Tampa Bay Flips Streit To Pittsburgh
Give Steve Yzerman credit. In two moves, the Lightning GM was able to rid himself of Valtteri Filppula, whose contract was a heavy burden for the team, by trading him to the Philadelphia Flyers. He then took the inexplicable return, defenseman Mark Streit, and traded him to the Pittsburgh Penguins, according to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun. In exchange, Tampa Bay will receive a fourth-round pick from the Penguins, which will recoup the pick they sent to the Flyers in the previous deal. Basically, he took advantage of the fact that Philly and Pittsburgh don’t do business with each other to help his team in a major way by moving out Filppula.
However, Streit is also a big gain for the Penguins. After the rival Washington Capitals added elite puck-moving defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, the Penguins have now added Streit and Frank Corrado. The Lightning will also retain 50% of Streit’s remaining salary (Philadelphia held on to 4.7% of his original contract), helping the Penguins to fit him on to the roster.
2017 NHL Trade Deadline Transaction Tracker
Keep it right here for all the trades, extensions and movement around the league on Trade Deadline day in the NHL.
Eric Fehr Headed To Toronto Maple Leafs For Frank Corrado
While it is still pending details and a trade call, Bob McKenzie of TSN is reporting that the Pittsburgh Penguins have traded recently waived Eric Fehr along with Steven Oleksy and a fourth-round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Frank Corrado.
For the Maple Leafs, this is another example of using their cap space as an asset during their rebuild. In Fehr, the Leafs have taken on the rest of his contract which has another year at $2MM in return for the draft pick. He also fulfills their expansion requirements up front, though they were likely not in much trouble there anyway.
For Corrado, another player who cleared waivers earlier this season, he provides some more right-handed depth for the Penguins. As the team also added Mark Streit, their defense corps is very full going forward but is now ready for a long playoff run and some possible injuries. Corrado hadn’t played much at all since coming to the Maple Leafs, and now might have to wait for an opportunity to open in Pittsburgh as well.
If the Maple Leafs bury Fehr in the minors, he’ll join Brooks Laich, Milan Michalek and Colin Greening on the most expensive AHL team in the league. All four forwards are capable bottom-six players that will provide some depth for Toronto as they try to get back to the playoffs. If the team deems him a good fit for the NHL squad, he would likely slot in beside Matt Martin and Brian Boyle on the fourth line. That would mean sitting Josh Levio, who has proven himself a capable offensive producer even with limited minutes.
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Ottawa Sends Curtis Lazar To Calgary
The Ottawa Senators were hoping to get a better return for Curtis Lazar than a second-round pick, but it seems that offer never came. The Calgary Flames have acquired Lazar and Mike Kostka for their 2017 second-rounder and defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka.
After months of speculation due to an inferred poor fit and a drop-off in production, the Senators have finally moved on from their promising 21-year-old forward. Lazar was the 17th overall pick in 2013 and Ottawa had high hopes for his career. Lazar broke into the NHL in 2014-15 and over the past two seasons he accumulated 35 points in 141 games. However, 2016-17 has been a different story, as Lazar has hit a wall in his development and has struggled to fit in with the team’s system. He has just one assist in 33 games and Ottawa has been frustrated over his lack of production.
In a new location, especially with the speedy Flames, Lazar can still be a great player. Lazar has mostly played right wing in Ottawa, but prefers to play center, and Calgary has all lefties down the middle. Lazar, even if it’s not until 2017-18, should eventually slot in nicely as a right-handed center for the Flames who can keep up with their fast, skilled forwards. To give a talented young player a fresh start, an investment of a second-round pick and a young defenseman who has not worked out is certainly a good deal for Calgary and GM Brad Treliving. For Ottawa, they simply took the best offer they could get for a player who clearly needed to move on.
New Jersey Trades P.A. Parenteau To Nashville
According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, the New Jersey Devils have continued selling their expiring contracts, this time sending P.A. Parenteau to the Nashville Predators for a sixth-round pick. The Predators have been looking for some forward help and will pay a very small price for a player who can score 20 goals and contribute on the powerplay. 
Parenteau was signed by the New York Islanders and looked like he would spend time on John Taveras’ wing again, the spot that he found a lot of success early in his career. Instead, the Islanders waived him just before the start of the season and New Jersey snapped him up. He has scored 13 goals and 27 points in 59 games and is capable of skating alongside top players if he is given the chance.
The Predators could slot him in beside captain Mike Fisher as Craig Smith has had a tough season and isn’t producing at the same level as in the past. Either way, at the same cost as Steve Ott went for last night, Parenteau is an easy gamble for Nashville to make.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Flyers Trade Mark Streit To Lightning For Valtteri Filppula
The Tampa Bay Lightning have acquired veteran defenseman Mark Streit from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for another veteran, center Valtteri Filppula. Streit is an impending free agent, while Filppula has another year remaining at $5MM and had to accept this trade to Philadelphia. The Lightning will also send a 2017 fourth-round pick and conditional 2017 seventh-round pick to Philly. The Flyers will retain 4.7% of Streit’s contract.
The trade is really centered around Tampa Bay’s salary cap crunch and Expansion Draft scenario. Filppula’s No-Movement Clause made him automatically protected in the draft, which put pressure on both Tampa’s expansion decisions and 2017-18 payroll. By moving Filppula and the final year of his five-year, $5MM contract, the Lightning have had many of those issues alleviated. Rather than choosing who they wanted to leave exposed or which restricted free agent they couldn’t sign, Yzerman will now have more flexibility in his maneuvers.
However, there is certainly a trade-0ff in talent. Filppula is still an effective NHL contributor, with 34 points this season, and joins a talented group of forwards in Philadelphia who may be in need of a strong veteran presence to turn their season around or, at least, to help them get back into shape next season. The Flyers had the cap space and expansion situation to acquire Filppula, and were one of the few teams who could, which explains why the cheap price of 39-year-old Streit was enough to get the deal done and why Tampa sent over draft picks as well. Streit is still a good puck-mover, but his production has dropped off significantly. The Lightning are outside of the playoffs right now, and Streit won’t hurt their chances, but trading away Ben Bishop, Brian Boyle, and now Filppula shows that the postseason is not the primary focus of the team right now.
Vegas Golden Knights Given Official Standing In NHL
As expected today, the Vegas Golden Knights have completed all the paperwork and expansion payments and been given official standing in the NHL according to Bob McKenzie of TSN. They are able to make any transactions that do not include active NHL players.
Though discussions were likely to have been going on for weeks about the expansion draft and deals to protect certain teams and players, they could now officially accept a deal. The team can also sign any college free agents like Neal Pionk who was rumored to have as many as 20 teams after him recently.
Expect Vegas to collect as many college players as possible as they try to build a pipeline of talent as quickly as possible. For teams like Pittsburgh, who look like they’ll have Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray on expansion day, they can send draft picks to the team for some extra protection.
Welcome Vegas to the NHL! We now have 31 teams in the best hockey league in the world. We’ll keep track of any deals that go down over the next few months.
Colorado Trades Martinsen To Montreal For Andrighetto
The Colorado Avalanche have been surprisingly quiet at the deadline for the league’s worst team, but they’ve jumped into yet another deal by swapping young forwards with the highly-active Montreal Canadiens, sending Andreas Martinsen to the Habs in exchange for Sven Andrighetto.
Martinsen is the fifth new player that the Canadiens have added at the deadline, and continues their trend of getting bigger and tougher. The 6’3″, 220-lb. Norwegian winger played only limited minutes for the Avs and has just seven points in 55 games. However, Martinsen is a heavy hitter and plays in well to new head coach Claude Julien‘s system of strong, two-way play.
Colorado took a long look at Andrighetto when he was on waivers earlier this season, and clearly decided they wanted to pull the trigger on acquiring the speedy Swiss forward. Andrighetto had 17 points in 44 games last season with Montreal but, instead of a promotion, he has instead seem less time and production in 2016-17. The Avalanche will provide some much-needed new opportunity for Andrighetto to show he belongs in the NHL.
New Jersey Devils Trade Kyle Quincey To Columbus Blue Jackets
According to Darren Dreger of TSN, the New Jersey Devils have traded Kyle Quincey to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Dalton Prout. As always, the deal is pending a trade call but is agreed to at this point. 
Quincey was always going to be sent somewhere at the deadline after being held out of the lineup this week. While most of the rental defensemen have been dealt for picks, the Devils are looking for players that can possibly help them as early as next season. Prout has one year left on his current deal at $1.575MM, and had fallen out of favor in Columbus.
A former mainstay on the back end, Prout has only played 15 games for the Blue Jackets this season and saw his ice time slashed considerably. The 26-year old still has a little bit of upside to his game, if he can get back to the level he played early in his career. He at least can provide a big-bodied depth piece as the Devils try to make it back to the playoffs last season.
Quincey on the other hand has proven that he can still compete at the NHL level at least in the bottom pairing. The Blue Jackets have one of the best top-four (or five) defenseman in the NHL, but needed to add some depth to numbers 6 and 7. They found it and had to give up very little in Prout, holding onto all of their draft picks.
In a rental market that has seen a lot of high picks sent for defenseman recently, acquiring Quincey keeps the Blue Jackets in line with the Rangers and Penguins without giving up as much. They’re a lock for the playoffs as one of the leaders of the Metropolitan division, but will try to get home ice by finishing in the top two. Currently sitting tied with the Penguins for that second spot, they have given up the second fewest goals in the NHL and just upgraded on the blueline.
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Rangers, Oilers Swap AHL Veterans
In need of a winger with Jesper Fast out two to three weeks, the New York Rangers worked quickly, trading Justin Fontaine to the Edmonton Oilers for Taylor Beck. The 25-year-old Beck, who has now been traded four times in the last two years, is the right-shot scorer that the Rangers needed to make up for Fast’s absence. Beck has only played in three games in Edmonton in 2016-17, but has 50 points in 40 games with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors, already topping his career-best AHL numbers. Beck played in 62 games with the Nashville Predators in 2014-15, recording 16 points, so he has shown that he can stick in the NHL. Although the Rangers likely have no long-term plans for the impending free agent, Beck gives them an option to help out with injuries up front down the stretch.
Fontaine, a 29-year-old Alberta native, played in 197 games with the Minnesota Wild over the past three seasons, but never got the call in New York. The small, high-energy forward was once a top scorer in the AHL, but his offense has fallen off and has been replaced with a more gritty game. A young Edmonton team may be able to use that veteran toughness at some point during the remainder of the season.