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Trade Proposal: Arizona and Tampa a Great Fit

July 4, 2016, 10:17 PM ET [125 Comments]
James Tanner
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In Yesterday's column I briefly entertained the idea of Arizona and Tampa hooking up to make a trade. I thought today I would look into it a bit more deeply since trades are fun and summer is boring.

The following is just for fun and should not be mistaken for a rumour or anything more than some whacked out bloggers idea of a good time.

Pertinent Information:

Tampa: $13 Million in Cap Space (Roughly, using the Hockeybuzz "Cap Central").

Remaining Restricted Free Agents: Killorn, Namestnikov, Kucherov, Nesterov.

Needs: Salary Relief, quality depth defensman, perhaps a winger better than Callahan.

Arizona: $18 Million in Cap Space (Roughly).

Remaining Restricted Free Agents: Stone, Murphy, Reider + Doan and one or two depth UFA signings.

Needs: Good Players at all positions; Veteran leadership



Analysis of Pertinent Information:

Not only do the Lightning lack the money needed to sign their current RFA players, but next season they will be faced with Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Jonathan Drouin needing new contracts. Basically, this means that there is a huge probability that the 2016-17 will offer the Lightning their best shot at a cup - keeping this team together (by which I mean keeping their impressive depth and not just their stars) is likely impossible.

The Coyotes have $18 million in space, but it would shock the world if they used it all. Still, even after signing their necessary guys, they should still have tons and tons of space. While a reasonable person might suggest the Coyotes' internal budget is probably close to maxed once they sign everyone, the fact is, if that is the case then we're all wasting our time caring about this team, so I am going to go ahead and assume they'll spend money to creatively game the system in order to improve their team.

The $13 million in free space the Lightning have is going to have to include $6-7 million for Kucherov, and each of the other three remaining UFA's would only have $2 million to split between them.

Here is a comparison between Killorn and David Backes who just signed for $6, which should tell you all you need to know about the odds of Killorn signing for $2 million. (Not to say he'll get $6, he won't, but clearly he should get at least $4).





Final Analysis:

If Tampa cannot clear some salary, they will unable to fit their current team under the salary cap, let alone have the needed flexibility to add come the 2017 trade-deadline. Since they have a once-in-a-life-time roster, they need to make some moves.

If the Coyotes do not get creative, they will face a fifth straight year out of the Playoffs and erode an already tenuous situation further. They have cap room.

Thus: the teams are a perfect match for a trade.

Trade Talk:

The Lighting are not going to trade the Coyotes Nikita Kucherov, but there is still a match here.

The Coyotes should offer the Lightning $6 million in cap relief by taking on Ryan Callahan's contract, thus freeing up money to sign the players they need.

It is reasonable to think the Lightning - given their ability to insulate because of the depth of their roster - might think they could revive the career of the right-shooting Connor Murphy.

The Coyotes also have a lot of decent forward prospects, and ECL players who can play are a huge plus for teams trying to compete once they've locked up all their stars.

I thought yesterday that Bishop and Johnson would be the players the Coyotes should target, but after actually looking into some stats, I'd rather have other players than Johnson, and I don't believe Bishop is enough of an upgrade over what the Coyotes have to also buy-out or burry Mike Smith in the minors. But I do think they should acquire him in this trade and then flip him to another team.

Assuming Kucherov is off the table, here is a list of Lightning players I am interested in:

Drouin, Palat, Namestnikov, Killorn, , Johnson.



Trade Proposal

Coyotes Trade: A first round pick with no lottery protection, Brendan Perlini, Connor Murphy, Antoine Vermette and agree to take back the Salaries of Ryan Callahan and Ben Bishop i($12 million in cap relief) in exchange for Vladimir Namestnikov and Ondrej Palat .

The Lightning would lose two great forwards, but they'd be able to re-sign Johnson, Kucherov, Drouin and Killorn because they'd have almost $25 million in cap space available to do so.

The Coyotes would add two desperately needed NHL ready above-average quality with potential to improve.

The final trade would look like this:

To Coyotes: Callahan, Bishop, Namestnikov, Palat
To Lightning: Perlini, Murphy, Vermette, 1st


but to properly view it, it SHOULD look like this:

To Coyotes: Namestnikov, Palat
To Lightning: First Round Pick, Perlini, Murphy, Vermette, $12 million in cap relief this year + another $12 in the future.


Which obviously looks lopsided, but don't forget the $12 million the Lightning save on Bishop and Callahan, in addition to the three more ridiculous years left on Callahan's contract.

The Coyotes would then turn around and flip Ben Bishop to the Dallas Stars in exchange for Mattias Janmark and whichever of their goalies they want to get rid of.

Clearly before I ask what you think, I just need to say one thing: I realize this is probably unrealistic, but it's really just meant as an example of how a team could use some creativity to take advantage of the cap system and improve their team without giving up too many assets.

So...what'cha think?
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