Edit: While in the process of writing this piece, forward Mike Hoffman was traded to the Florida Panthers.
When the Buffalo Sabres headed into the February 26, 2018 NHL trade deadline, GM Jason Botterill had one legit star player to trade from his 30th-place team--Evander Kane.
Kane came to the Sabres with plenty of off-ice question marks, spent his first full season in Buffalo adding fuel to those negatives but started to get his act together in the middle of the 2016-17 season. He would carry that into the first half of last season, which was the final year of his contract, leaving many to wonder if the Sabres would be interested in extending him.
They were not, and as early as December, him being on the market was the worst kept secret in the league. The question with Kane being traded wasn't if, but when, then to whom and for what. Rumors in December had Botterill fielding offers that included a first round pick which many felt was the bare minimum for a player with his talents. Regardless of the rumors, Botterill waited until the trade deadline to make a deal probably betting that the law of supply and demand would net him the optimal return.
It didn't go as planned.
When talking to the gathered media about the trade post-deadline, Botterill flat out said, “The bottom line is we had one legitimate offer for Evander.”
That offer came from the San Jose Sharks and dependent upon the way it was worded, Botterill did get a first rounder, only it had an asterisk attached to it. If the Sharks won the 2018 Stanley Cup or Kane re-signed with them, Buffalo would receive a Sharks first rounder, if neither happened, it would be a second. San Jose didn't win the Cup last season, but Kane did re-sign meaning Botterill and the Sabres received their first-rounder, but even that had conditions.
The rest of the deal read that if the Sharks miss the playoffs in 2019, they will have the option on whether to keep their first round pick that year. If they kept it, the Sabres would receive their 2020 first round pick.
By the looks of it, the Sabres should be counting on the Sharks making the 2019 playoffs and having the Sharks' first rounder that year.
San Jose' had a playoff team even before landing a top-six winger in Kane then proceeded to sweep the Anaheim Ducks in the first round with Kane scoring two goals in his first-ever taste of the playoffs. However, they were taken out by a Vegas Golden Knights team whose run took them all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. All the main players on San Jose's team from last year will be returning and they just added a four-time 20-goal scorer in Mike Hoffman.
Hoffman was a 2009 fifth-round selection (130th-overall) of the Ottawa Senators who proved to be a gem of a selection. The 28 yr. old averaged 26 goals and 56 points for the Sens over the last four seasons but ran into some off-ice issues of his own which forced Ottawa to move him. Reports have Hoffman's long-time girlfriend and fiancée harassing the wife of Senators captain and superstar, Erik Karlsson to the point where Melinda Karlsson filed a restraining order. The harassment apparently occurred in the months surrounding the still-born death of the Karlsson's first baby.
"Monika Caryk [Hoffman's fiancée] has uttered numerous statements wishing my unborn child dead ... uttered that she wished I was dead and that someone should 'take out' my husband's legs to end his career," the document said.
That's messed up. And it also messed up any chance that the Sens could get a decent return for Hoffman.
Although the Sharks may not have had the best offer on the table, and the bet is most were very low to begin with, Ottawa shipped Hoffman (plus other pieces) and his fiancée about as far away as they could receiving winger Mikkel Boedker and other lower end assets in return. The trade announcement came just prior to 5 a.m. EST this morning which tells you just how low-key Sens GM Pierre Dorion wanted to keep things.
The Sharks had been highly regarded for adding character players to a roster anchored by veterans Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau and San Jose' became a western conference powerhouse for years. However, despite making the playoffs in 12 of 13 seasons ('04-'17), they never won the Stanley Cup and made the Finals only once in that span. Marleau was allowed to walk after the 2016-17 season and it doesn't look like Thornton will be re-signed. Those two have been replaced very effectively by captain Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture, who had a run-in with Hoffman back in December, 2016:
There's a stability in San Jose that allowed Kane and his baggage to come in for a brief stint and thrive to the point where they agreed to a seven-year contract extension. And that stability will be tested a little more as Hoffman arrives with his baggage in tow. How will it affect the team, if it does at all?
We'll see.
But regardless, the Sabres have themselves and extra first rounder in one of the next two seasons. And that's a good thing.
Join the Discussion:
»