The start of training camps usually makes for a busy week around the NHL and this was certainly no exception. Here are the top stories from what was a headline-filled seven days around the league.
Pacioretty Dealt To Vegas: The trade rumors had been swirling around winger Max Pacioretty for quite some time and it had been reported previously that Montreal had no intention of re-signing him which made a trade a foregone conclusion. That came to fruition as he was moved to the Golden Knights in exchange for winger Tomas Tatar, 2017 first-round pick Nick Suzuki, and a 2019 second-round pick. Shortly after the swap was announced, he inked a four-year, $28MM extension. His $7MM AAV is significantly higher than his current $4.5MM cap hit.
End Of The Road For Zetterberg: While it had been speculated for a while that it was unlikely that Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg would play in 2018-19, the team took it one step further, announcing that his playing days are over. The 37-year-old played through considerable back pain last season and had been unable to train at all this summer. He wraps up his NHL career with 960 points in 1,082 games, all with Detroit. Zetterberg still has three years remaining on his contract with a $6.083MM cap hit (but salaries of just $3.35MM and two years at $1MM) so instead of retiring, he will instead spend the next three seasons on LTIR.
Extension For Seguin: Stars center Tyler Seguin had expressed disappointment recently regarding the last of progress made on contract talks but that seemed to get the ball rolling on them. He’ll be sticking around for the long haul now after signing an eight-year, $78.8MM extension. The $9.85MM cap hit makes him the seventh highest-paid forward league-wide for 2019-20 and beyond. Dallas had one of the more exciting lines in the league last season when they put their big three (which also features Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov) together and they now have that trio locked up through 2021-22 at a combined cap hit of $25.6MM.
Karlsson To San Jose: Defenseman Erik Karlsson had been in trade speculation for a while with Dallas, Tampa Bay, and Vegas the presumptive favorites to land him. In the end, it was the Sharks that landed the Swedish star, acquiring him for a lengthy list of players and picks. Among the notables going the other way to Ottawa are center Chris Tierney, prospect center Josh Norris, and one guaranteed first-round pick plus two others with plenty of conditions on them. There is no extension in place for Karlsson at the moment but with a little more than $20MM in expiring contracts on the books, San Jose should have the ability to re-sign him if they’re willing to spend that much on their back end. Meanwhile, this further cements the idea that the Senators are in a rebuilding process which should be great news for Colorado as they hold Ottawa’s unprotected first-round pick in 2019.
Yzerman Resigns: In a move that caught the hockey world by surprise, Steve Yzerman resigned as GM of Tampa Bay after holding the position for a little over eight years. He cited family reasons as the reason for his decision as they remain in Detroit. The 53-year-old will remain with the club as an advisor to new GM Julien BriseBois for the final year of his contract and has yet to decide on his future after that. Speculation has already run rampant that he could be in line to take the GM job with the Red Wings once his deal with the Lightning expires but nothing is set in stone just yet.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
In Pacioretty’s case. Montreal had no intentions of re-signing him, simply because Pacioretty asked to be traded. The $7M average for 4 years, he would of have the same amount for one more year easily in Montreal. He really wanted out. He wanted to go where he’d have a good center, like Stastny, why else would he refuse $6M for 6 years from LA? Taking $28M instead of $36M? Makes no sense to me. There’s a lot of injuries in hockey. Nobody is immune to this. It seems to me that he lost a lot, because re-signing the next contract will be very low, nobody will gave several millions to a guy that is 35. So the 8 millions he left on the table will never be recuperated, he should have kept Brisson as agent.