But the Braun trade made the other two seem completely senseless. Together, it’s a confounding set of transactions. Why not just see if Washington would take the draft picks and keep Gudas as a Flyer? Or make the Niskanen-Gudas swap but keep AMac and don’t make the Braun trade?

As for Hayes, I knew Fletcher wasn’t going to sit on the cap space and stay out of the UFA market. I could even accept trading a 5th-round pick to secure his rights and exclusively negotiate. But it’s worrisome not because he’s immediately overpaid (that’s life on the UFA market and at least he’ll be at his prime for a decent amount of it) but because it contains what Hextall had all but removed from the Flyers’ contracts save Giroux: no-movement clauses. Now they have to protect him for the Seattle expansion draft. They said they wanted him or someone like him because they didn’t think Patrick was ready for second-line center responsibilities. They couldn’t wait a year?

Luckily, Hextall the franchise in a good place, although these transactions make me think Fletcher’s goal might be to undo that. The mid-winter trade freeze can’t come soon enough.

Edit: Pardon the team-centric rant in a general thread on a non-Flyers message board. I needed to get that out.
 

The Gray Eagle

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The Bruins should call up the Flyers and make lopsided offer after lopsided offer, until they agree to one.

You know who would be a good fit in Philly? David Backes.
 

prizminferno

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Jul 12, 2005
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Every analytic says otherwise. You know this is a regular season award right? Spare me games played, it's not relevant.

And Crosby got more 1st place votes than Bergeron. Nice league.
 
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