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Never let it be said that any contract is immovable ever again.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets pulled off a stunning deal on Wednesday that took most insiders by surprise, swapping underachieving winger David Clarkson for injured forward Nathan Horton.
The stars aligned to make this unthinkable deal come to pass, as the Blue Jackets were looking for financial relief from the remaining five years of Horton’s seven-year, $37.1 Million deal. Horton signed an almost identical seven-year contract to Clarkson in the summer of 2013, but offseason shoulder surgery prevented the former Stanley Cup winner from playing until January.
According to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch , the Blue Jackets could not to buy insurance when Horton joined the club because he had undergone offseason surgery on a separated shoulder and knew that the winger would miss a significant portion of the season.
When it came time to for Horton to be medically cleared the following October, the winger was diagnosed with a degenerative lower back injury that prevented the Blue Jackets from getting insurance on the remaining years of the deal and leaving Columbus exposed to pay $26.1 Million over the next five years on a player who will likely never play again.
TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that the Blue Jackets were looking to make the swap as part of a larger trade that included a young defensive prospect playing with the AHL Toronto Marlies, but that Leafs GM Dave Nonis and Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen finally agreed on the 1-for-1 swap on Thursday afternoon.
— Steve Lloyd (@TSNSteveLloyd) February 27, 2015The deal is a positive for both teams, in that the Blue Jackets get a player who can actually play on the ice for the money they are spending and the Leafs gain more than $5 Million in cap flexibility with the trade of Clarkson's buyout-proof contract.
Most of the winger’s $5.25 Million salary was categorized as signing bonus and could not be spread out over more seasons in a buyout, while Horton can be placed on LTIR(long-term injured reserve) for the length of his deal, as Boston and Philadelphia do with Marc Savard and Chris Pronger.
#NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly on Clarkson-Horton trade: "We do not view this trade as a form of Cap circumvention. If we did ... "
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) February 27, 2015"...we could stop it and/or bring proceedings under the circumvention provisions of the CBA."
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) February 27, 2015This deal represents the willingness of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment to facilitate the rebuild plan of Team President Brendan Shanahan, in that they allowed the club to erase a contract that limited the club’s cap flexibility over the next five years by using their financial advantage to buy themselves out of trouble.
The additional cap space could have a trickledown effect on what Leafs GM Dave Nonis does before 3pm Monday, as it allows him to take a salaried player back in deals.
Veteran Jaromir Jagr being moved from New Jersey to Florida subtracts another rent-a-player off the available list and pending free agents Antoine Vermette, Curtis Glencross, Chris Stewart and defenseman Zbenyk Michalek are all likely to go over the weekend, which could grease the wheels for hockey deals involving players with term left on their contracts, like Joffrey Lupul, Tyler Bozak or Dion Phaneuf.
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Lost in the big news of the Clarkson deal was a minor swap between the Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks, as Toronto brought back 2014 Eddie Shore Award winning defenseman TJ Brennan in exchange for forward Spencer Abbott.
The 25-year-old Brennan has 9 goals, 27 assists in 54 games with the Rockford IceHogs after leading the Toronto Marlies with 25 goals and 47 assists last season and appears to be an acquisition aimed at trying to get the young Marlies into the Calder Cup Playoffs, who trail eighth place Chicago by five points in the AHL’s Western Conference.
The Marlies have struggled to generate offense from their blueline this season, as rookie Viktor Loov leads the club with just 16 points and have had trouble scoring on the power play.
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Rumor Tidbits
The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta indicates that there are still rumors of interest in forward Joffrey Lupul from the Montreal Canadiens, who are offensively challenged and looking for a top six scoring winger.
The Leafs are rumored to be interested in forward Lars Eller, who has three years remaining on his contract at $3.5 Million (which for Montreal would only be a $1.75 Million increase from Lupul’s salary) but a possible hitch in this is the Globe and Mail’s James Mirtle’s reporting that the Habs are on Lupul’s no-trade list.
ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun reported on Thursday that the veteran winger is on the radar for the Washington Capitals, who want to add a top-nine forward before Monday’s deadline and CSN’s Joe Haggerty reports that Lupul’s name has popped up as a potential solution to the Boston Bruins right wing vaccum, but interest from both teams would depend on where pending free agents like Antoine Vermette, Erik Cole or Curtis Glencross fall.
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