Week In Review

College free agency is underway and some quality players have come off the board already.  However, there was some other notable news around the league as well which are noted in our top stories of the week.

Red Wings Active In College Free Agency: Detroit made a big splash in the NCAA free agent market, inking Taro Hirose to a two-year, entry-level deal.  The 22-year-old was the top college scorer this season with an impressive 50 points in 36 games and will get a chance to make an early impression on the Red Wings as he’ll be up with the team for the rest of the season.  Hirose wasn’t the only notable college addition Detroit made though as they also added Ryan Kuffner on a similar two-year ELC.  While his numbers dipped in his senior year, the 22-year-old still picked up 22 goals and 22 assists in just 31 games with Princeton this season.  He’s also sticking around in Detroit for the stretch run.

Extension Talks Coming For Blashill: Still with Detroit, it appears that head coach Jeff Blashill is still in the plans despite a tough year in the standings.  Talks regarding a contract extension for the bench boss are expected to pick up in the coming days.  He’s in the final season of a four-year contract and with his salary of $800K is believed to be among the lowest in the league.  The Red Wings haven’t had a ton of success under Blashill with a record of 129-142-47 but some positive strides have been made in terms of player development and with their roster expected to be even younger next year, GM Ken Holland appears to believe that Blashill is the right fit to continue to lead them through their rebuild.

Voracek Files Suspension Appeal: A player appealing a suspension isn’t entirely uncommon in the NHL.  However, appealing a two-game ban as Flyers winger Jakub Voracek did is much rarer.  Under the CBA, there is no option to go to an independent arbitrator for suspensions of five games or less which usually represents the threshold for potential appeals.  As a result, league commissioner Gary Bettman was tasked with deciding Voracek’s fate.  He ultimately upheld the initial suspension levied by the Department of Player Safety but the fact Voracek went through the process is certainly interesting and it will be worth watching to see if anyone else decides to try to appeal a short suspension now that it has been tried.

Draft Lottery Odds Set: With the end of the season now just a few weeks away, the NHL officially set the odds for the end-of-season Draft Lottery.  They’ve decided to keep the odds the same as last year, meaning the team that finishes last will have an 18.5% chance of getting the top pick.  Currently, Ottawa is in the basement in the standings but that pick belongs to Colorado following the Matt Duchene trade last season.  The league also opted to revert to the traditional format of announcing the results in one pregame segment instead of during two separate intermissions as they did last year.  Teams (and fans) won’t have to wait as long to find out where they’re picking either as the lottery will be held on Tuesday, April 9th.

Zuccarello, Point To Wait To Talk Extension: A pair of notable free agents are opting to wait until the dust settles on the season before beginning contract talks.  Stars winger Mats Zuccarello is currently rehabbing his broken arm but GM Jim Nill indicated that they haven’t started talks yet and want to wait until the season ends to discuss a deal.  It’s worth noting that locking him up would result in Dallas ceding their 2020 first-round pick to the Rangers as part of the deal to acquire him at the deadline.  Meanwhile, Lightning star Brayden Point hasn’t changed his tune on wanting to wait for the summer to discuss his next deal.  The RFA market figures to be fascinating to follow with so many prominent players in need of new contracts and it appears that Point wants to wait to see what some of the other pacts will be before putting pen to paper on his.

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The first full week past the trade deadline featured some headlines both on and off the ice.  Unfortunately, they weren’t all happy ones.

Landeskog’s Season Done: Colorado’s hopes of getting back into a Wild Card spot took a huge blow with the announcement that captain Gabriel Landeskog will miss the next four-to-six weeks with an upper-body injury, essentially ending his regular season barring a faster than expected recovery.  The 26-year-old was in the midst of a career year with 69 points in 68 games and was a big part of the success of their vaunted top line.  Trade deadline acquisition Derick Brassard will get to see some time on the top line in Landeskog’s absence, giving him a chance to potentially restore some value heading into free agency.

Exceptional Status For Wright: It had been a while since the OHL granted an exceptional player status to someone but they did so for forward Shane Wright, paving the way for him to join play at the Major Junior level at the age of 15.  The last OHL player to get the status was Rangers blueline prospect Sean Day for 2013-14 while the last CHL player to get the nod was Red Wings center Joe Veleno for the 2015-16 campaign.  Wright isn’t eligible to be drafted until 2022 but will certainly be an early contender to be the top pick for that draft class.

Stone’s Extension Official: It took a little longer than many expected given that it was agreed on in principle back at the trade deadline but the Golden Knights officially inked winger Mark Stone to an eight-year, $76MM extension.  The deal contains $48MM in signing bonuses plus a full no-movement clause, elements that GM George McPhee had suggested in the past that he didn’t want to hand out.  However, the deal ensures they’re locking up what would have been one of the top forwards (if not the best) to hit the open market while getting a cornerstone piece for their top line.  The 26-year-old has already beaten his career high in goals with 29 and points with 66.

Recommended Rule Changes: While some were hoping that the playoff format would be on the agenda at the GM meetings, that wasn’t the case.  Instead, the recommendations were to make some minor tweaks.  Their preference is to see the league adopt the international rule that says if a player loses his helmet during the play, he must immediately return to the bench.  On top of that, a pair of faceoff changes were suggested with teams getting the choice as to which side of the ice to start a power play and the location of the draw to start a power play following an icing.  The preseason experiment with clocks in the boards also drew approval.  The Competition Committee will decide whether to forward these to the Board of Governors who would then vote on them in June.

Lindsay Passes Away: Red Wings legend Ted Lindsay passed away at the age of 93.  Despite being just 5’8, he never backed down physically which helped him earn the nickname ‘Terrible Ted’.  He was a nine-time All-Star and led the league in scoring back in 1950 while being named to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966.  However, that’s only part of the impact he had on the game as he was an instrumental figure in helping the NHLPA get off the ground which helped secure higher pay and better working conditions for the players.  For his efforts, the NHLPA renamed the Lester B. Pearson Award (most outstanding player as voted by the players) as the Ted Lindsay Award back in 2010.

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The trade deadline has come and gone and while deadline day itself was slow at times, there were still quite a few notable trades.  Those big swaps are highlighted in the top stories of the week.

Stone To Vegas, Agrees To Extension: The Senators tried to keep Mark Stone around but after not being able to agree on an extension with him, they shipped him to Vegas in exchange for blueline prospect Erik Brannstrom, center Oscar Lindberg, and a second-round pick in 2020.  The Golden Knights wasted little time working out an extension with him, one that will pay him $9.5MM per season for eight years when it’s made official.  In Stone, Vegas has added a legitimate top liner who could become the focal point of their attack before too long while his defensive game is also quite strong.  He was the best player to move on deadline day by a considerable margin.  Meanwhile, Brannstrom has emerged as one of the top defensive prospects in the league and will likely give Ottawa a very potent one-two punch alongside Thomas Chabot as soon as next season.

Jets Add Hayes: The Jets had made it known that their first-round pick was available for the second straight year and they found a willing taker in the Rangers as they shipped the pick along with winger Brendan Lemieux to New York in exchange for center Kevin Hayes, the top pivot available.  It’s the second straight season that Winnipeg opted to improve down the middle after picking up Paul Stastny last year.  Hayes along with Mark Scheifele and Bryan Little give the Jets a very strong top three center group and are now even deeper up front.  Meanwhile, the Rangers add another top pick to the fold plus a youngster in Lemieux who should be a fixture in their bottom six for the next several years.

Predators Pick Up A Pair: Seeing Winnipeg’s move, Nashville made two notable swaps to counter it and bolster their chances in the Central.  First, they swapped wingers with Minnesota, acquiring Mikael Granlund in exchange for Kevin Fiala.  Granlund has one year of team control left after this one while Fiala is just wrapping up his entry-level deal so it’s a deal that works reasonably well for both sides with the Preds getting the shorter-term boost while the Wild add another young winger to the stable.  They followed that up by adding rental winger Wayne Simmonds from the Flyers for winger Ryan Hartman and a conditional 2020 fourth-round pick (that upgrades a round if Nashville wins a playoff series).  Simmonds is having a quieter season, he still should reach the 20-goal mark while being a factor on a struggling power play.  Nashville has been a team near the middle of the pack in scoring this season but these moves should help them move up a few spots and give them a more balanced attack heading into the postseason.

There were over 20 trades made in total on trade deadline day.  Click here for the full listing of deadline swaps.

Boucher Fired: Considering Ottawa’s struggles this year, a change behind the bench was likely to come but many expected it to happen after the season.  Instead, GM Pierre Dorion opted to make a change now, firing Boucher while promoting veteran coach Marc Crawford to take over as the head coach for the remainder of the year.  Boucher’s tenure in Ottawa got off to a strong start as they made it to Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Final but it went downhill quickly after that as they missed the playoffs by a considerable margin last year and have been even worse this season.  His tenure with the Sens wraps up with a 94-108-26 record; his 228 games coached rank fourth in franchise history.  Boucher is the seventh coach to lose his job in-season after no coaches were relieved of their duties in 2017-18.

Extension For Staal: Wild center Eric Staal had made it known that he wanted to stay with Minnesota but it was still a bit of a surprise that he didn’t move by the trade deadline.  Instead, it turns out that he had agreed to a two-year, $6.5MM extension to stick around.  The deal represents a small pay cut on his current $3.5MM AAV which was already viewed as somewhat of a team-friendly one.  The 34-year-old is having a down season relative to the 76 points he posted last season but he still should be able to reach the 50-point mark which is still top-six production.  Getting a top-six forward locked up for two more years at that rate is solid value for GM Paul Fenton.

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With the trade deadline almost upon us, there was plenty of notable news around the league over the past seven days.

Coyle To Bruins: Boston had been linked to forward Charlie Coyle since the beginning of the season and they now have secured their target, acquiring him from the Wild in exchange for prospect winger Ryan Donato and a conditional 2019 fifth-round pick that moves up a round if Boston moves past the first round of the playoffs.  Coyle has had a bit of a down year in Minnesota but gives the Bruins some flexibility in their middle six while being signed at a reasonable $3.2MM AAV through next season.   Meanwhile, Donato has made an early impact with Minnesota, picking up four points over his first three games with the Wild including the overtime winner on Sunday night.

Ottawa/Columbus Moves: The first major trade domino fell as Ottawa moved center Matt Duchene to Columbus (along with defensive prospect Julius Bergman) in exchange for winger prospects Jonathan Davidsson and Vitali Abramov plus their first-round pick in 2019.  In addition, the Blue Jackets will surrender their 2020 first-round selection if the pending UFA re-signs with the club.  Duchene was unable to come to terms on an extension with Ottawa and will now play out the season alongside a notable pending UFA in Artemi Panarin as the Blue Jackets appear to be set to try to make a deep postseason run.  Abramov was a dominant scorer in the QMJHL but hasn’t had much success yet this season in his first crack at the minors while Davidsson is having a strong season in the SHL and will likely make the jump to North America next season.  One day later, the Blue Jackets added Duchene’s winger in Ryan Dzingel along with Calgary’s 2019 seventh-rounder in exchange for winger Anthony Duclair plus second-round selections in 2020 and 2021.  Dzingel also turned down a long-term extension offer from Ottawa and is in the middle of a career year; his chemistry with Duchene should come in handy down the stretch.  Meanwhile, Duclair did not fare particularly well with Columbus and should get more of an opportunity in Ottawa with their forward group getting thinned out quickly.

Silfverberg To Stay Put: Anaheim’s most prominent rental player will be sticking with the Ducks after all.  He has agreed to terms on a five-year extension that’s believed to be worth roughly $5.25MM per year.  However, the deal can’t be made official until next month when the restrictions on the tagging rule are loosened; Anaheim will use the 10% cushion to make the deal official at that time.  Silfverberg’s point total is down considerably this season but he also leads the team in goals with 16 through 53 games.  As a result of the deal, the Ducks had over $78MM tied up in just 16 players for next season so a cost-cutting move was expected to be on the horizon (and it didn’t take too long for it to happen).

Montour To Buffalo: The Sabres likely will fall short of making the postseason this year but that hasn’t stopped them from making a splash as they’re added defenseman Brandon Montour from Anaheim in exchange for Brandon Guhle and a 2019 first-round pick (SJ or STL).  Montour still has three years of team control after this one and should be an important part of Buffalo’s core for a while.  Meanwhile, the Ducks free up some much-needed cap room for the next couple of years while adding a decent prospect in Guhle plus a high draft pick to jump-start their retooling.

Zuccarello To Dallas, Gets Injured: The Stars made a splash up front, acquiring winger Mats Zuccarello from the Rangers in exchange for a 2019 conditional second-round pick and a 2020 conditional third rounder.  The 2019 pick becomes a first-rounder if Dallas wins two playoff rounds while the 2020 pick will convert to a first if Zuccarello re-signs with them.  The optimism from the move was short-lived, however.  He picked up a pair of points in his Dallas debut but also suffered a significant arm injury that will keep him out for at least a point and could require surgery.

And with the flurry of weekend moves, here’s one more bonus story.

Nyquist To San Jose: Sharks GM Doug Wilson stated earlier in the year that he was open to acquiring another rental as they are clearly in win-now mode.  He stayed true to his word as San Jose picked up Gustav Nyquist from Detroit in exchange for a 2019 second-round pick and a conditional 2020 third-round selection (that upgrades to a second rounder if the winger re-signs).  Detroit is also retaining 30% of Nyquist’s $4.75MM cap hit.  The 29-year-old is just five points shy of his career high of 54 and will make an already deep attack even more potent.

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With the trade deadline quickly approaching, activity has started to pick up around the league.  Here are the top stories from the past seven days.

Predators Add Forward Depth: The Predators added some depth down the middle, acquiring veteran Brian Boyle from New Jersey in exchange for a second-round pick.  Boyle is in the midst of one of the best offensive seasons of his career with 13 goals under his belt already in 49 games while being above average at the faceoff dot once again.  He’ll give Nashville another strong option for their penalty kill as well.  The Preds weren’t done there as they brought back winger Cody McLeod from the Rangers for a 2020 seventh rounder.  McLeod will add some grit in the absence of Austin Watson who is currently under an indefinite suspension.

Capitals Extend Copley: Evidently, Washington likes what they’ve seen from backup goaltender Pheonix Copley this season, handing the first-year netminder a three-year, $3.3MM extension.  The 27-year-old has posted a 2.97 GAA with a .904 SV% in 20 appearances so far this season, numbers that are quite close to starter Braden Holtby.  Worth noting, the three-year term means he will be under contract for the Seattle expansion draft in 2021, meaning that the Capitals will be able to leave him unprotected, fulfilling the requirement of having one goalie under contract being available to be selected.

Matthews Extension: There will be one less player in the upcoming class of high-end restricted free agents as Toronto inked 2016 top pick Auston Matthews.  However, unlike some of the top youngsters in recent years, he opted to not sign a max-term, eight-year contract.  Instead, he put pen to paper on a five-year, $58.17MM contract, an AAV of $11.634MM which sits second overall in the league behind Edmonton’s Connor McDavid.  A whopping 93.7% of the deal will be paid out in annual signing bonuses on July 1st, meaning that his base salary will be the league minimum in each year of the contract.  Matthews sits second on the Maple Leafs in goals this season with 24 in just 39 games while he sits 11th in the league in points per game.  With this deal done, Toronto will now turn their focus to pending RFA winger Mitch Marner who is likely to command a somewhat comparable contract.

Kovalchuk Available: Less than a year ago, winger Ilya Kovalchuk was one of the more sought after unrestricted free agents on the open market.  He ultimately signed a three-year, $18.75MM contract with Los Angeles and the move hasn’t worked out as well as they had hoped as he has just 26 points in 44 games so far.  Accordingly, with the team clearly looking to sell before the trade deadline, the Kings have made the 35-year-old available for trade.  Kovalchuk has a full no-move clause so he will have control over where he goes if they’re able to find a taker for his contract.

Carlyle Fired: With Anaheim having lost 19 of 21 games (many of which weren’t close), something had to give.  GM Bob Murray had already tried tinkering with the fringes of the roster but clearly, that wasn’t enough and something more significant needed to happen.  It finally did as Murray relieved head coach Randy Carlyle of his duties.  Interestingly enough, instead of promoting AHL bench boss Dallas Eakins or one of the assistants in an interim role, Murray himself will take over behind the bench for the remainder of the season despite having no prior coaching experience.

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With the trade deadline now less than a month away, activity has started to pick up around the NHL.  Several notable swaps highlight the top stories of the week.

Muzzin To Toronto: Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas had indicated earlier in the season that his preference would be to avoid the rental market.  He stayed true to his word, acquiring defenseman Jake Muzzin from the Kings in exchange for Toronto’s 2019 first-round pick, defense prospect Sean Durzi, and winger prospect Carl Grundstrom.  Muzzin is signed through next season at a very reasonable $4MM cap hit, giving the Leafs a defensive upgrade beyond the stretch run.  Meanwhile, this likely is only the beginning of what will likely be an intriguing fire sale in Los Angeles as they sit dead last in the West and will be entering a rebuilding process.

Panthers Acquire Brassard: Center Derick Brassard had been part of trade speculation for quite some time and Pittsburgh pulled the trigger on moving him, sending the pending UFA to Florida along with center Riley Sheahan (also a pending UFA) and three 2019 draft picks (a second rounder and two fourth rounders), for center/winger Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann.  The Panthers add some payroll flexibility for next season as it’s believed that they plan to be aggressive in free agency this summer.  It’s certainly possible that one or both of their acquisitions could be flipped in the coming weeks.  Meanwhile, the Penguins shake up their depth and add some longer-term stability down the middle.  Bjugstad has two more years remaining on his contract with a $4.1MM cap hit so he’ll be a longer-term commitment for the Penguins but if he can get back to his form of the last few years, he’ll be a nice addition.

Panarin Won’t Discuss An Extension: Following a meeting with his agent, it was revealed that Blue Jackets winger Artemi Panarin will not discuss a contract extension with the team this season.  That places Columbus in a tough situation as the pending UFA would certainly garner plenty of interest on the trade market but moving him would significantly impact their playoff chances as they are in a tight battle for positioning in the Metropolitan Division.  It appears that GM Jarmo Kekalainen is open to the idea of moving him, stating that the team is willing to make a “hard decision” when it comes to the 27-year-old.  Panarin leads the Blue Jackets in scoring this season with 20 goals and 39 assists in 49 games.

Watson Suspended Indefinitely: Predators winger Austin Watson has been suspended indefinitely after he was placed in Stage Two of the league’s Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program.  He also missed the first 18 games of the campaign due to a domestic violence arrest in the offseason but had played an important role for Nashville since returning to the lineup.  With there being no timetable for Watson’s return, it’s likely that GM David Poile will have to turn to the trade market to bring in some extra depth on the wing over the next few weeks.

Oleksiak Goes Back To Dallas: Last season, the Stars moved defenseman Jamie Oleksiak to Pittsburgh in exchange for a 2019 fourth-round pick.  The teams ultimately reversed that swap this past week as the 26-year-old rejoined Dallas with the Penguins getting the draft pick they dealt to them back in return.  (That pick was then flipped to Florida in the Brassard trade.)  Oleksiak was needed with Dallas announcing that veteran blueliner Marc Methot will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing knee surgery.  He has already been transferred to LTIR.

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While the activity on the trade front still hasn’t really picked up yet, there were plenty of headlines across the league.  Here are the top stories from the past seven days.

Koskinen Extension: The Oilers made an interesting gamble when they brought over Mikko Koskinen from the KHL for this season and gave him a $2.5MM deal despite having just four NHL games under his belt.  Evidently, the team likes what they’ve seen from him thus far as they signed him to a three-year, $13.5MM contract extension, cementing his status as Edmonton’s number one netminder in the process.  Koskinen has a respectable .910 save percentage on the season but has struggled considerably lately with just a .877 mark over the past month.  The move also likely increases the chances that Cam Talbot is dealt before the trade deadline.

Chiarelli Fired: It turns out that the Koskinen extension was Peter Chiarelli’s last piece of business as GM of the Oilers as shortly after that deal was announced, he was fired by the team.  Many of his moves in recent years haven’t panned out from giving Milan Lucic a seven-year contract to trading a first and second round pick for Griffin Reinhart (the first rounder became Mathew Barzal), to dealing Jordan Eberle in a trade tree that ultimately yielded Ryan Spooner (who cleared waivers this week).  However, the worst one may have been moving reigning Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson in a highly-criticized one-for-one swap.  Keith Gretzky will take over on an interim basis and if Edmonton’s press conference to announce the move is any indication, the idea of them going all in to make the playoffs now does not appear to be likely.

Teravainen Extension: The Hurricanes locked up one of their top forwards, inking Teuvo Teravainen to a five-year, $27MM extension.  The contract also contains a ten-team no-trade clause in the final two years.  He was slated to become a restricted free agent with salary arbitration eligibility this coming summer.  Teravainen has done quite well in Carolina after being the incentive for them to take on Bryan Bickell’s contract three years ago and has emerged as a legitimate top-line forward.  After putting up an impressive 64 points last season, the 24-year-old is on pace to beat that mark this year.  If he can even come close to being a 60-point player with regularity, this deal has a chance to be a steal for the Hurricanes.

Kase Out For The Year: To say this season has been rough on the injury front for Anaheim would be a significant understatement.  They’ve lost the most man games due to injuries this season and that number will get even higher with the announcement that Ondrej Kase will undergo surgery to repair a torn labrum next week, one that carries a recovery time of five-to-six months which means his season is over.  The 23-year-old already missed 18 games earlier in the season with a concussion but despite that, he still sits second on the Ducks in goals with 11 in just 30 games.  Anaheim has been a tailspin for the past month and this news certainly won’t help their fortunes.

Hurricanes Open To Moving A Top-Four Defenseman: Adding help to the back end is something many contenders are looking to do but it’s rare that a player like that is available.  Carolina has a surplus of quality defenders and they are willing to move one of them.  It’s believed that Jaccob Slavin is the only one that is completely off the table which leaves one of Justin Faulk, Brett Pesce, or Dougie Hamilton as the ones that are likely in play.  Toronto is a team that’s known to be looking for blueline help and they’ve been keeping tabs on them in recent weeks.

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With the trade deadline now just over a month away, activity has started to pick up around the league.  A pair of trades of note are highlighted in the top stories of the week.

Cogliano For Shore: The week kicked off with an interesting trade as the struggling Ducks dealt winger Andrew Cogliano to Dallas in exchange for forward Devin Shore.  Cogliano had been with Anaheim since 2011 but got off to a very slow start offensively this season.  With two years at $3.25MM remaining on his contract, Dallas is banking that a change of scenery will get him back to the 30-point player he usually is.  Shore is on pace to hover around the 30-point mark once again and gives Anaheim some extra flexibility both on and off the ice.  The 24-year-old can play center in a pinch while his cap hit is $950K lower than Cogliano’s (and one year shorter), giving them some extra wiggle room on the salary cap.  Anaheim made three other small trades throughout the week to tweak the depth players on their roster.

Beaulieu Asks For A Trade: While the Sabres as a team have fared better this season, the same can’t be said for defenseman Nathan Beaulieu.  He has been a frequent healthy scratch so far and played a limited role when he has been in the lineup.  Now, he’s looking for a change of scenery and has asked for a trade.  The 26-year-old is in the final year of his contract that carries a $2.4MM cap hit and a $2.5MM qualifying offer this summer, something that he’s not likely to receive from Buffalo.  Given Beaulieu’s limited role, it’s unlikely that there will be a significant trade market for him but teams looking for some mobility on their third pairing may be interested.

Niederreiter For Rask: The Hurricanes and Wild decided to shake up their respective rosters as Minnesota dealt winger Nino Niederreiter to Carolina in exchange for center Victor Rask.  Both players are in the midst of tough seasons but Niederreiter has a recent track record of being a quality secondary scorer while Rask has been a capable player down the middle over his first four seasons before having a particularly rough first half of this season including missing time when he sliced his hand in a kitchen accident just before the preseason.  Both players are signed long-term; Niederreiter carries a $5.25MM cap hit through 2021-22 while Rask is under contract at $4MM a year through 2021-22.  There was no salary retention in the swap.

No 2020 World Cup: While talks between the NHL and the NHLPA continued past the soft deadline of December in an effort to stage a 2020 World Cup, they eventually agreed that it was not a feasible option.  Both sides stated that they are committed to a long-term international calendar but it remains to be seen if that will include a return to the Olympics and when the next World Cup will be held.  It’s also unknown if this will signal an end to the CBA talks that were also ongoing at the same time.

Oilers Searching For Forward Help: With Edmonton looking to get back into the playoff picture, they’ve put on a “full-court press” to try to find a forward upgrade.  The Oilers have received strong contributions from their top three forwards in Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins but have had very limited secondary scoring which has held them back.  The report indicates that the team may be willing to part with their first-round pick, a goaltender, and a young player which suggests that they’re looking for an impact performer and not just some extra depth to help them lock down at least a Wild Card position.

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The volume of trade activity started to pick up late in the week but the most notable move was a swap of depth defenders between Tampa Bay and Chicago.  Accordingly, the top stories of the past week aren’t trade-related.

Schmaltz Out For The Year: Arizona has had nothing but brutal luck when it comes to injuries in 2018-19 and that trend continued with the announcement that center Nick Schmaltz is out for the rest of the season due to a knee injury.  He was acquired from Chicago in late November and had fared well with his new team, picking up 14 points in 17 games before the injury.  Schmaltz, a pending restricted free agent, joins goalie Antti Raanta, center Christian Dvorak, and defenseman Jason Demers as core players that are already out for the year which will make it tough for them to close the four-point gap on the final playoff spot in the West.

DeSmith Extension: It’s clear that goaltender Casey DeSmith likes it in Pittsburgh.  Through the first half of the season, he has posted some impressive numbers and was shaping up to be one of the more intriguing goalies to hit the open market in July.  However, he has decided to stick around, inking a three-year, $3.75MM extension to remain with the Penguins, a deal that appears to be well below market value already.  The deal means that Pittsburgh will have just $5MM allocated to their goalie tandem for next season, a price that’s below what most number one netminders alone are being paid.

Nash Retires: Winger Rick Nash was one of the top players available in free agency last summer (he was rated sixth on our top-50 list) but opted to hold off on signing as he was still dealing with concussion symptoms.  While some teams were holding out hope that he’d sign later this season, Nash has instead called it a career as after consulting with his doctors, the risk of further injury to his brain was far too significant to continue playing.  The top pick back in 2002 was a top goal scorer in the prime of his career and winds up his playing days with 437 goals and 368 assists in 1,060 regular season games between the Blue Jackets, Rangers, and Bruins.  He also was a prominent player on the international stage, suiting up in three Olympics with Canada as well as four World Championships where he ranks third all-time among Canadians in goals with 23 in just 34 games.

Bobrovsky Incident: To say it hasn’t been the smoothest of seasons between the Blue Jackets and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky would be putting it lightly.  Things continued in that direction when the team announced that the netminder would sit out Thursday’s game due to an incident in which he failed to meet the expectations and values of the teams’ culture.  Bobrovsky is a pending unrestricted free agent and projects to be the top goalie available this summer but this incident has led some to speculate that he could be a trade candidate in the coming weeks as well but he would have to waive his no-move clause for any move to happen.

Hurricanes, Ferland Far Apart In Contract Talks: Winger Micheal Ferland is off to a strong start in his first season with the Hurricanes and is on pace for career highs across the board offensively.  The timing of this is perfect for him as he’s slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.  There have been early contract talks but so far, the two sides aren’t anywhere close to a deal.  His cap hit is just $1.75MM this season which is affordable for any contending team making him a prime candidate to be dealt if they can’t find common ground in the coming weeks.

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The first week of 2019 was a relatively quiet one around the league but there were still a few newsworthy moments which are highlighted in the top stories of the week.

Stone, Senators To Start Contract Talks Later This Month: The Senators have a pair of prominent unrestricted free agents that they need to find out if they can re-sign.  Talks started with Matt Duchene earlier in the season and now that January 1st has passed, they can do the same with Mark Stone.  The two sides are slated to begin talks within the next two weeks which doesn’t leave a lot of time to get something done between now and the trade deadline.  If a deal can’t be reached, the winger will undoubtedly be a highly sought after player from contending teams that have the cap flexibility to bring Stone and his $7.35MM cap hit onto their payroll.

Extension For Hynes: Although the Devils have taken a step back from their surprising postseason appearance last year, the team is prepared to stay on their current course, signing head coach John Hynes to a multi-year contract extension.  While the team didn’t disclose the terms, Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reports that it’s a two-year deal.  He’s in his fourth year behind the bench in New Jersey and his current deal was set to expire at the end of the season.  Hynes has a career points percentage of .507 but the Devils have been slowly building up their roster and have considerable flexibility moving forward so the thought is that brighter days will soon be ahead.

Nilsson To Ottawa: With Craig Anderson out with a concussion, the Senators turned to the trade market for some help, acquiring Anders Nilsson along with Darren Archibald from Vancouver in exchange for Mike McKenna, Tom Pyatt, and a 2019 sixth-round pick.  Nilsson is expected to be the starter until Anderson returns while the Canucks did the deal to give top prospect Thatcher Demko a spot with the big club and took on Pyatt’s $1.1MM deal to offset some money.  Demko’s promotion meant that McKenna was supposed to be ticketed for the AHL to give Vancouver some extra depth but that didn’t work out as planned as the Flyers claimed the 35-year-old journeyman off of waivers.

Ovechkin To Skip ASG: Citing a need for additional rest to prepare for the second half of the season, Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin has decided to take a pass on playing in the All-Star Game despite being voted in as one of the captains.  As a result, he will have to miss the final game before the break or face a mandatory one-game suspension in the first contest after the break.  Meanwhile, the majority of the rosters were named later in the week as well as the coaches for the event which takes place on January 26th.

Oilers Shopping Spooner: It has not been a good season for Oilers forward Ryan Spooner.  After a poor start with the Rangers, he was moved to Edmonton in a swap of players in need of a change of scenery.  However, things haven’t gone any better for him there as he has just three points in 20 games while averaging a career-low 10:00 per night since the trade.  Accordingly, he is once again on the trade block although they may have some difficulties moving him because of his contract.  While New York is paying 22.5% of his contract, Spooner still has a $3.1MM cap hit through next season and while he’s only a year removed from a 41-point season, his lack of production this year will greatly limit the number of teams interested in him.

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