PHR Mailbag: Draft, Jets, Tavares, Canucks, Canadiens

Topics in this edition of the PHR Mailbag include the upcoming draft, trade scenarios for a pair of Western Canadian teams, and much more.

Zack35: I think everyone is aware this draft is probably going to be a gong show because anybody from 4-10 could probably go anywhere. Which of Tkachuk, Kotkaniemi, Bouchard, Hughes, Dobson, Wahlstrom and Boqvist could you see falling further than expected?

I think you can even go one further and say three-to-ten could go a lot of different ways.  I don’t think it’s a guarantee that the Canadiens will take winger Filip Zadina with pick number three and if they don’t, things will really get shaken up.  They’re speculatively linked to about four different players right now and will be the team that really gets the ball rolling on the rest of the top-ten.

As things stand, winger Brady Tkachuk seems to be a consensus top-five pick but I think he could slide if Montreal doesn’t take him or Zadina.  In that scenario, Ottawa likely picks the Czech winger and I think we’ll see a run on defensemen at five through seven.  That would drop him to Chicago at number eight at the earliest which would put him lower than a lot of people expect.

I think winger Oliver Wahlstrom could be another that drops a little bit.  In general, I think the top-four defenders not named Rasmus Dahlin go in the top nine which doesn’t leave a lot of room for Wahlstrom.  Teams like the Oilers and Islanders (who pick 10, 11, and 12) have real needs for blueliners so I could see a scenario where he drops a little out of the top-ten.  Having said that, I don’t expect any of that group to start falling down into the mid-to-late teens of the first round.

goggles: The Winnipeg Jets are going to have to be very creative going forward with salaries. Who will the Jets be looking to move to free up some cap space and who would fetch the best return?

Up front, Mathieu Perreault feels like a likely casualty at some point.  He fits in nicely as a player who can be shuffled into a variety of different roles and positions and still put up around 40 points but with the young talent they have pushing for spots, they can probably get a similar output from someone making less than a quarter of his $4.125MM cap hit.  A team that strikes out in free agency could very well turn to Winnipeg and offer up a decent futures-based return to get a deal done.

I wouldn’t be surprised if GM Kevin Cheveldayoff looked to move goalie Steve Mason ($4.1MM for one more year) and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov ($4.33MM AAV for two more years).  Connor Hellebuyck is going to be an expensive contract this summer and as a result, they could wind up with one of the more expensive goalie tandems in the league which isn’t ideal.  As for Kulikov, that contract felt like an overpayment right away and still does now.  One year from now when he becomes an expiring deal is probably the likeliest time that he gets dealt.

With rearguards Dustin Byfuglien signed for three more years and Jacob Trouba expected to sign long-term this summer, I question if there’s a long-term spot for defenseman Tyler Myers.  He has one year left at $5.5MM on his deal and is coming off of a really nice season.  If they were to make him available, there will be teams lining up to try to get him (and then throw a lot of money into an extension offer).  He could fetch a king’s ransom in a trade, including a young defender that’s more cost-controlled over the next few years when they have to extend wingers Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor, among others.  I suspect the Jets wouldn’t want to do this given the year they just had but it may be the prudent way to go, even if it results in a small step back in the short-term.

acarneglia: Are the Rangers a threat to sign John Tavares?

They certainly have the money to go after him but with them turning around and openly starting a rebuild and hiring a coach with the goal of short-term player development in mind, it would be a little surprising to see them quickly change gears by signing Tavares.  I also can’t see him wanting to sign with a team that isn’t focused on winning in the next couple of years.  He’s going to get offers from a lot of teams that are closer to winning now and the money is going to be pretty close in all of those offers so I’d expect him to pick more of a contender.

Instead, I think New York will turn their focus in free agency to ‘buffer players’.  These are players who are willing to sign a short-term contract to cover the gap until the likes of Lias Andersson, Filip Chytil, and others are ready to step up into prominent roles.  These veterans would then become trade bait either this season or next, allowing the Rangers to pick up some additional future assets.  If I were them, I’d put a decent chunk of the contract as signing bonuses which would make them easier to move when the time comes.  That’s certainly not as thrilling as going after a top player like Tavares but given where the Rangers are, the buffers are the likelier outcome over these next few weeks.

@bmac039: Which 1-3 players off the Canucks current roster do you view as most expendable if the Canucks are trying to fix their blue line and add a Center, via trade? In other words, teams will want Sutter? Tanev? And who would the Canucks be okay trading away if it makes them better?

Vancouver is in a bit of a rebuilding cycle now so the defense and center upgrades are going to be more long-term than short-term.  With that in mind, it’s the veterans they’re going to be looking to move.

Of those veterans, their two top blueliners are most likely to yield a quality younger asset in return.  Chris Tanev has been speculated as potential trade fodder for a while now and would attract plenty of interest.  However, GM Jim Benning has already stated that they’re not looking to move him so while he may be expendable, it doesn’t appear that they’re willing to deal him just yet.  I think that won’t be the case with Alex Edler.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he was open to a move to a contender (waiving his no-trade clause to do so) and he can slot in on a top pairing quite comfortably.  This is the type of player a contender will view as that final piece and would pay a premium for and included in that would likely be a long-term piece of the puzzle.

Unfortunately for Vancouver, he may very well be the only player that can be moved to upgrade their long-term situation.  They’d love to get out from underneath winger Loui Eriksson’s deal but at this stage, the only way he goes is in a swap of bad contracts.  Goalie Anders Nilsson is expendable but he’d be worth a mid-round pick which doesn’t move the needle.  Ditto for blueliner Ben Hutton whose poor 2017-18 season tanked his trade value.  Center Brandon Sutter has some value but as someone who is probably best served on the third line, his $4.375MM cap hit is a little steep.

There are a lot of complementary veterans that could wind up going over the next couple of years but aside from Edler (and Tanev if Benning has a change of heart), they’re not going to result in the Canucks adding core assets in return.  Accordingly, they’re probably going to stick to the current course – try to draft and develop well and sign mid-tier free agents that won’t prohibit them from making a big splash when the time is right and the core is ready to contend.

Connorsoxfan: Why does Marc Bergevin keep making 1-for-1 trades he’s destined to lose?

Friday’s trade of wingers that saw Alex Galchenyuk move from Montreal to Arizona for Max Domi was a bit of a head-scratcher from the Canadiens’ perspective at first glance.  For a team that struggles to score, trading a goal scorer for a playmaker is a risky proposition.  If Galchenyuk gets to play at center and thrives, he’ll put himself in a great situation to get paid a couple of years from now in unrestricted free agency and during his media scrum on Saturday, Bergevin did note that the team control element (four years for Domi versus two for Galchenyuk) played a factor in this trade.

As for the question at hand, I wonder if Bergevin sticks to his initial player evaluations for too long.  As part of his justification for the trade, he raved about Domi’s junior production but he hasn’t played there in three years.  He made similar comments about Jonathan Drouin when that move was made a year ago.  The scouting report for a player changes from the junior ranks to three seasons into their NHL career but Bergevin seems to believe that junior-level production and role is still a possibility despite that being very unlikely.

Montreal’s GM has often brought up attitude and character as elements that are of critical importance and ones that play a role when they struggle.  I suspect he believes that these big moves that he has made in recent years will improve the team in this area and that the gains there will offset any potential drop-off in terms of talent.  There aren’t a lot of others that would necessarily share that sentiment but as the shot-caller for the Canadiens, it’s Bergevin’s valuation that ultimately matters the most.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.