David Clarkson himself certainly won’t be on his way to Las Vegas, but it’s sounding more and more like his contract sure will.
Eliiotte Friedman suggested this was a possibility in
30 Thoughts this week, but said he “can’t pin it down.”
Neither team is commenting, but it sure sounds like Columbus and Vegas are working on something.
In the last 30 Thoughts, Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen indicated little concern with potential cap problems. Can’t pin it down 100 per cent, but there is at least a possibility the two clubs are discussing David Clarkson. Whatever the case, Columbus has the 24th pick and some young forwards at the AHL level who might be part of this. Like I said, I can’t pin it down. But there’s something up. Any trades Vegas makes are not to be official until June 21.
If you follow me on Twitter you will know my thoughts on this already. I think this is a terrible idea. I am very for getting Clarkson’s contract off the books, but not for that price. The Jackets are very close to the cap with just a little over $2M in space available, the third lowest amount in the league per
Cap Friendly.
This is not an ideal situation to be in, however this is with no long-term injury reserved space used. The Jackets are able to go $5.25M (Clarkson’s cap hit) over the cap in-season, by putting Clarkson on LTIR. Since it is the off-season Clarkson counts against the cap. Teams though are able to go 10% over the cap in the off-season, so there is no reason to think the Jackets should have trouble re-signing RFA’s Alexander Wennberg and Josh Anderson, and adding pieces in free agency.
Now there are a couple reasons why the Jackets would do this. The first one would be pressure from ownership. They were the ones who wanted the Horton-Clarkson deal in the first place since they didn’t want to pay for someone not to play. This could very easily be that situation again. Yes insurance will cover Clarskon’s deal if he's on the IR, if he's not (like last season) then they won’t. Ownership may not be too interested in spending up to and over the cap, just for a little bit of insurance help.
The other possibility and one that I hope is the real reason, is the Jackets plan to make a splash this off-season, whether it be free agency or trade. The expansion draft is making every team crazy, see Blue Jackets, Columbus, and perhaps the front office is looking to capitalize on another team’s misfortune. The Ducks have been rumoured to be shipping out a defencemen, Tampa Bay has a few big name RFA’s they need to re-sign, the Avalanche are the Avalanche, Chicago is apparently going to move out a core piece, and so on and so on.
By clearing this cap space it opens up the Jackets to be in on essentially every player. They don’t need to worry as much about the cap hit. They can trade for an expensive RFA as they would have plenty of space to hand out a big deal. This would also allow them the opportunity to make a big pitch to a player like a Kevin Shattenkirk or maybe this is part of their negotiation with Ilya Kovelchuk. Moving Clarkson’s deal opens up a ton of flexibility this off-season and moving forward.
The rumoured price is what has people up in arms. That is an outrageous price to shed a contract and would be one of the highest prices a team has had to pay to shed themselves of a bad deal.
In 2015-16 the Coyotes acquired Chris Pronger’s cap hit and Nicklas Grossmann from Philadelphia for Sam Gagner, and a 2016 fourth round pick. The Panthers acquired Marc Savard’s cap hit and Reilly Smith from Boston for Jimmy Hayes.
In 2016-17 we had Savard on the move again, this time the Devils acquired him and a second round pick from the Panthers for Graham Black and Paul Thompson. The Blackhawks traded Bryan Bickell’s contract to the Hurricanes and had to include up and coming youngster Teuvo Teravainen, but the Blackhawks were able to get back a second round pick in 2016 and a third in 2017. Then we have the Red Wings offloading Pavel Datsyuk’s contract to Arizona along with pick #16, for pick #20, Joe Vitale and a second round pick.
Those trades are the ones that jump out over the last two years that are comparable to this rumoured Clarkson deal. These trades usually include picks or a prospect not both. The Blackhawks gave up a top prospect but were able to get a couple assets back. The Red Wings gave up a first but got a first in return.
If the Jackets are to do this trade and include a first and a prospect, they need to get something of value back from Vegas. Depending on the level of prospect the Jackets should be looking at getting at least a second back and maybe even a second and a third. That or they work out a deal with Vegas regarding the expansion draft as to who they can take/won’t take. If this deal has the caveat that Vegas will not take Josh Anderson and pick someone like say Jack Johnson (giving Columbus even more cap space), then this deal is much easier to swallow for the Blue Jackets.
Vegas trades cannot be announced until June 21st so until then expect plenty of rumours to continue swirling.
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