The week before the trade deadline usually generates some notable headlines on the trade front. While there weren’t many of those, there was still some trade-related news of note in our key stories.
Kings Shake Things Up: Kings GM Ken Holland made the biggest swap before the Olympic break when he added Artemi Panarin from the Rangers. Now, he’s made the biggest move after the break (for now) as he fired head coach Jim Hiller, replacing him with associate coach D.J. Smith on an interim basis for the rest of the season. Hiller lasted a little more than two years with the top job in Los Angeles, with the team playing to a solid 93-58-24 record in that time. However, the team has struggled mightily this season offensively, leaving them on the outside of the playoff picture at the moment. Smith, in his second season in his associate role, will now be tasked with getting more out of his forward group. This will be his second time running an NHL bench after spending parts of five seasons in charge in Ottawa.
Crosby Out A Month: While he was believed to be close to suiting up in the Gold Medal game at the Olympics, Sidney Crosby won’t be playing for a while yet. The team announced that he will miss at least the next four weeks due to the lower-body injury sustained overseas. Crosby has once again been a crucial part of Pittsburgh’s attack this season, leading the way offensively with 27 goals and 32 assists in 56 games, continuing his streak of point-per-game campaigns which now stands at 21. He has also been instrumental in taking a Pittsburgh team that was expected to be a basement dweller by many to a top-three spot in the Metropolitan Division. They’ll now have to find a way to hold onto it without their captain and top scorer.
Defense Swap: There was one trade of some significance in the NHL this week, a swap of blueliners as Pittsburgh sent Brett Kulak to Colorado for Samuel Girard and a 2028 second-round pick. Kulak came over from Edmonton as part of the return for Tristan Jarry earlier this season and now joins a Colorado squad where he’ll likely suit up on their third pairing and then hit free agency this summer. Girard, meanwhile, makes nearly twice as much as Kulak while being signed through next season which explains the draft pick component of the trade as the Avs made this move in part for cap flexibility reasons. Once a consistent key cog on Colorado’s back end, Girard’s role and effectiveness have dropped in recent years so he’ll be looking for a chance to rebuild his game with Pittsburgh.
Trade To Come? This is the time of year when players will be scratched for roster-related or trade-related reasons. The latest of these is Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers, who was scratched back on Wednesday. However, these are typically followed by a trade although that has not been the case here. Instead, he is believed to have been presented with a team (thought to be Detroit) to consider waiving his trade protection for. Myers has made it known in the past how much he wants to stay in Vancouver but now, it appears it’s a matter of seeing if other teams get into the mix that he’s more open to joining before deciding on waiving that protection.
Seguin Done For The Season: The Stars were hoping that they’d be able to get Tyler Seguin back at some point in the playoffs after undergoing ACL surgery four months ago. That is no longer an option as the team filed paperwork to rule him out for the rest of the season. In doing so, they become eligible to utilize his full $9.85MM AAV through LTIR instead of the $3.82MM they had access to, the maximum allowed for players who will or could return later in the year. With nearly an extra $6MM to spend and Dallas being one of the top teams in the NHL this season, it will be interesting to see how they utilize those funds. Notably, with Jason Robertson up for a new deal in the summer, it wouldn’t be surprising to see GM Jim Nill target an expiring contract to fill Seguin’s spot on the roster.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.