The past week saw plenty of trades with one of the busier trade deadlines in recent memory. A full recap of the activity can be found here while the biggest moves also warrant a mention in the top stories of the week.
Hurricanes Add Several Key Pieces: While Carolina opted to not make a move to add a goalie despite the injuries to Petr Mrazek and James Reimer, they were quite active on deadline day. First, they picked up center Vincent Trocheck from Florida for center Erik Haula, forward Lucas Wallmark, and a pair of prospects. Then, they added to their blueline with a pair of deals, acquiring Sami Vatanen from New Jersey for a conditional fourth rounder and prospect Janne Kuokkanen plus Brady Skjei from the Rangers for a first-round pick (the lesser of Carolina’s or Toronto’s). Vatanen is still injured which lowered his market while Skjei has already stepped into a big role, logging more than 21 minutes a night over his first three games.
Kreider Stays In New York: Part of the reason that Skjei was moved to Carolina was a looming cap crunch for the Rangers. A big part of that was the announcement that winger Chris Kreider had signed a seven-year contract extension that carries a $6.5MM AAV. Talks didn’t progress much over the weekend but a last ditch effort proved to be enough to keep the power forward in the fold. He was on pace for a career year offensively but that is no longer the case as he suffered a fractured foot early in their game on Friday. He’s now out indefinitely. (That wasn’t the only bad news on the injury front for them either as goalie Igor Shesterkin is out with a rib fracture that was sustained in a car crash.)
The Parise Non-Trade: With over 30 trades on deadline day, it’s hard to believe that one of the biggest stories from the deadline was a trade that didn’t happen but that’s indeed the case. Zach Parise’s tenure with Minnesota has been underwhelming when it’s compared to the 12-year, $98MM deal that’s now outlawed in the CBA. Injuries have been an issue and he hasn’t been a top scorer when he was in the lineup. Nonetheless, there was progress in a trade that would have seen him join the Islanders in a deal that would have seen winger Andrew Ladd head to the Wild. It got to the point that both veterans waived their trade protection to make a deal happen but in the end, it fell through. It will be interesting to see if the deal gets revisited this summer when there’s less pressure in terms of time to get a deal done while the financial picture (including salary cap recapture) is a little easier to work with.
Muzzin Extension: It had long been speculated that the Maple Leafs and defenseman Jake Muzzin were making progress on a contract extension. That indeed was the case as shortly after the trade deadline passed, he signed a four-year deal worth an average of $5.625MM per season. The veteran has been a stabilizing force on Toronto’s back end after being acquired a little ahead of the 2019 trade deadline from Los Angeles. However, the positivity around that was short-lived as he too was injured. He broke his hand in the first game after the deadline and will be out for a month.
Pageau To The Islanders: It was a soft trade market for impact centers with Jean-Gabriel Pageau representing the best option available. That worked to Ottawa’s benefit as he was shipped to the Islanders for 2020 first and second-round picks as well as a conditional 2022 third rounder. The Sens and Pageau’s camp had been talking about an extension but couldn’t come to an agreement. That wasn’t the case with New York as just hours after the trade was announced, he inked a six-year, $30MM extension. (And unlike Kreider and Muzzin, he wasn’t felled by an injury shortly thereafter and instead scored in two of his first three games.)
Stamkos Injured: All of the deadline day activity warrants having an extra key story for the week. Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, it involves them as center Steven Stamkos is set to undergo core muscle surgery. The expected timeline for his recovery is six-to-eight weeks which rules him out for the remainder of the regular season at a minimum and likely most, if not all of the first round as well. That’s a tough blow for the Lightning who were swept in a shocking upset in the first round a year ago and will now have to deal without one of their top scorers to start the postseason.
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