Jimmy Howard Could Fit In Detroit's Plans Beyond Next Season
- Although the Red Wings now have Jonathan Bernier locked up for the next three years, Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press suggests that that shouldn’t necessarily spell the end for incumbent netminder Jimmy Howard with the team. The pending UFA projects to be a trade candidate closer to the trade deadline but even if that were to happen, St. James notes that Detroit has been pleased with his performance over the last couple of years and would have interest in dealing him and bringing him back as a free agent on a short-term deal given that they don’t have any prospects pushing to make the jump to the NHL at the moment. For that to happen, he would presumably need to take a pay cut from his current $5.29MM cap hit.
Dylan Larkin, Detroit Red Wings Inching Closer To Contract
Among the names left on the restricted free agent list, Dylan Larkin stands out as a potential franchise linchpin. Though William Nylander and Sam Reinhart are important forwards, and Noah Hanifin, Darnell Nurse, Shea Theodore and Josh Morrissey are all talented defensmen, it’s Larkin that could be the face of the Detroit Red Wings for quite some time and probably the most important contract to still be worked out. Larkin recently said that he believed something would be done before training camp, and yesterday reiterated that fact to Sportsnet’s Luke Fox.
Something’s coming. I’ve told everyone I think it’ll be before training camp. It’s right there. I’m just waiting to iron out the details.
There have been reports that the Red Wings have been working towards a five or six year contract, but Larkin indicated that there are “different offers out there” that could also include a shorter bridge deal. That depends on how much room GM Ken Holland and the Detroit front office can clear up this summer, given that the Red Wings only have $2.83MM in cap space. Larkin would take up more than that even on a bridge deal, meaning there is plenty more work to be done for the club over the next few weeks.
Teams can go over the cap in the offseason (up to 10% or $7.95MM), and the Red Wings still have Johan Franzen‘s cap hit that can be placed on long-term injured reserve for additional cap flexibility. But if Larkin does end up signing a long-term deal, it would take up a considerable amount of space given that he has just four years of restricted free agency remaining.
Even with the crunch that is occurring right now for Detroit, the may rather get Larkin under contract for some of his unrestricted free agent years given that their cap situation starts clearing up as soon as 2019-20. With nearly $18MM scheduled to come off the books in the form of Gustav Nyquist, Jimmy Howard, Thomas Vanek and Niklas Kronwall, the team can certainly afford to give the next wave of talent substantial raises. As a team the Red Wings are getting closer to financial freedom and a real chance at a rebuild, and Larkin’s next deal will set the precedent for all the players that come after him. It might still take a little while to work through, but at this point both sides seem confident something will get done.
Dylan Larkin Expects To Sign Before Training Camp
There are still some big name restricted free agents that remain unsigned around the league, including Dylan Larkin of the Detroit Red Wings. After leading his club in scoring last season Larkin wasn’t eligible for arbitration and was in no rush to get a new contract early in the offseason. Larkin was a guest coach at the Red Wings’ youth camp today, where he spoke to reporters including Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press:
I feel pretty confident that something will get done before training camp. No worries about it.
St. James tweets that the two sides are looking at a five or six-year contract, which would buy out at least one unrestricted free agent year. Every time that you take away UFA seasons from a talented young player the cap hit of the deal will increase, something that the Red Wings will have to carefully navigate in contract talks. The team currently has just $2.8MM in cap space, though Johan Franzen‘s contract will eventually be placed on long-term injured reserve. The team can also be up to $7.95MM (10% of the cap) over the ceiling during the offseason, meaning they could sign Larkin and then make additional moves before the year begins.
With 63 points last season, Larkin finally started fulfilling his potential as a top center in the NHL. His physical gifts are obvious, blessed as one of the league’s fastest skaters and possessing high-end puck skills and playmaking ability. His 39 even-strength assists put him behind only Connor McDavid, Claude Giroux, Artemi Panarin, Steven Stamkos and Mathew Barzal, while his 6.9% shooting percentage will almost certainly improve going forward. Logging nearly 20 minutes a night, Larkin established himself as the future in Detroit and could easily take another step forward next season after turning 22 just a few days ago.
The Red Wings are still in trouble financially for the next few seasons, but are slowly turning things around through the draft. With Filip Zadina and Joe Veleno joining the organization from this draft’s first round, and other young players like Dennis Cholowski and Michael Rasmussen closing in on the NHL, there could be a youth movement coming in the next few seasons. Larkin will be the spearhead for that movement, and should get some contract certainty in the next few weeks.
Larkin: No Issues So Far In Contract Talks
- While the Red Wings have yet to lock up RFA center Dylan Larkin, the soon-to-be 22-year-old told NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika that there are no major issues thus far in their contract negotiations. Larkin is coming off of a career year that saw him collect 63 points to lead the team in scoring and will likely be bypassing the bridge contract. It was reported earlier this month that Detroit is looking to do a five-year contract here but that they may have to go to six to get something done.
The Contract Each Team Would Most Like To Trade: Part II
Nearly every team has one of those players: a top talent they were excited to sign and never thought could do anything but help them. In hindsight, history shows that more often than not, expensive, long-term free agent contracts don’t work out. It may look good at first (or it may look bad right away to the outside observer), but players struggle to make their value last throughout a lengthy contract. Those contracts come back to bite teams and are hard to get rid of. As teams begin to finalize their rosters at this point in the off-season, many are struggling to make everyone fit under the salary cap and are regretting these past signings that exasperate a cap crunch that can be tough for even a mistake-free club. We already took a look at the first third of the league; here are the contracts that each team would most like to trade, from Detroit to Ottawa:
Detroit Red Wings: Frans Nielsen – four years, $21MM remaining
As speculated by some readers in the comments section, it was no mistake that Part I ended with Dallas. Detroit deserved both some extra consideration and to lead off an article about poor contracts. There is an argument to be made that almost every single player age 28 and over on the Red Wings roster is signed to a bad contract for one reason or another. Detroit is a team that ranks towards the bottom of the standings and towards the top of the salary cap and that is not just bad luck. However, some are much worse than others and they are so bad that it is tough to choose between them. Take this scenario: Player A scored 35 points in 75 games last season. It was 14 points more than the season prior, including six more goals, and Player A also led the team in hits. He is 31 years old and signed for five more years at $4.25MM per. Player B scored 33 points in 79 games last season. It was eight points less than the season prior, and Player B also had the worst face-off percentage among the team’s centers. He is 34 years old and signed for four more years at $5.25MM per. Still undecided about which contract the team would rather trade? Player A is a Michigan native and career Red Wing and Player B is entering only his third year after signing a lucrative free agent contract. Player A of course is perennial whipping boy Justin Abdelkader. Yes, the Abdelkader contract is terrible. At no point in his career has he been worth his current contract value. Yet, he improved last season, is younger and brings a defensive element to his game, and is also loyal to the current administration – the call of the question after all is which contract the team would most like to trade. That would instead be Player B, Frans Nielsen, who at 34 is predictably declining and last year made more than Abdelkader for less production and there is no reason to believe that trend won’t continue. The team rewarded Adbelkader for years of service, whereas they took a gamble on Nielsen that hasn’t paid off. One of those moves is far more regrettable. Nielsen is the guy, but he only narrowly edged out Abdelkader and defenseman Danny DeKeyser, who also has relative age and Detroit roots to his advantage.
Edmonton Oilers: Milan Lucic – five years, $30MM remaining
The Oilers can refute trade rumors surrounding Milan Lucic all they want. The truth of the matter is that GM Peter Chiarelli signed Lucic hoping that he could both produce with and protect Connor McDavid in Edmonton as he did for David Krejci in Boston. The only problem is that the 30-year-old power forward can no longer keep up with a player of McDavid’s caliber. Lucic managed to score 34 points last season, tied for fourth on the team, but that is nowhere near what is expected of a $6MM player, especially when he scored 50 in year one with the Oilers and topped that mark many times with the Bruins. Edmonton still may be holding out hope that Lucic can turn it around and be just as much of a scoring threat as he is a physical threat, but make no mistake that the team would be quick to get rid of his contract if the right deal came along. In contrast, the team would be far more hesitant to move a hefty contract like defenseman Andrej Sekera who has been good and injury-prone, rather than healthy and underwhelming.
Florida Panthers: Roberto Luongo – four years, $18.13MM remaining
Florida is a tough one. Dale Tallon has done a good job of locking up his core long-term and, despite being right up against the cap, there are few egregious contracts on the roster right now. Give it a few years and maybe Michael Matheson will hold this title, but for now it goes to Roberto Luongo by default. Of course, Luongo is beloved in Florida and the team doesn’t even have to carry the whole of his cap hit, with the Vancouver Canucks retaining $800K each year. However, the reality is that Luongo will turn 40 this season and it will be only the first of four years left on his deal. The Panthers have almost $8MM committed to two goalies for the next few years and the other, James Reimer, is younger and outplayed Luongo in 2016-17 and in more games to boot. While they both fought injuries this past season, it was Luongo back on top performance-wise, but the impressive numbers he did post came in just 35 appearances versus Reimer’s 44. Florida paying over $4.5MM per year to a backup goalie in his forties just doesn’t make sense and the team would be better off moving forward with just Reimer and Michael Hutchinson if they could find a way to trade Luongo. Another reason this contract is bad: both the Panthers and Canucks will be hit with cap recapture penalties if Luongo retires prior to 2022.
Los Angeles Kings: Dustin Brown – four years, $23.5MM remaining
For the first time in years, Kings fans are feeling good about Dustin Brown. That is why now is the perfect time to trade him. Brown had been the bane of L.A.’s existence for four years, registering no more than 36 points each year while eating up $5.875MM in cap space, when he finally broke out of his funk in 2017-18 with a massive 61-point season and one of the league’s best plus/minus ratings. The question now is whether the past four years were an aberration with this season setting a new baseline or will Brown regress back to his bottom-six production. With a cap-strapped roster full of expensive contracts for older players, L.A. can’t take the risk of keeping Brown around if the right opportunity presents itself. They would be forced to trade the career King if a taker came forward rather than hold out hope that he doesn’t revert back to his old ways of being drastically overpaid.
Minnesota Wild: Zach Parise – seven years, $52.77MM remaining
When the Wild signed 28-year-old’s Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to matching 13-year contracts worth almost $100MM apiece, they knew that those deals would have dark days at some point in the future. However, they never could have imagined that Parise’s decline would come so soon. Parise remains one of the most popular players on the team, but injuries have kept him off the ice and affected his play when on the ice over the ice and his stock is falling quickly. Parise has never been able to reach the peaks he enjoyed in New Jersey, but he still produced at a high level over his first four seasons with the team. The past two years have been a different story and Parise appears to be trending in the wrong direction. Now 33, Parise isn’t totally beyond help and could turn it around. If back at 100%, Parise has enough natural ability and enough talent around him to still be a $7.5MM player. However, it would be nearly impossible for Minnesota to ever move the behemoth that is his contract so, if somehow they received an offer, they would take it without a second thought. Fan favorite or not, there is too much risk associated with Parise moving forward.
Montreal Canadiens: Shea Weber – seven years, $55MM remaining
I know what you’re thinking and yes, the Carey Price contract doesn’t look great right now. However, an extension of any length and value for any player coming off an injury-riddled season would bring a skewed perception. Price has been one of the best goalies in the league for years and one bad season doesn’t change that. Will he lose that title in the next eight years? For sure, but it would be a shock to see the Canadiens move their poster boy any time soon. Their #1 defenseman is another question though. When Montreal acquired Shea Weber for P.K. Subban, they never could have anticipated that his body would break down so soon after. Injuries cost Weber all but 26 games last season and he will miss the beginning of 2018-19 as well. Weber doesn’t seem like the type of player who will retire early, but there is no guarantee that these injuries won’t slow him down significantly for the remainder of his contract. In fact, the only guarantee is that he will slow down over the next seven years. At $7.86MM, the Canadiens need Weber to be his dynamic two-way self. The team already has one overpaid stay-at-home defenseman in Karl Alzner and can’t afford another. If they could move Weber, they would.
Nashville Predators: None
GM David Poile flat out doesn’t sign bad contracts. Criticize the deals for Ryan Johansen and Kyle Turris if you like, but the bargain contracts throughout the rest of the lineup have allowed Poile to overpay for reliable centers and that is a team-building model that anyone can get behind.
New Jersey Devils: Corey Schneider – four years, $24MM remaining
The easy answer is that the Devils don’t feel any pressure to trade anyone on the roster. They currently have the lowest payroll in the league with nearly every player signed to a fair deal. Those who are overpriced – Travis Zajac and Andy Greene – play important leadership role and the only player signed to a substantially long-term deal is electric young blue liner Damon Severson. The one and only player that sticks out as a potential long-term cap problem is starting goaltender Corey Schneider. This may surprises some; after all Schneider trails only Tuukka Rask among active save percentage leaders. Schneider had been elite since arriving in New Jersey, but something started to change in 2016-17. His SV% fell to .908 and his GAA inflated to 2.82 and then things only got worse last season with a SV% of .907 and a GAA of 2.93. He was also limited to just 40 appearances this year and was outplayed by journeyman Keith Kinkaid. The Devils can’t count on Kinkaid to repeat his 2017-18 performance moving forward and if Schneider’s back-to-back bad years are more than a fluke, they can’t depend on him for four more years either. He’s not going to be a $6MM backup either. New Jersey will give Schneider the time he needs to return to form, but they may not hesitate if the right trade comes their way as well.
New York Islanders: Andrew Ladd – five years, $27.5MM remaining
The Islanders without John Tavares are a totally different animal. A six-year, $30MM extension for Josh Bailey now looks bad. A $5.75MM cap hit this season for free agents Leo Komarov and Valtteri Filppula signed to make up for Tavares’ lost production looks bad. The likes of Cal Clutterbuck, Casey Cizikas, and Matt Martin now look worse on a team that needs more offense and less grit. However, the one contract that looked miserable well before Tavares bolted to Toronto is Andrew Ladd and it is only going to get much worse. The veteran forward was intended to find chemistry with Tavares when he was signed to a seven-year, $38.5MM contract two years ago. Instead, Ladd has just 60 points over the past two seasons combined and has by all accounts been relegated to a bottom-six role. The 32-year-old will now be asked to take a bigger role in Tavares’ stead and that is a scary proposition. The Islanders aren’t in any cap trouble, but the team should be thinking rebuild and would likely take any offer at all to rid themselves of Ladd.
New York Rangers: Brendan Smith – three years, $13.05MM remaining
Has any free agent contract in recent memory soured as quickly as Brendan Smith’s? Smith signed a four-year deal with the Rangers last June and was expected to play a top-four role for the team for years to come. By February, he had been placed on waivers and buried in the AHL. Smith played in only 44 games with New York and saw less and less ice time as the season wore on and he continued to turn the puck over at an alarming rate and cost his team goals. Now what? One would assume that Smith will be given a second chance this season, but the relationship between he and the team may be beyond repair. There is no doubt that the Rangers would take a re-do on that deal and would move him if possible. Marc Staal is another player that New York wouldn’t mind moving, but as a player who can eat minutes and provide solid play most of the time, his $5.7MM contract seems like nothing next to Smith’s $4.35MM deal.
Ottawa Senators: Bobby Ryan – four years, $29MM remaining
No contract in the league has become as notorious for being labeled a “bad deal” that the team is desperate to trade like Bobby Ryan’s. The Senators are so determined to move on from Ryan that they are trying to force Erik Karlsson trade suitors to take the overpaid forward as well. At one point in time, $7.25MM per year for Ryan seemed like a fair deal. At 23 years old he was a 71-point player with the Anaheim Ducks and even after moving to Ottawa, Ryan started his tenure with three straight seasons in the 50-point range. However, the last two years have been very different. Ryan has only suited up for 62 games in each campaign and has looked like a different player on offense. At his best, he looks disinterested and lucky to be in the right place at the right time and at his worst he costs his team goals. Ryan has managed to register only 58 points combined over the past two years; he had 56 alone in 2015-16. Ryan may just need a change of scenery to jump start what used to be dynamic goal-scoring game, but the Senators don’t care about that. All he is to them is a waste of cap space and of owner Eugene Melnyk‘s dwindling wealth. They want him gone at any cost.
Look out for Part III of this three-part series early next week…
Morning Notes: Zetterberg, Chelios, Kearns
The Detroit Red Wings are committed to playing some of their younger forwards in bigger situations this season, but some have wondered how exactly they’ll find room to do that when so many veterans remain on the roster. One opportunity for top-six minutes might arise if Henrik Zetterberg can’t play, something that has been rumored but not confirmed for the past while. Head coach Jeff Blashill was non-committal when asked about Zetterberg by Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, saying that he still wasn’t sure whether he’d have his captain in the lineup.
At this point, I haven’t heard anything from Henrik to say that he is or is not playing. The biggest thing with Henrik is, how healthy is Henrik? I know he spent the whole second half of last season not practicing because of his back. He ground it out because he is the ultimate warrior, one of the best I have ever been around, and was able to still be a real good player. But that continues to take a wear and tear on your body. So I think he is in the process of deliberating to see where is his back at? And only Henrik can answer that and it will be answered I am sure come camp time.
Zetterberg played in all 82 games in 2017-18 for the third consecutive season, and posted a solid 56-point campaign. Turning 38 in October he has three years remaining on his current contract that carries a $6.08MM cap hit, but is owed just $5.35MM in total actual salary. If Zetterberg isn’t able to play, the team would need to find takers for the nearly 20 minutes a night he averaged last season, easily leading all Detroit forwards in even-strength time.
- Chris Chelios has landed on his feet back in Chicago, where he announced he would return after many years in the Detroit organization. Chelios was named an ambassador for the Blackhawks organization today, re-joining an organization that he spent nine seasons with during his long playing career. The 56-year old Hall of Fame defenseman left the Detroit area to be closer to his family, but will remain in the hockey world in this new position.
- If you’re a fan of the AHL you likely recognize the name Bracken Kearns, one of the league’s most consistent players over the past decade. With just 35 NHL games to his name, Kearns has spent parts of 12 seasons in the AHL scoring at a consistently excellent pace and being part of the leadership group everywhere he landed. Kearns will now continue to write his hockey story in Europe, where he’s signed on with Linz in the Austrian EBEL. The 37-year old forward previously played a year in Finland during the 2014-15 season, and will likely find great success in his new league.
Atlantic Notes: Panarin, Donato, Red Wings, Canadiens
With so many of their rivals attempting to take that next step to guarantee the top spot in the Atlantic Division, the Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont writes that the Boston Bruins should definitely do everything they can to acquire the services of Columbus Blue Jackets’ star forward Artemi Panarin. With an impressive city for a young, talented forward to establish himself in, the scribe writes that Boston would be the perfect landing place for the star, except for the fact that the team has no Russians on it.
Regardless Panarin, who will be a unrestricted free agent after next season, could be the team’s next Brad Marchand and provide the team with two of the best left wingers in the league. Panarin’s addition to the team’s second line would also be a huge boost for veteran center David Krejci who might be the perfect complement for him. Dupont suggests the team could make a deal that centers around Jake Debrusk and defenseman Brandon Carlo, two big hits to the team, but a deal that could prove to be worth it down the road.
- After an impressive performance with the Bruins at the end of the season, Ryan Donato has been working hard this summer to ensure there will be a place for him in the Bruins lineup, according to The Athletic’s Joe McDonald (subscription required). The 22-year-old arrived after wrapping up his third year at Harvard University and posted five goals and nine points in 12 games, but saw little playoff time as Bruins’ coach Bruce Cassidy opted to play veterans over him instead. Now, Donato has been training with Edge Performance System along with other NHL players in hopes of locking up a spot on Boston’s third line alongside veteran David Backes and he is open to either playing on the left wing or fighting for the center position.
- In a mailbag segment, the Detroit Free-Press’ Helene St. James writes that while she believes that propsects Michael Rasmussen, Filip Zadina, Filip Hronek and Dennis Cholowski all should be on the Red Wings roster at some point during the 2018-19 seasons, However, she believes that only Rasmussen and Hronek are likely to make the team out of training camp with Zadina and Cholowski expected to see more time with the Grand Rapids Griffins in the AHL. Zadina, at his size and age, might need more time getting experience playing against older competition in the AHL before joining up with Detroit, while Cholowski has played just two games at the AHL level in his career, suggesting he might need a little more time.
- Brendan Kelly of the Montreal Gazette writes about the Montreal Canadiens’ Geoff Moulson and Marc Bergevin who have been talking for weeks about their plan to turn around the franchise. He writes that the team’s plan was a two-word plan, called John Tavares, which was a longshot at best, which made it look even worse when they missed out on veteran Paul Stastny as well. He believes the team is rebuilding now because they have no choice as he examines the team’s offseason moves and where the team stands.
Dylan Larkin, Detroit Red Wings Progressing Towards Contract
The Detroit Red Wings already reached new contracts this summer with players like Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Bertuzzi, but have one key restricted free agent still remaining. That’s Dylan Larkin, who may be the most talented player on the Red Wings roster an a core piece of what the team wants to do going forward. Without arbitration rights there isn’t much of a rush to get a Larkin deal done, but Craig Custance of The Athletic reports that there is little doubt on the player’s side that something will get done in the next few weeks. Larkin told Custance that he doesn’t think negotiations will continue into September, though obviously nothing is guaranteed at this point.
Custance opines that the deal will be around five or six years, meaning Larkin would be giving up some of his scheduled unrestricted free agent seasons. Despite Larkin still only being 21 years old, he is on track to hit UFA status four years from now when he’s 25. Any years included in a deal past that would start to dramatically increase the contract’s cap hit, something the Red Wings have to be careful with at this point. The team has around $2.8MM in cap space remaining this summer, and though they can move Johan Franzen to long-term injured reserve to get a little more flexibility are likely going to have to trade another contract once Larkin’s deal comes through.
The speedy forward scored 63 points last season and could be demanding quite a substantial raise on his entry-level contract, meaning the Red Wings might need some short-term salary relief to fit everyone in. Next summer a huge amount of money comes off the books due to the expiring contracts of players like Gustav Nyqust, Niklas Kronwall and Jimmy Howard, but there will need to be players signed to replace them as well. Though Detroit had an incredible draft, adding a handful of blue chip prospects to a pool that had been extremely shallow the last few years, you can’t expect all of them to step in next season and make an impact.
A Larkin deal is unavoidable and important, but the Red Wings will have more work to do this summer even after he puts pen to paper. How long that contract extends into his free agent years will have a real impact on how GM Ken Holland and the rest of the Detroit front office navigate the rest of the offseason, and even the early part of the 2018-19 campaign.
Detroit Would Like To Sign Dylan Larkin To A Five-Year Deal
The Red Wings are focusing on a long-term contract for restricted free agent forward Dylan Larkin, reports Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. She notes that Detroit’s preference is to sign him to a five-year deal but that they could have to go to six to get a deal done. A five-year term would buy out the remainder of Larkin’s RFA-eligible years but only get rid of one UFA-eligible season which isn’t something teams often try to do. On the other hand, doing that would be a way to get some longer-term stability while keeping the salary cap hit slightly lower which could be quite useful for a team that is once again pegged to be right up against the cap in 2018-19.
- Still with Detroit, they are looking at adding someone from outside the franchise to their front office, notes Gregg Krupa of The Detroit News. The Red Wings have lost several executives in recent years, including Steve Yzerman, Jim Nill, plus scouts Mark Leach and David Kolb which has left them lacking in certain areas. With former players Jiri Fischer, Dan Cleary, Shawn Horcoff, and Tyler Wright now in key positions, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to add someone with some experience.
Morning Notes: Chelios, Pacioretty, Forbes
Chris Chelios has left the Detroit Red Wings organization almost two decades, deciding to move back to Chicago and be closer to his family. Chelios has served in several different roles for the club since retiring from his playing career, but will now take a step back from the NHL life. He released a long statement, including this thank you to Red Wings fans:
To the fans in Detroit – I want to say thank you. You embraced me from day one. My experience in Detroit was a lot of fun and we definitely had some unforgettable times together. Just know that I won’t be a stranger. I plan on visiting the area whenever I can, especially now that my son, Jake, is playing in the Wings organization.
Jake Chelios was signed by the team earlier this offseason to play for the Grand Rapids Griffins, meaning there will still be a thread of the Hall of Fame defenseman in the organization. Though Jake isn’t expected to make a huge impact for the Red Wings, he’ll try to follow his father’s footsteps and bring a title to the organization—even if it’s a Calder Cup.
- Max Pacioretty has been in the rumor mill for quite some time, and in his latest mailbag for NHL.com Dan Rosen explains why he thinks the Montreal Canadiens’ captain will be traded before the season. An extension continues to be the sticking point when it comes to Pacioretty, as the Canadiens or any acquiring team wants him locked up long-term. That may not be in the best interest of the player though, who is just a year away from unrestricted free agency and coming off one of the worst seasons of his career. Waiting to see if he can bounce back and become the 30-goal man he was consistently in the past would certainly improve his market next summer.
- A grand total of zero NHL franchises made it onto Forbes’ top-50 most valuable organizations this year, with the Dallas Cowboys coming out on top with a $4.8B value. The Cleveland Browns bring up the rear at #50 with a $1.95B value, ahead of the New York Rangers‘ $1.5B valuation late last year. While this doesn’t necessarily indicate any troubles for the NHL, it does show just how far behind the league is still compared with some of the other sports leagues in the world. The NFL, NBA and MLB all have teams in the top-10, while several soccer clubs from around the world find themselves near the top.