First, to be clear, I do not post rumors. I do not have sources. This blog and any other I write in the next few weeks are purely speculation and armchair GM efforts on my own part.
Over the next couple weeks, we could see as many as 5 impending Canes UFAs traded out of Raleigh. If traded, Andrej Sekera and Jiri Tlusty will yield the biggest returns, but with the ability to add quality, inexpensive depth and possibly upgrade a penalty killing unit, Tim Gleason, Patrick Dwyer and Jay McClement could yield decent futures from a team in need. Those are the players officially on the radar as soon-to-be unrestricted free agents, but might Ron Francis use the phone time to do something bigger? It is always possible and will make the next couple weeks interesting.
Just for fun, here are a couple thoughts on possible Canes trades partners and a couple deals that are more interesting than the run of the mill Gleason (or McClement or Dwyer) for a mid/late round pick.
Florida Panthers The Panthers are strangely buyers and sellers at the same time. Bergenheim who is an unrestricted free agent this summer has been a healthy scratch and asked to be traded. It will be a surprise if he is not traded in the next 2 weeks. In addition, they have forwards Fleischman, Kopecky and Upshall who are all unrestricted free agents this summer. But they are only 3 points behind Boston, competing for a playoff spot and likely to do more buying than selling. The team has a good balance of young forwards but could use more raw scoring both at even strength and on the power play. I have said for 2 years that I would be happy to trade Jeff Skinner and his dynamic scoring ability for a similar age top 4 defenseman ideally at a lower salary that the Canes can spend to help fill out the forward depth next summer. Enter Erik Gudbranson. He is the same age as Skinner with a high pedigree, decent NHL experience and projected to be a top 4. On a Florida team that is pretty deep on the blue line (Campbell, Kulikov, Mitchell and Ekblad are all seeing more ice time than him), he is technically a bottom pairing defender right now, but it is maybe more because of depth than capability.
So the trade: Jeff Skinner plus 1 of the Canes 2nd tier rentals (Gleason, McClement or Dwyer) for Gudbranson and Pirri.
The Canes get a top 4 defenseman and at least the potential to replace Skinner with another skilled forward. Florida gets a top-end scorer to help boost its scoring and power play and either 2014-15 playoff run defensive replacement for Gudbranson (in Gleason) or a very good depth forward (Dwyer or McClement) who could help their bottom tier penalty kill.
So how about Jeff Skinner plus 1 of the Canes 2nd tier rentals (Gleason, McClement or Dwyer) for Gudbranson, Pirri plus some modest future? IF Ron Francis and the Canes scouts think Gudbranson slots into the Canes top 4 on D, I would do this deal. Canes fans will surely holler that I am giving up too much for a collection of lesser pieces, but here is how I think of it. The Canes get a top 4 defenseman who makes only $2.5M next season and is a restricted free agent after that (so likely to be retained). They also get a skilled offensive player in Pirri who is actually somewhat similar to Skinner in skill set though with much much less proven scoring ability (16 goals) at the NHL level. And importantly, even adding 2 players for 1, they get back about $2.4M in salary. And Florida gets instant help for scoring in general and especially their power play. Gudbranson is not someone that they want to give up, but they have 4 defensemen above him signed through next season.
So have at it: 1) Canes fans will berate me for trading young phenom Jeff Skinner for more futures than proven players. 2) And Panthers fans will not want to part with Gudbranson.
Boston Bruins For completely different reasons, the Bruins also have the buyer or seller dilemma. They are in a playoff spot right now but barely which screams buy. But they also have impending salary cap problems looming for this summer and rumblings that they might unload a bigger contract to work on this problem early. Potentially on the trading block is Dennis Seidenberg who has been stalwart in playoff seasons past, but is not playing as well this season, has younger defensemen in Krug and Hamilton pushing up the depth chart from underneath. Of all of the things that might change in Boston at the trade deadline and this next summer, the netminder is not one of them. Rask is locked in at $7M per year for 6 more years. So that puts promising 21-year-old Malcolm Subban tracking toward being a very good backup.
It is starting to seem more likely that the Canes will trade Sekera for the best offer which most seem to have pegged at a 1st round pick maybe plus a little more.
So the trade: Andrej Sekera for Malcolm Subban.
The Bruins get a very cap-friendly defenseman in Sekera. Even if nothing else happens, the Bruins solidify their top 4. It also opens the door to shop Seidenberg at the deadline to see if they can cut his salary, possibly respend it at the forward position on a rental and then recoup this money to help solve their summer cap crunch. Subban is the equivalent of a 1st-round pick (he was actually), but the Bruins do not really have room for him anyway, so they are arguably better off trading him than an actual draft pick. And the Canes get a future in net. With Cam Ward and Anton Khudobin both coming off contracts after next season and only young Alex Nedeljkovic in the system, if given the chance, might Ron Francis take the chance to parlay Sekera’s trade value into a player who could be a roster impact player sooner rather than later?
Have at it: 1) Bruins fans will overrate the value of Subban who has yet to play an NHL game and will simultaneously try to pawn off Seidenberg (Canes made a mistake letting him go 6 years ago but he’s 33 now and that ship sailed). 2) And Canes fans will argue that with both Ward and Khudobin under contract that the team should target bigger holes at forward or on the blue line.
And with that queue the inevitable litany of comments who bash any and all trade ideas…
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes!