Here’s a rundown of the original content at PHR over the past seven days.
Our trip around the salary cap situation for the Central Division continues. I took a look at the situations for Colorado and Dallas while Holger did the same for Minnesota and Nashville. Two of those teams project to be pretty tight to the $81.5MM Upper Limit for the upcoming season while Minnesota has some cap space but some expensive veteran contracts on the books. Meanwhile, the picture for the Avalanche is pretty good right now though a big chunk of their cap room will be eaten when Mikko Rantanen signs his next deal.
Speaking of next contracts, that’s something that quite a few others need to get done in the coming weeks as well. Among those are a pair of blueliners which we gave a closer look to. Zach provided Rangers rearguard Anthony DeAngelo while I did the same for Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov. Both players present interesting cases. DeAngelo is coming off of his best season but New York, pressured by cap constraints, is trying to force him to accept his qualifying offer despite the comparable contracts being in his favor. Meanwhile, Provorov is coming off a poorer performance and while that would seemingly make him a candidate for a bridge contract, there aren’t many good equivalents for him to compare to.
Colorado is on the clock in our 2007 redraft series with the 14th selection. They did pretty well with their initial selection with defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk although he hardly played for them as he was shipped to St. Louis in his rookie season. The Avalanche won’t be able to get him here but there is still some quality talent on the board. It’s nearly a dead heat as things stand but there is still time to make your pick.
The back half of our mailbag was released as I tackled questions about Jesse Puljujarvi, the Rangers’ backup goalie situation, David Backes’ contract and what Boston could do about it, players that could be on the rebound and decline, and how Seattle’s looming debut in 2021 could impact activity around the NHL this season.