Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Archives for February 2019

Colorado Avalanche Acquire Derick Brassard

at CDT | by 8 Comments

The Florida Panthers have found a buyer for Derick Brassard, sending the forward to the Colorado Avalanche along with a sixth-round pick according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. The Panthers will receive a 2020 third-round pick. If the Avalanche re-sign Brassard, they will not receive the sixth-round pick. At least he won’t need to get on a plane, as the Panthers are in Colorado to face the Avalanche tonight.

It has been a year of extremes for both Brassard and the Avalanche, who will now come together in an attempt to make the playoffs in the Western Conference. For Brassard this is the second time he has been traded this season and the third time in a calendar year. His stock has dropped incredibly over that year following a disappointing performance with the Pittsburgh Penguins. In 66 games for the Penguins including the playoffs, Brassard recorded just 27 points and was never a fit. In Florida, he put up four points in ten games and still didn’t look like the borderline first-line center he was a few years ago.

Still, for an Avalanche team that was considered a Stanley Cup contender through the first two months of the year this is another step in the right direction. After falling almost completely out of the playoff race the team has won four games in a row and climbed back into contention for a wild card spot. Brassard should give the team a real boost to secondary scoring and could anchor a second line that has given them trouble all year. All that for a third-round pick is a worthwhile gamble, especially given Brassard is relatively inexpensive.

After seeing part of his contract retained, Brassard carries just a $3MM full-season cap hit and is almost free in terms of actual salary. Brassard’s deal was heavily front loaded and he is earning just $1MM total salary this season.

Carolina Hurricanes Trade Cliff Pu

at CDT | by 4 Comments

The Carolina Hurricanes have traded a big part of the return for Jeff Skinner, sending prospect Cliff Pu to the Florida Panthers. While technically not the same trade, the Hurricanes have received Tomas Jurco in return. Jurco is on an AHL contract and had to be involved as a separate transaction.

Pu, 20, had recently been assigned to the ECHL after struggling in his first professional season. The former Buffalo Sabres prospect has just six points in 44 games with the Charlotte Checkers, and will now try to turn his young career around in his third organization. Pu along with three draft picks was the package the Hurricanes acquired for Skinner in the offseason, in a deal that now looks even worse for Carolina.

There’s still plenty of time for Pu to turn things around and develop into the big offensive threat he showed in junior, but the Checkers needed help now for a potential Calder Cup run this season. Carolina apparently believed Jurco’s addition was more valuable, and he will certainly bring a lot of experience to the table. The 26-year old forward has 10 points in 14 games with the Springfield Thunderbirds, and won a Calder Cup with the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2013.

Under an AHL contract, Jurco cannot be recalled to the NHL.

New Jersey Devils Place Eric Gryba On Waivers

at CDT | by 2 Comments

Monday: Gryba has cleared waivers and can be assigned to the minor leagues. The other four players, Chris Driedger, Jeremy Smith, Adam Wilcox and Lee Stempniak also all cleared after signing NHL contracts.

Sunday: While the waiver wire features mostly recently-signed players today, one current player did slip into the mix. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that New Jersey Devils defenseman Eric Gryba has been placed on waivers. The veteran defenseman has cleared waivers previously this season, but could be a more interesting target with the deadline approaching and an underwhelming market for rental defensemen.

Gryba, 30, has had an up-and-down year. Bought out by the Edmonton Oilers this past summer, Gryba signed a one-year deal with the Devils in hopes of continuing his NHL career. Waived initially in late October, Gryba has played in just ten games with New Jersey versus 32 games with AHL Binghamton. Interestingly, Gryba has performed better in the NHL than in the AHL, at least defensively. Gryba is very much a stay-at-home defender with little to no offensive role, but has looked like a reliable depth option during appearances with New Jersey. Meanwhile, his -10 rating in Binghamton is worst among defensemen.

Gryba appears to be a player best suited for a No. 7 or 8 role in the NHL at this point in his career. He’s still solid defensively most of the time and can step in and be a capable presence in his own end, but lacks the offensive contribution or skating ability to play regular minutes, even in the AHL. Fortunately, at this time of year many teams are looking for that dependable deep depth piece. With the defense rental market highlighted by uninspiring names like Adam McQuaid, Michael Del Zotto, Bogdan Kiselevich, and Alex Petrovic, a team might prefer claiming Gryba for the stretch run rather than overpaying for a mediocre addition.

New York Rangers Sign Boo Nieves, Steven Forgarty To One-Year Extensions

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

After trading Kevin Hayes to the Winnipeg Jets, the New York Rangers have made another transaction. This time it’s a one-year one-way contract extension for Boo Nieves worth $700K according to Frank Seravalli of TSN. Nieves was heading towards Group VI unrestricted free agency this summer since he has played only 58 games in his relatively short professional career.

Nieves, 25, hasn’t developed quite as quickly as the Rangers hoped when they made him the 59th overall pick in 2012. After four successful seasons at the University of Michigan, he has struggled to put up much offense in the minor leagues and has just 17 points in 58 career NHL games. With just 20 contests remaining this season for the Rangers, Nieves was not going to be able to cross the 80-game Group VI threshold. That threshold is still in play for next summer as well when Nieves will still be just 26. If he does play 80, he’ll become a restricted free agent in 2020.

The team has also signed a one-year extension with Steven Fogarty, who was another pending Group VI UFA. Fogarty has even less NHL experience with just 11 games under his belt, but is having an excellent season in the minor leagues. The 25-year old has 39 points in 47 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack but is waiting for his first NHL point. Both players will serve as inexpensive depth for the Rangers going forward.

Montreal Canadiens Trade Michael Chaput

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Montreal Canadiens have traded Michael Chaput to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for Jordan Weal. The deal is straight up, giving both forwards a fresh start with a new organization. Chaput will report to the Tucson Roadrunners, while Weal will join the Canadiens directly.

After the news that Christian Dvorak’s return is imminent, there wasn’t much room left for Weal on the Coyotes’ roster. The team would have had to waive him to send him to the minor leagues which may have risked him for nothing, though his $1.75MM contract might have been tough to swallow for another team around the league. Weal has shown some real upside over the years, but has just 11 points this season and has now been traded twice. The 26-year old is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, but will try to add his speed to a Montreal team heading to the playoffs and make enough of an impact to draw an extension offer.

Chaput meanwhile has just five points in 32 games for the Canadiens this year and already cleared waivers to go to the minor leagues. The 26-year old will provide some excellent scoring depth for the Roadrunners, but is also signed through the 2019-20 season at league minimum. If the Coyotes did not intend on retaining Weal, they likely swapped him out for whatever they could get.

Calgary Flames Came Close To Mark Stone Deal

at CDT | by 1 Comment

The Calgary Flames have been checking in on several players around the league, and according to Hockey Operations VP Don Maloney were close to “something big” last night. That’s what Maloney told Ryan Leslie of Sportsnet, which immediately sparked speculation about who that deal could have been for. Sportsnet colleague Chris Johnston tweets that Maloney was talking about Mark Stone, meaning the market for the Ottawa Senators winger has gotten even smaller.

That market likely already took a hit when the Jets struck a deal earlier today for Kevin Hayes, using their first-round pick and Brendan Lemieux to get it done. The Senators are expected to want several high end assets for Stone and Calgary apparently balked at that ask. If that’s true the Flames may turn their attention somewhere else, though several big names are already off the board.

Calgary is in prime position to compete for the Stanley Cup this season, and should be considered a contender on any forward left on the market. The fact that they were close on Stone means they are willing to at least entertain deals surrounding rentals, though will hold strong on the idea that they’re not going to sell the whole farm. Eric Francis of Sportsnet believes the prices might even be too high all around, leading the Flames to miss out on the “impact forward” they’ve been trying to acquire.

Blue Jackets Express Interest In Niklas Kronwall

at CDT | by 7 Comments

After adding forwards Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel as well as goalie Keith Kinkaid, some might think that the Blue Jackets would be finished with their moves.  However, that does not appear to be the case as Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that they’ve shown interest in Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall.

The 38-year-old has been a dependable cog on Detroit’s back end since the 2003-04 season and has logged 934 games with the Red Wings since then.  He has expressed an interest in remaining with Detroit for his full career but indicated earlier this month that he would consider moving if GM Ken Holland approached him.

This season, Kronwall has played a larger role than expected, logging nearly 20 minutes a night while chipping in with 16 points (2-14-16).  That has been in large part due to the litany of injuries on Detroit’s back end throughout the year but he has held his own with the extra ice time.  It’s likely that if Columbus was to add him, they likely wouldn’t be counting on him to play as much as he’d slot in behind Seth Jones and Ryan Murray (when healthy).

Kronwall is slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer and has a cap hit of $4.75MM.  He also has a ten-team no-trade clause but even if Columbus wasn’t on that list, it’s believed that Holland would go to the veteran for his approval to be dealt.

Winnipeg Jets Acquire Kevin Hayes

at CDT | by 15 Comments

The Winnipeg Jets have made their trade deadline addition, once again adding a second-line center for a deep playoff run. The Jets have acquired New York Rangers center Kevin Hayes in exchange for a 2019 first-round pick, 2022 conditional fourth-round pick and young forward Brendan Lemieux. The Rangers will receive the fourth-round pick if Winnipeg wins the Stanley Cup this season.

Hayes is the third-leading scorer on New York this season with 42 points (14-28-42) in 51 games and is on pace to set a new career high in assists and points.  He’s also logging over 19 minutes per game and would step in quite nicely on Winnipeg’s second line while pushing veteran Bryan Little down to the third line.  He carries a cap hit of $5.175MM which Winnipeg can easily absorb (they have over $24MM in full-season cap space) while still leaving room for other potential additions later in the day.  LeBrun notes (Twitter link) that there is no salary retention in the swap which is notable as it means that the Rangers retain their final salary retention slot for the time being.

The 26-year-old is set to become an unrestricted free agent after the season but that’s not necessarily a negative for Winnipeg.  In fact, it may be a positive.  The team already has Blake Wheeler locked up to a new extension while wingers Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor, as well as defenseman Jacob Trouba, are all slated to become restricted agents.  Accordingly, that’s going to eat up most of their remaining cap space so it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to afford to keep Hayes around.

As for Lemieux, this is the second time already that he’ll be involved in a notable swap after joining Winnipeg as part of the Evander Kane to Buffalo swap back in February of 2015.  The 22-year-old has spent the full season with Winnipeg but has spent time as a healthy scratch.  Overall, he has nine goals and two assists along with 64 penalty minutes in 44 games in 2018-19 and will figure into New York’s long-term plans as a bottom-six player.  He’s in the final year of his entry-level contract with a cap hit of just over $839K and will be a restricted free agent without salary arbitration rights this summer.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Michael Raffl And Brian Elliott Drawing Trade Interest

at CDT | by 1 Comment

While Wayne Simmonds is the most notable Philadelphia player in play today, he’s not the only one that teams are looking to acquire.  Craig Custance of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that a pair of other pending unrestricted free agents in winger Michael Raffl and goalie Brian Elliott are also garnering interest.

Raffl has had a down season after scoring 13 times one year ago.  In 48 games so far this year, he has five goals and eight assists but his average ice time has dipped to just 11:25, a career low.  However, he can play both wings and kill penalties so teams looking for affordable depth up front could certainly have some interest.  The 30-year-old has a cap hit of $2.35MM.

As for Elliott, injuries have derailed his season as he has played in just 17 games so far this season.  On top of that, the emergence of Carter Hart (who is on IR for at least one more week) and the recent addition of Cam Talbot have taken away Elliott’s path to much playing time down the stretch.  He could still represent an upgrade at the backup spot for a handful of teams with playoff aspirations and carries a cap hit of $2.75MM.

Predators Interested In Mikael Granlund

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Predators have expressed a strong interest in acquiring Wild forward Mikael Granlund, reports Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription required).  Other teams have made viable offers for the 26-year-old as well.

Granlund sits second on Minnesota in scoring this season with 15 goals and 34 assists through 63 games while splitting time between center and the wing.  He has one year left on his contract after this one with a $5.75MM AAV so if they are planning on entering a short-term rebuild, moving him now where the acquiring team can get two playoff runs out of Granlund might ultimately yield a better return.  If not, they’ll be looking into what it costs to lock him up to a long-term extension this summer.

Russo notes that Predators winger Kevin Fiala is someone that Minnesota has shown interest in this season.  That shouldn’t come as much surprise considering that GM Paul Fenton was with Nashville when Fiala was drafted so he’s quite familiar with him.  Even though he’s having a quieter year than his breakout campaign last season, the 22-year still has a respectable 10 goals and 22 assists in 64 games so far in 2018-19.  Fiala is in the final year of his entry-level contract with a required qualifying offer of just under $875K this offseason.

There have been a couple of big changes in Minnesota already this season with Nino Niederreiter and Charlie Coyle being on the move already.  Between those, the earlier report of Jason Zucker’s availability, and now this, it appears that more changes could soon be in store.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

scroll to top