The trade deadline has come and gone and while deadline day itself was slow at times, there were still quite a few notable trades. Those big swaps are highlighted in the top stories of the week.
Stone To Vegas, Agrees To Extension: The Senators tried to keep Mark Stone around but after not being able to agree on an extension with him, they shipped him to Vegas in exchange for blueline prospect Erik Brannstrom, center Oscar Lindberg, and a second-round pick in 2020. The Golden Knights wasted little time working out an extension with him, one that will pay him $9.5MM per season for eight years when it’s made official. In Stone, Vegas has added a legitimate top liner who could become the focal point of their attack before too long while his defensive game is also quite strong. He was the best player to move on deadline day by a considerable margin. Meanwhile, Brannstrom has emerged as one of the top defensive prospects in the league and will likely give Ottawa a very potent one-two punch alongside Thomas Chabot as soon as next season.
Jets Add Hayes: The Jets had made it known that their first-round pick was available for the second straight year and they found a willing taker in the Rangers as they shipped the pick along with winger Brendan Lemieux to New York in exchange for center Kevin Hayes, the top pivot available. It’s the second straight season that Winnipeg opted to improve down the middle after picking up Paul Stastny last year. Hayes along with Mark Scheifele and Bryan Little give the Jets a very strong top three center group and are now even deeper up front. Meanwhile, the Rangers add another top pick to the fold plus a youngster in Lemieux who should be a fixture in their bottom six for the next several years.
Predators Pick Up A Pair: Seeing Winnipeg’s move, Nashville made two notable swaps to counter it and bolster their chances in the Central. First, they swapped wingers with Minnesota, acquiring Mikael Granlund in exchange for Kevin Fiala. Granlund has one year of team control left after this one while Fiala is just wrapping up his entry-level deal so it’s a deal that works reasonably well for both sides with the Preds getting the shorter-term boost while the Wild add another young winger to the stable. They followed that up by adding rental winger Wayne Simmonds from the Flyers for winger Ryan Hartman and a conditional 2020 fourth-round pick (that upgrades a round if Nashville wins a playoff series). Simmonds is having a quieter season, he still should reach the 20-goal mark while being a factor on a struggling power play. Nashville has been a team near the middle of the pack in scoring this season but these moves should help them move up a few spots and give them a more balanced attack heading into the postseason.
There were over 20 trades made in total on trade deadline day. Click here for the full listing of deadline swaps.
Boucher Fired: Considering Ottawa’s struggles this year, a change behind the bench was likely to come but many expected it to happen after the season. Instead, GM Pierre Dorion opted to make a change now, firing Boucher while promoting veteran coach Marc Crawford to take over as the head coach for the remainder of the year. Boucher’s tenure in Ottawa got off to a strong start as they made it to Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Final but it went downhill quickly after that as they missed the playoffs by a considerable margin last year and have been even worse this season. His tenure with the Sens wraps up with a 94-108-26 record; his 228 games coached rank fourth in franchise history. Boucher is the seventh coach to lose his job in-season after no coaches were relieved of their duties in 2017-18.
Extension For Staal: Wild center Eric Staal had made it known that he wanted to stay with Minnesota but it was still a bit of a surprise that he didn’t move by the trade deadline. Instead, it turns out that he had agreed to a two-year, $6.5MM extension to stick around. The deal represents a small pay cut on his current $3.5MM AAV which was already viewed as somewhat of a team-friendly one. The 34-year-old is having a down season relative to the 76 points he posted last season but he still should be able to reach the 50-point mark which is still top-six production. Getting a top-six forward locked up for two more years at that rate is solid value for GM Paul Fenton.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
What do ya think Ottawa? I thought Boucher would’ve been good for a young team looking for discipline?
He obviously wasn’t the right guy for the job. He’s actually probably the exact opposite. Even now when the games don’t matter, he refused to play the young guys over Smith, Paajarvi, Ceci, Boro, etc.
They probably could’ve let him ride out the year though.