The Toronto Maple Leafs move to sign center John Tavares was a blow to their competitors inside the Atlantic Division, as it gave the Leafs two #1 centers and a leg up on the rival Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Bruins have mostly tinkered in the offseason, replacing backup goalie Anton Khudobin with Jaroslav Halak, adding depth in defenseman John Moore and forwards Chris Wagner and Joakim Nordstrom and unless they make an unforeseen big move this summer, GM Don Sweeney appears to relying more on greater contributions from youngsters like Ryan Donato and Anders Bjork.
The Lightning made a big move at the trade deadline to snag blueliner Ryan McDonagh from the New York Rangers for package of prospects and draft picks and successfully locked up the 29-year-old on a seven-year, $47.25 Million extension on the weekend and are now considered the front runner to acquire Erik Karlsson from the Ottawa Senators.
Karlsson as expected turn down an eight-year offer from the Senators earlier this week and the team gave the defenseman’s representatives permission to speak to other clubs about a contract extension.
Acquiring the two-time Norris Trophy winner makes sense from the point of view of GM Steve Yzerman, since he has three expiring contracts on defense after next season (Anton Stralman, Dan Girardi and Braydon Coburn) totaling over $11 Million and young blueliners, but it is clearly a response from the Lightning losing out to the Leafs on Tavares and making the Tampa defense among the best in the NHL.
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If Karlsson is added by Tampa, the Leafs would likely have to counter that move by upgrading their blueline, which was chiefly responsible for their first round playoff loss to Boston and has been the club’s Achilles heel for years.
Kyle Dubas indicated that the signing of Tavares will not impact on his club’s ability to get restricted free agent William Nylander signed this summer and Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner extended, but when discussing the Leafs much criticized blueline, the Leafs GM expressed confidence in the group currently on hand.
“I’m probably more bullish on our defense than others,” Dubas said to TSN 1050’s Overdrive on Wednesday. “This year with Nikita Zaitsev being healthy, Ron Hainsey going into his second year with the team, Travis Dermott ascending from the Marlies and obviously we have Morgan (Rielly) and Jake (Gardiner) here. I like our defense.”
The main cause for Dubas confidence in his defense is likely the extreme costs of adding blueline help via trade and free agency this summer and not trying to appear desperate to make a deal, which would raise the asking price for who is still available.
Calvin de Haan (who the Leafs were reportedly interested in) was looking for a five-year deal at $5 Million per season before accepting a four-year contract with Carolina. Veteran Mike Green signed a two-year deal with Detroit for $5.325 Million per season and Ian Cole got $4.25 Million on a three-year deal from Colorado.
The Carolina Hurricanes may be shopping Justin Faulk, who is under contract for another two seasons at $4.83 Million, veterans like Dan Hamhuis and Kevin Bieksa on one-year deals might be stop gap options (but would allow time for prospects like Timothy Liljegren to mature), and considering Slava Voynov would be controversial considered the former LA Kings blueliner’s past transgressions.
Starting the season with the current defense corps is an option, but the options available to Dubas on the rental market before the trade deadline are few and far between, which means the best case scenario to try to find that blueline help is to do it in the next few weeks.
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