East Notes: Weegar, Simon, Bonus Overages, Dubinsky

Panthers pending RFA defenseman MacKenzie Weegar isn’t the most well-known player but he is coming off of a career season and is one year away from UFA eligibility.  As Florida looks to overhaul its back end, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggests (Twitter link) that teams are starting to show an interest in trading for the 26-year-old.  Weegar had seven goals and 11 assists in just 45 games last season while seeing his ATOI jump up by more than three minutes per game over his career average as he logged 20:07 per game.  He was tendered a qualifying offer of $1.6MM but stands to make a fair bit more than that on his next contract as he is arbitration-eligible.

More from the Eastern Conference:

• Despite non-tendering him earlier this week, the Penguins have interest in re-signing forward Dominik Simon, report Josh Yohe and Rob Rossi of The Athletic (subscription link). The 26-year-old has spent his entire career in Pittsburgh and put up 22 points in 64 games this season while logging a career-best 14:24 per game.  While his qualifier was for under $800K, Pittsburgh’s concern was a possible arbitration award so while any new deal will almost certainly come in higher than what his tender would have been for, it should come in lower than had it gone to a hearing as well.
• In a pair of tweets, PuckPedia reports that the Hurricanes and Capitals will both take their full bonus overage penalties this coming season instead of amortizing them over two years which was a one-time option in the new CBA. As a result, Carolina’s cap space for 2020-21 will decrease by just over $1.367MM while Washington’s goes down by just under $420K.
• After clearing out Alexander Wennberg, Ryan Murray, and Markus Nutivaara yesterday, the Blue Jackets may not be done moving players yet as Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that Columbus is also trying to move Brandon Dubinsky’s contract. The center isn’t expected to play again due to wrist issues but they’re hoping a team that’s set to go into LTIR anyway could be interested in adding the contract to stack their LTIR space, similar to what Toronto did last season by acquiring David Clarkson.  Dubinsky has one year left on his deal with a $5.85MM AAV.