Trades and signings have slowed to a crawl after a flurry of activity in the first 10 days of free agency, but Friday’s deal between Chicago and the Dallas Stars involving three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Sharp shows that impactful moves are still to be made by NHL clubs this summer.
The 32-year-old winger and his nearly $6 Million salary was shipped to the Lone Star State along defenseman Stephen Johns for defenseman Trevor Daley and forward Ryan Garbutt, giving Dallas another scoring forward to the group that includes Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza and Jamie Benn, but at the cost of weakening an already thin and inexperienced defensive corps.
Daley scored a career-high 16 goals in 2014-15 and was a workhorse on the Dallas blueline(averaging nearly 23 minutes per game), but Hockeybuzz’s Bill Meltzer indicated it came at the expense of a significant drop off in the defensive side of his game.
With Daley off to the Windy City, the Stars have only pending UFA’s Alex Goligoski and Jason Demers, prized rookie John Klingberg and young prospects like Johns, Jyrki Jokipakka, Patrick Nemeth, Jamie Oleksiak and Julius Honka to fall back on, which likely means that GM Jim Nill makes another move to add some experience before the beginning of training camp.
There are free agent options like Johnny Oduya and Cody Franson that might fill the bill, but it is also possible that Nill(who has never been shy about making big splashy deals) could have interest in veteran blueliners Stephane Robidas or Dion Phaneuf.
Robidas spent 11 seasons (in two stints) in Dallas, is beloved by the Stars organization and is known for tutoring young defensemen, but the 38-year-old has two seasons left on his deal with Toronto at $3 Million and has suffered significant injuries the last two years.
In spite of indicators that the Leafs are unlikely to move their team captain with new head coach Mike Babcock at the helm, there has long been rumors of interest in Phaneuf from the Stars. An impediment to any deal is Phaneuf’s contract, which has six years remaining at $7 Million per season.
After the Sharp deal, Dallas has just under $7 Million in cap space left and would either need Toronto to retain salary or take back a significant contract like Ales Hemsky($4 Million) to balance the books.
This may not be a move that is made prior to the season, as Dallas will see how their young blueline corps will handle the pressure, but if they struggle you could see the Stars express interest in Phaneuf before next March’s trade deadline or this time next summer.
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Another notable occurrence at the end of the week was the injury to Habs leading scorer Max Pacioretty. The winger suffered a knee injury during off-ice workouts last week that will keep him out for 12 weeks, which would cover all of training camp, the exhibition schedule and possibly the start of the season.
This has to be a concern to Montreal GM Marc Bergevin, whose only moves since being eliminated by Tampa Bay have been re-signing defenseman Jeff Petry and swapping Brandon Prust for Zack Kassian.
The Habs have done little to bolster the club’s anemic offense(which finished 18th in the NHL last season) and now have to consider that Pacioretty may not be healthy enough to top his career-high 37 goals next season. Does this mean that Montreal would have interest in Joffrey Lupul, who they were rumored to have been kicking tires on in March for a playoff run?
Anything is possible, but again the cap is a factor. Montreal has over $7 Million in available cap space with RFA Alex Galchenyuk yet to sign. Lupul has three years remaining at $5.25 Million and Toronto would either have to retain salary or take back someone like Lars Eller or Alexei Emelin, who also have three years remaining on their contracts.
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