2018 has been quite a busy year in the hockey world. There have been several big trades and free agent signings, plenty of changes behind the bench, and much more. Over the coming days, PHR will take a look back at the top stories from around the game on a month-by-month basis. Next up is a look back at July, a month that featured plenty of movement around the league plus some other headlines as well.
July 1st Free Agent Activity: As always, the turning of the calendar of July meant the busiest day in the league in terms of player movement. Several key players found new teams including Paul Stastny (Vegas), David Perron (St. Louis), and Ilya Kovalchuk (Los Angeles). However, the biggest move was made by Toronto who convinced John Tavares to leave the Islanders and gave him a seven-year, $77MM contract for doing so. All 31 teams had at least one move on this day and a full recap can be found here.
Kucherov Extension: Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov had a career year in 2017-18 as he reached the 100-point plateau for the first time in his career. The Lightning responded by giving him an eight-year, $76MM contract extension that will kick in starting next season. That deal (which also carries varying no-trade and no-move protection) already looks like it could be a bit of a bargain as he leads the league in scoring with 63 points in just 39 games heading into play on Monday.
Hossa Traded: Even though he had missed all of last season and had announced that his playing days were over, the Blackhawks were still able to get out of the remaining three years of his contract as he was dealt to Arizona in a seven-player swap. Arizona also picked up Vinnie Hinostroza and Jordan Oesterle while Chicago got back a package highlighted by veteran center Marcus Kruger along with prospect MacKenzie Entwistle who has had a strong showing at the World Juniors so far. While Hossa’s cap hit is at $5.275MM, his salary for each season is $1MM of which insurance will pay 80%. As a result, the Coyotes were able to gain a couple of roster players for a cheap cost while the Blackhawks now have salary cap flexibility as they look to reshape their team.
Linden Resigns: During his time as Canucks team president, Trevor Linden spoke about building for the long-term. They appeared to be heading in that direction before somewhat reversing course in free agency with the additions of some veteran players. Three weeks after the free agent frenzy, Linden surprisingly resigned his post and while no official reason for his departure was cited by either side, the belief is that ownership was looking to shift more into a win-now strategy over Linden’s plan to oversee a slow build of the roster.
O’Reilly Trade: While free agency and contract extensions dominated most of the headlines on July 1st, there was a significant trade made as well with the Sabres shipping Ryan O’Reilly to St. Louis. He was owed a $7.5MM signing bonus on the 1st which made that day a firm deadline of sorts and the deal pretty much came down to the wire. Heading to Buffalo were Vladimir Sobotka, Patrik Berglund, Tage Thompson, plus first and second-round picks. O’Reilly has played quite well in St. Louis despite their struggles as a team; he leads the Blues in scoring by ten points on the next closest player. Meanwhile, Sobotka and Thompson have played minor roles in Buffalo while Berglund had his contract terminated earlier this month.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.