Edmonton Prefers Prospect Over Pick For Maroon; Sekera May Have Concussion
The Oilers are expected to speak with Allain Roy, the agent for pending unrestricted free agent winger Patrick Maroon in the next 24-48 hours to discuss a contract extension, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (video link). However, given Edmonton’s salary cap constraints, a trade is still the likelier outcome. With that in mind, LeBrun notes that a late first-round pick is a possibility for a return but GM Peter Chiarelli would prefer a prospect that is close to making an NHL impact. The Bruins are known to have interest in the 29-year-old and have several youngsters that are on the cusp of being ready to be recalled so they may be a team to watch for here. Darren Dreger of TSN adds Winnipeg as a team that is interested in Maroon.
- While the Oilers are only saying that defenseman Andrej Sekera has a facial injury after taking a puck to the face on Wednesday versus Anaheim, Postmedia’s Jim Matheson suggests that the blueliner might be dealing with a concussion as well. Edmonton has already shifted him to injured reserve. This has been a rough season for the 31-year-old who missed the first few months after tearing his ACL back in May and he has struggled considerably when he has been in the lineup.
Bruins Interested In Patrick Maroon
The Bruins are looking to add some help on the wing between now and the trade deadline and have shown interest in Oilers winger Patrick Maroon, reports NBC Sports Boston’s Joe Haggerty. He notes that Boston has been scouting Edmonton for the last couple of games while Oilers VP of Hockey Operations Craig MacTavish was keeping tabs on the Bruins on Saturday night.
Maroon is positioned to be one of the more sought-after rental players between now and the trade deadline. He has shown that he can do well in a scoring role with Edmonton but before his time there, he had success in a crash-and-bang role, something the Bruins may be looking to add to the equation.
[Related: Maroon’s Trade Candidate Profile]
This season, the 29-year-old has 13 goals and 14 assists through 52 games while averaging a career-high 17:01 in ice time per game. He’s also no stranger to the postseason having played in 42 playoff contests where he has thrived, tallying 26 points (12-14-26) in that span.
There is mutual interest between Maroon and the Oilers in terms of working out a contract extension but with Connor McDavid’s new $12.5MM deal set to kick in next season, Edmonton’s payroll flexibility may be too limited to get something done. He will undoubtedly be looking for a considerable raise on the $2.1MM salary ($2.0MM cap hit; Anaheim is paying 25% of that this season) he is currently getting and that may be too rich for them to afford.
From Boston’s perspective, they have several quality young wingers in their system that will be pushing for NHL jobs soon so they would likely view Maroon as a pure rental and not someone that they would look to re-sign after the season. While they don’t have a ton of cap room to work with – just shy of $3.4MM in full-season salary on trade deadline day per CapFriendly, that’s still enough to absorb Maroon’s deal and still have enough left over to try to add another piece to their roster.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Snapshots: Blues, Thornton, Lewis, Lightning
In a mailbag column, The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford writes (subscription required) that while the Blues have been linked with a number of high-profile teams such as the Ottawa Senators, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers and the New York Rangers, it’s unlikely the team will make a big move for a big name forward with years on his contract like a Max Pacioretty or a Mike Hoffman despite recent rumors to the contrary.
Due to the high trade demands being made for these players, Rutherford believes that trading a top prospect for a player who has a large contract to fit into their salary cap space doesn’t make a lot of sense as the team wants to have as much flexibility when free agency arrives this summer. Instead, the scribe believes the team needs to go the rental route and acquire a player (for a much cheaper price) so the team can make their run.
The team already is without their 2018 first-round pick which they traded for Brayden Schenn, so moving a top prospect could set the team back long-term. The team should look into a player such as Rick Nash, Michael Grabner or Patrick Maroon as options as they likely won’t cost them one of their top prospects in Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas or Klim Kostin.
- The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz (subscription required) writes that alarms should sound after San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton refused to say that he will definitely be back this season. That’s a surprise considering he is a player who last year played through torn MCL and ACL injuries during the playoffs. Historically, he’s been a player who goes out on the ice no matter how hurt he is, so the idea that he might not be back this season suggests the injury is worse than people think. Could he have already played his last game as a San Jose Shark?
- Fox Sports West Patrick O’Neal tweets that Los Angeles Kings forward Trevor Lewis was sent back to Los Angeles to be re-evaluated after being injured in Friday’s game against the Florida Panthers. While indications are that the injury isn’t serious, head coach John Stevens wanted to have him evaluated after he sustained a serious crash against the boards.
- Tampa Bay Times’ Joe Smith writes that the rumors of a potential Ottawa Senators-Tampa Bay Lightning deadline deal refuses to go away. He writes that there have been a number of rumors, including talk of Erik Karlsson, and points out that Ottawa’s chief scout is expected to be at the Tampa Bay game tonight.
Deadline Primer: Edmonton Oilers
With the trade deadline fast approaching, we will be taking a closer look at the situation for each team. Where do they stand, what do they need to do, and what assets do they have to fill those needs? Next up is a look at the Edmonton Oilers.
What a difference a year can make. Following a strong regular season that saw them post 103 points plus a solid showing in the playoffs where they lost in the second round, the Oilers were expected to take another step forward in 2017-18 and push for the Stanley Cup. Instead, the opposite has happened and they find themselves in a spot that they’ve become all too familiar with in recent seasons where they’re on the outside looking in.
Record
23-25-4, sixth in Pacific Division
Deadline Status
Seller
Deadline Cap Space
$37.4MM full-season cap hit, 0/3 retained salary transactions, 48/50 contracts per CapFriendly
Draft Picks
2018: EDM 1st, EDM 2nd, EDM 3rd, EDM 4th/5th*, EDM 6th, EDM 7th
2019: EDM 1st, EDM 2nd, EDM 3rd, EDM 4th, EDM 5th, EDM 6th, EDM 7th
*- Edmonton’s fourth-round pick transfers to Montreal if Al Montoya plays in seven or more games with the Oilers with at least 30 minutes played in each. If that happens, Edmonton will instead have their fifth rounder.
Trade Chips
As is always the case with selling teams, the first place to look is the players on expiring contracts. Winger Patrick Maroon highlights that list as a power forward that has certainly held his own in a top-six role with Edmonton. After being practically an afterthought at the trade deadline two years ago, he will be one of the more sought-after players this time around. The Oilers are believed to want to keep him around long-term but with Connor McDavid’s $12.5MM AAV contract kicking in next season, they may not have the cap room to keep him around.
With that in mind, it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see GM Peter Chiarelli look to try to offload some money off the books for next season and beyond. While winger Milan Lucic may be very tough to move with five years left on his deal, someone like Ryan Strome – a pending RFA with arbitration rights who will see a raise on his current $2.5MM deal and carries a $3MM qualifying offer – could be someone that they look to move to free up a little bit of space for next year. Strome has two years of team control remaining.
Five Players To Watch For: W/C Drake Caggiula, C Mark Letestu, LW Patrick Maroon, LW/RW Anton Slepyshev, RW/C Ryan Strome
Team Needs
1) Defense: This has been at the top of the list in Edmonton for several years now and while they have taken steps to improve it, this is still an area that needs considerable improvement. Andrej Sekera has struggled this season since returning from a torn ACL and while they’re hopeful that a full summer will help get him closer to his usual form, that’s not a guarantee. Kris Russell is best served in a depth role while Oscar Klefbom has taken a few steps backward this year. This group isn’t good enough if they want to contend so more additions will need to be made. They may be able to get a decent prospect for Maroon if they value that over a draft pick but otherwise, this may be a need that gets addressed in the summer.
2) Picks, Cap Flexibility: Edmonton doesn’t have its full complement of draft picks to work with this year nor do they have any extra selections from trades with other teams. That should change over the next few weeks with players like Maroon and Letestu expected to yield something in a trade which will give them a few more selections to work with. For 2018-19, the Oilers have nearly $61MM tied up in just 13 players. That doesn’t give them a lot of room for additions even if the salary cap goes up as expected. At this time of the season, players with term remaining on their contracts don’t often move but expect Chiarelli to try to find a way to free up some more cap room for next season and beyond.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Mark Stone, Patrick Maroon Interested In Signing Extensions
While many players are worried about which team they’ll be suiting up for in just a few weeks, two are already thinking about inking extensions in the summer. Mark Stone and Patrick Maroon both spoke about wanting to stay in their respective cities, though they may find different outcomes as the deadline approaches.
First Stone, who told Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia that he wants to stay with the Ottawa Senators long-term and has little doubt the two sides will come to an agreement when he hits restricted free agency this summer. Stone is in the last season of his three-year, $10.5MM contract and has developed into the Senators best forward on most nights. Despite missing the last seven games due to injury, Stone leads the Senators in scoring with 44 points in 44 games and is arguably the league’s best takeaway artist.
Stone will deserve a huge raise if the Senators want to sign him long-term, as he has just a single season left before being eligible for unrestricted free agency. Turning 26 in May, he could demand a contract along the lines of some of the game’s elite wingers. Depending on how Ottawa feels about their finances as they move towards Erik Karlsson‘s 2019 unrestricted free agency, Stone’s contract could come with some substantial hurdles. Bobby Ryan and Dion Phaneuf remain on the books with huge cap hits, and owner Eugene Melnyk has hinted in the past that the Senators would need to cut salary.
Then there is Maroon, who is headed towards unrestricted free agency this summer. According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription required), Maroon’s representatives have already touched base with the Edmonton Oilers to discuss an extension, though if things can’t be completed in the next few weeks one would have to believe a trade could be the result. Even with the Oilers’ recent surge they remain more than ten points out of a playoff spot and have to be looking towards next season and beyond.
Maroon has found his game in Edmonton and developed into an effective player, but with the Oilers heading into Connor McDavid‘s eight-year $100MM contract and Leon Draisaitl already earning $8.5MM per season, they have to be very careful with how they divide the rest of their salary cap. Even though Maroon is on pace to come short of his career-high of 27 goals set last season, he should still get a raise on the $2MM cap hit he currently carries.
The fact that Maroon is relatively inexpensive this season—he would come with only a prorated $1.5MM cap hit since Anaheim is still retaining part of his salary—also increases his trade value. Edmonton could potentially use him as a rental at the deadline, only to try and re-sign him in the summer months. That’s a tricky game to play though, as things can change quickly in the NHL, especially if Maroon were to go to a team with a good chance at the Stanley Cup. There’s no telling what could change his mind and cause him to sign elsewhere after hitting the open market.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Trade Candidate: Patrick Maroon
With the trade deadline approaching, we will be profiling several players in the weeks ahead that have a good chance to be dealt by February 26th.
Despite possessing star center Connor McDavid, the Edmonton Oilers haven’t fared as well as the team would have hoped after making a deep playoff run one season ago. With the team floundering near the bottom of the Pacific Division with a 22-24-4 record and the fact the team will have to factor in the salary cap hit of McDavid, whose eight year, $100MM extension kicks in next year. the team might be starting a firesale soon. With McDavid’s $12.5MM AAV along with Leon Draisaitl‘s $8.5MM deal, the team will have to keep an eye on their budget from now on and might be ready to move out some expiring contacts such as Patrick Maroon.
Contract
Maroon is in the final year of a three-year, $6MM contract he signed with the Anaheim Ducks in 2014. While he has an AAV of $2MM, the Ducks still are retaining $500K of his salary for this year.
2017-18
The 29-year-old Maroon has served well alongside of McDavid in the past, including a 27-goal season last year. He hasn’t been on McDavid’s line for parts of the season this year and his numbers have indicated that. Regardless, Maroon remains on pace to have another 20-goal season, which should generate some interest from teams in need of scoring. At 6-foot-3, 225 pounds, Maroon can play the role of both physical instigator and scorer which is a rare combination.
However, his streakiness as a player has definitely come into play this year. Through December and January, Maroon was held to just one goal over 15 games. However, Maroon seems to have more recently found his scoring touch as he has scored four goals in his last seven games.
Season Stats
48 GP, 13 goals, 13 assists, 13 points, +7 plus/minus, 55 PIM, 113 shots, 17:04 TOI, 55.7 CF%
Potential Suitors
There should be quite a few teams that would be willing to pay up for Maroon’s services. With his added size and the ability to put the puck in the net, he is a perfect addition to a playoff team. There are several logical teams that might be ready to make a move for him, including the Minnesota Wild. Having already played for head coach Bruce Boudreau when he coached in Anaheim, Maroon would already have familiarity with the veteran coaches’ system. The team is in need of scoring as it has struggled getting their young players to put up any consistent numbers. The St. Louis Blues who are looking for a scorer might also have interest in the St. Louis native even if he is a rental player. Teams like the Nashville Predators and the Winnipeg Jets might also be good fits.
Likelihood of Trade
While Maroon has said publically, he would like to stay with the Oilers, it’s likely he will be asking for a significant contract, which Edmonton is probably not prepared to pay. The team will be facing plenty of salary cap issues over the next few years and making a long-term investment in a 29-year-old streaky winger may not be the way to go.
Rather than lose Maroon for nothing, it should be a forgone conclusion that he will be on his way out. Most indications suggest the Oilers likely couldn’t get a first-round pick for him, but a second-round pick would be a legitimate possibility for a team that needs to retool their roster with less splashy moves.
Western Notes: Edmonton’s Future, Labanc, Gaudette, Crawford
Expect a long, boring summer for the Edmonton Oilers. After three offseasons in which the team made a “blow-up” trade, you can rest assured that it won’t be the case this summer, writes The Athletic’s Allan Mitchell (subscription required). The team, who in each of the last three years made questionable trades in hopes of sparking the team, including the 2015 trade of acquiring defenseman Griffin Reinhart (for a first-round pick which turned out to be Matthew Barzal), the 2016 trade of sending off No. 1 overall pick Taylor Hall and the 2017 trade of trading winger Jordan Eberle, should be quiet this season.
Mitchell writes that Oiler management has made it clear that the team will just be making quiet moves as they attempt to re-tool their roster to fix the teams’ struggles this season. He includes a list of team needs, which includes a first-line shooter, a top-four defenseman, a third-line center, a backup goaltender and a penalty-killing forward. He writes the team’s lack of cap space, after the extension of Connor McDavid kicks in, will not allow them to be big players in the free agent market, which will force the team to look for quality low-cost free agents and the young players from within their own organization.
Jesse Puljujarvi is the most likely candidate to continue to shoot next to McDavid, while Jujhar Khaira might make a quality third-line center if the team wants to keep Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as their second-line center and move Leon Draisaitl to the first line. Also, don’t forget about 2017 first-rounder Kailer Yamamoto, who played nine games for Edmonton this year. He continues to thrive with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs and might be ready to take a bigger role next season.
- Kevin Kurz of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that despite the injury to veteran center Joe Thornton, the San Jose Sharks’ top line continues to be highly efficient with winger Kevin Labanc in his place. The 22-year-old Lebanc has two goals and four assists in those four games since Thornton went down. He especially seems to be thriving on the power play. “Just feel confident,” Labanc said. “A lot of great players around me, too. … We break in cleanly, and I think that’s the big thing on our power play, is breaking in on the entry, settling things down, and once we do, just do our thing. We work well together.”
- The Vancouver Canucks are going to try to do everything they can to ink Northeastern star center Adam Gaudette after his season is over. While there is no guarantee that will happen, Ryan Biech of The Athletic (subscription required) goes into deep analysis of Gaudette’s game and says he sees similarities between him and former Canuck Ryan Kesler. Gaudette has already scored 57 goals and 64 assists in three seasons so far for Northeastern, could be a valuable piece to the team’s puzzle if the team can sign him.
- Chicago Sun-Times’ Mark Potash tweets that Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford continues to make progress towards a return. The netminder worked out on the ice for the first time since suffering a head injury in December. Coach Joel Quenneville said Crawford is expected to work out again Sunday. The team needs the veteran goalie more now than ever as they sit outside the playoffs and need a solid run if they want to get back in.
Despite Depth Role, Brandon Davidson Could Still Be Worthy Of Qualifying Offer
- Although he has played a sparing role since rejoining the Oilers, defenseman Brandon Davidson is worthy of keeping around beyond this season, argues David Staples of the Edmonton Journal. The 26-year-old is owed a qualifying offer of $1.55MM this offseason and with Edmonton expected to be a cap-spending team with center Connor McDavid’s new $12.5MM per year kicking in, that qualifying offer amount may be too much of a luxury for a role player.
Minor Transactions: 02/01/18
It’s February, the most exciting month of the year for many hockey fans. Over the next few weeks, clubs will make decisions that will help or haunt them for years to come. The trade deadline this season falls on February 26th, and should have some interesting names on the move. Until then, we’ll continue to focus on the minor moves around the league, cataloging today’s right here.
- With Cam Talbot sick and unable to play tonight, the Edmonton Oilers have recalled Laurent Brossoit from the minor leagues. Brossoit will be familiar to NHL fans that watched him try to hold down the fort for the Oilers when Talbot was out earlier this season. The 24-year old will join Al Montoya in the crease for the team until Talbot is cleared to return.
- Semyon Varlamov has been activated from injured reserve, meaning Andrew Hammond‘s services are no longer required in Colorado. The Avalanche have sent Hammond back down, though it will be to the Belleville Senators where he’s played for most of the year.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs will be sending Nikita Soshnikov to the minor leagues on a conditioning loan, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. Soshnikov’s name has popped up in trade rumors recently just due to his situation in Toronto, where Kasperi Kapanen, Matt Martin and Josh Leivo are also vying for the 12th forward role.
Lightning Acquire Eddie Pasquale From Oilers
The Lightning and Oilers have made a minor trade as Tampa Bay announced (Twitter link) that they have acquired goaltender Eddie Pasquale from Edmonton in exchange for future considerations.
Pasquale was in his first season with Edmonton’s organization after joining them from Detroit’s AHL team in the summer. He has played in 16 games with their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield this season, posting a 2.60 GAA and a .910 SV%. He will be assigned to Tampa Bay’s minor league team in Syracuse where he will serve as extra depth with starter Louis Domingue currently up with the Lightning. The 27-year-old carries a $700K cap hit in the NHL and has a salary of $150K in the minors with a total of $200K in guaranteed money in the deal.
This deal was made as part of a minor league swap that was made between the two teams as Edmonton’s AHL affiliate picked up netminder Nicola Riopel and winger Ty Loney in exchange for future considerations, a deal that was announced by Syracuse. Both Riopel and Loney are on minor league contracts.
While Pasquale could have been included in that same trade, moving his NHL rights gives the Oilers a little bit of wiggle room on the 50-contract limit. This move drops them down to 48 which gives them some flexibility heading into the trade deadline or to add someone via the college free agent market in March and April.