Now that the NHL Awards are done and dusted, teams are getting down to serious business as preparations begin for the draft and free agency.
Pittsburgh has rebounded relatively quickly after being rebuffed by Willie Desjardins, hiring Portland Winterhawks coach/GM Mike Johnston to lead the charge with Rick Tocchet as his first assistant. NHL.com
is reporting that Johnston apparently received a three-year deal.
Johnston has a solid track record; I think he's a much better choice for them than some of the other names that were being bandied about. With this announcement, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Penguins contending near the top of the Eastern Conference again next season.
Meanwhile, as expected, Tampa Bay has cut ties with Ryan Malone, putting him on waivers for the purposes of a compliance buyout. Malone's now 34 and his production had dropped way off over the last couple of years, especially considering he was part of the 2010 U.S. Olympic team.
He's a big body at 6'4" and 224 pounds, but injuries and mobility had become an issue even before his cocaine arrest. If he could be acquired at a bargain-basement price, could he bring enough fire to be a useful bottom-six forward for a year or two?
Finally on the NHL front, teams are starting to lock up their players with new deals. The biggest news of the day is a seven year contract for Marian Gaborik with an average annual value of $4.9 million,
according to NHL.com, with financial details from Pierre LeBrun.
That, Thomas Vanek and Matt Moulson, is how you play your cards as you step into unrestricted free agency! Of course, this isn't Gaborik's first kick at the can as a UFA. Despite playing just 17 games with the Minnesota Wild due to injury in 2008-09, Gaborik was able to secure a five-year deal with a $7.5 million cap hit with the New York Rangers after that season. Remember the rumours at that time about how he'd bought a house in West Vancouver and the Canucks were supposed to land him to play with Pavol Demitra? Wonder how it would have turned out if that had come true...
So, after his massive playoff, the Kings sign a 32-year-old for another seven seasons. The money is very reasonable, but I wonder how long the oft-injured Gaborik will be able to contribute?
Also today, Tampa Bay signed Ryan Callahan to a six-year deal with a cap hit of $5.8 million a season for the 29-year-old, so it looks like that deadline deal with Martin St. Louis is a winner for both sides. Finally, Edmonton acquired Nikita Nikitin from Columbus for a fifth-round pick, then signed him to a two-year deal with a cap hit of $4.5 million a year. I know Edmonton needs help on the blue line, but that's big money for a 28-year-old who gets injured a lot: his 66 regular-season games last season were a career high.
Nikitin was coming off a deal with a $2.15 million cap hit. He was about to become an unrestricted free agent, so his ask shouldn't be directly comparable to what Chris Tanev would be seeking as an RFA with less negotiating power.
All Eyes on Kesler
There would be a certain tidiness to a three-way deal involving Ryan Kesler. I don't like the idea of a 32-year-old Patrick Sharp and his $5.9 million cap hit coming to Vancouver from Chicago after the way he disappeared in the postseason this year: a career-high 78 points in the regular season but just 10 points in the playoffs. He could be a good fit for one of the teams holding one of the top three picks in the draft, though Sharp does have a no-movement clause and a modified no-trade. Not sure if he'd be willing to waive.
If the Canucks are serious about moving up, maybe there's a way to address all their needs in one giant deal.
What do you think? This poll question is asking for your prediction about how things will shake down over the next few days. Not what you *want* to happen, but what you think is the most likely scenario. I've included an "other" option if you have another grand idea you'd like to share in the comments:
Dave Bolland??
I was nothing short of gobsmacked when I read this tweet this morning:
Is our rookie management team unaware of the bad blood between Bolland and the Canucks? Last season, Leaf fans were up in arms when a cut on his ankle from Zack Kassian's skate knocked Bolland out of action for four and a half months last season—though the player himself
did not lay blame.
Still, his infamous comments about the "Sedin sisters" during his days as a Blackhawk would hardly set the stage for the locker-room harmony in our new world of "character." In case you forgot,
here is the
Vancouver Sun story from back in 2011, though the link to the original interview audio is now dead.
News1130 went on to add a second tweet about Bolland:
I'm hoping that's his way of saying he's not interested.
The announcement of Gaborik's deal today is making Bolland look a bit foolish as he tries to set his position in the marketplace:
That's a David Clarkson-ish deal but (a) Clarkson was basically the best player available last year when Toronto signed him and (b) the Clarkson deal looks so bad now, it's highly unlikely the Leafs will go down that road again. I think the Leafs are still the team that will offer Bolland the best deal. There's just no way he can come to Vancouver.
Ryan Miller?????
I heard a whisper yesterday that the Canucks were interested in reaching out to Ryan Miller, which also seemed crazy to me. But here it is on the Twitter today:
I'm not liking the content of what News1130 is reporting, but they're doing some great work that seems very credible. Nice to have a good local source to follow!
It has always been assumed that Miller would only go to a U.S. market, but we have this:
News1130 also mentions that the Canucks are reaching out to Jonas Hiller's agent, but have yet to make contact.
This all comes as a bit of a surprise given what Trevor Linden has said in the past about being satisfied with the Canucks' young goaltending tandem. But with cap space to burn, it's an idea worth exploring. With the stated goal of making the playoffs next season, a veteran Grade A goalie is the quickest band-aid solution to manufacture points out of games that would otherwise have been losses. We could learn to like either of them, I think, if they delivered the big saves and the two points.
I guess it will depend on who else is looking and what the market will bear. I'd prefer that any deal be relatively short-term, but these guys are likely looking for several years of financial security. All of a sudden, things just got interesting in the crease once again...
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