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With the Pittsburgh Penguins winning convincingly in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday and the Nashville Predators losing only one game at Bridgestone Arena this postseason, it is highly likely that the National Hockey League season will go to its limit for Game 7 next Wednesday.
While the outcome is of the highest importance to those in Western Pennsylvania and Tennessee, the other 28 NHL markets are focusing on the mad scramble to be set in motion mere hours after the Stanley Cup is awarded.
On June 13 or 16, NHL clubs face the deadline to offer restricted free agents salary arbitration and the window for buying out players begins.
On June 17, teams must submit their protection list for the Expansion Draft and the following day, it will be released to the public.
On June 18, the 72-hour window for Vegas GM George McPhee to negotiate and sign unrestricted free agents and restricted free agents who were not on protection lists begins. That lasts until June 21, when McPhee submits his 30 choices and they are announced at the NHL Awards.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have no players who are arbitration eligible and the RFA’s on their NHL roster (Zach Hyman and Connor Brown) will be on their protected list.
Unlike last summer, when GM Lou Lamoriello defenseman Jared Cowen and may have been tempted to do the same with Milan Michalek, Brooks Laich, Colin Greening or Jonathan Bernier, the Leafs have no contracts crying out for a buyout.
If you are thinking about Joffrey Lupul or Nathan Horton, the fact that they are injured allows Toronto to place them on LTIR and spend over and above the salary cap and prevents them from being bought out.
A pre-draft trade could affect Toronto’s expansion list, as the days leading up to June 18 would be the time to move veteran James van Riemsdyk for a defenseman. If the Leafs protect Nazem Kadri, van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak, Leo Komarov, Matt Martin, Connor Brown and Brendan Leipsic, then youngsters like Josh Leivo and Kerby Rychel will be vulnerable.
The protection list may be misleading since it will not take into consideration the possibility that Lamoriello and McPhee may have struck a side deal. That could be the case if the Leafs leave Martin or Komarov exposed for the sake of Leivo or Rychel.
Where things might get creative is during the 72 hours when Vegas has the early bird special on signing free agents and is making decisions on who to select.
There’s been significant chatter that McPhee may sign or select players for other teams, so he can immediately flip them for young assets and draft picks.
That type of deal would make sense for a deep organization like Toronto. Teams such as Anaheim, Minnesota, Florida and the New York Islanders may not be able to shield all of their blueliners and that kind of trade might be more economical for Lamoriello than getting into a bidding war by directly dealing with the Ducks for Sami Vatanen or Minnesota for Mathew Dumba.
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