The 2019-20 NHL regular season is underway and already there have been some surprises and disappointments. Most shocking perhaps are the injuries that have occurred early on, including Adam Larsson, Evgeni Malkin and Nate Schmidt. That has already made the rumor mill start churning over who will be the first to make a big trade—unless of course Vladislav Namestnikov heading to Ottawa is considered that already.
With that in mind, it’s time to run another edition of our mailbag. You can submit your query by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter or by leaving a comment down below. Make sure you get your questions in early and we’ll try to get through as many as possible when the mailbag runs on the weekend.
If you missed our last edition you can read it right here. Brian tackled questions regarding potential waiver candidates, correctly suggesting that Pheonix Copley, Casey DeSmith, Charlie Lindgren and Eric Comrie could all be available at the end of training camp. He also explained why Julius Honka was the only then-unsigned RFA that had a real chance of a long dispute, did his best at explaining the complicated cap situation the Toronto Maple Leafs created this summer, and gave his predictions on how the Metropolitan Division standings would look at the end of the year.
Teams that are the biggest surprises/disappointments in each division
Gavin, is there a list of by years that have the NHL Salary Cap figures increase, have messaged before as had seen it on a story regarding the Seattle Expansion about 3-4 months ago, which indicated that salary cap will rise when they enter league, I believe you wrote story , maybe wrong , with it at $81.5 million , and rise each year till Seattle it will be $85 million per team ,what about the years in between , by listing by year. Thanks !
Do the Rangers still move Kreider now that Namestnikov has been traded? What is their current salary cap situation?
Do you think there’s an early struggling team that might try and make a “desperation” move to try and gets things going.
It’s only 3 games but the Isles are inconsistent at best and bad at worst. A lifeless effort against Edmonton followed an excellent performance against Winnipeg which followed a sluggish performance to open the season vs Washington. All at home. How long will Lou wait to shake things up? He has the cap space to bring in a high valued top 6 forward and 7 goals in 3 games isn’t going to cut it especially if Varlamov plays this poorly.
Will San Jose have to look at an upgrade in net or are they going to be forced to stick with Jones?
Any coaches on the hot seat so far in this young season? maybe John Hynes? Possibly Peter DeBoer? Now dont get me wrong i think DeBoer is a great coach and even though we are so early in to the season (only a week) isnt it somewhat alarming the way the Sharks are playing? They are a perennial playoff team but just cant seem to get over the last hurdle. Do you think a coaching change might be in order if they dont make it to the promise land this season, let alone start playing better?
Who are potential targets the Jets might be looking at who could be available already to upgrade their D?
even with lesser regarded guys like Bunnaman and Twarynski on the roster the Flyers have done well these first two games. (albiet against two teams that arent exactly the cream of the crop) Once Farabee and Frost are ready, what is the ceiling for the team this year?
Odds that one, or both Suter and Parise forgo their No Trade clauses to get out of Minny (these next couple years are going to be ugly), and how much would the Wild be willing to eat for them to do so?