Capitals Trade Graeme Clarke To Senators
The Senators and Capitals apparently connected on a last-minute minor deal before the deadline. Washington dealt forward Graeme Clarke to Ottawa in exchange for center Wyatt Bongiovanni, per PuckPedia. Both players will report to their new clubs’ AHL affiliates.
The deal essentially only has minor-league considerations, and both players could only last a few weeks in their new homes. Both are on two-way deals and will be Group VI unrestricted free agents this summer.
Clarke, 24, will bring some goal-scoring acumen to the Sens’ depth ranks. The B-Sens have lost one of their top producers with Stephen Halliday working his way onto the NHL roster, so they’ve needed a little bit of help. The former third-round pick of the Devils isn’t having the best year, but he’s still managed 15 goals in 50 games for AHL Hershey after signing with the Caps as a non-tendered RFA last summer.
Ottawa will be the fourth NHL organization for Clarke. He does have an NHL resume, but it only consists of three games with New Jersey in 2023-24. He was then traded to the Wild for Adam Beckman the following summer and then spent all of 2024-25 in the minors before Minnesota opted not to issue him a qualifying offer.
Bongiovanni, 26, has put up comparable production, but unlike Clarke has utility down the middle. The 6’0″ pivot has been in Ottawa’s system since being acquired from the Jets for future considerations at the 2024 trade deadline. He’s posted 12 goals and 25 points in 54 games for the B-Sens this season with a -13 rating.
Halliday Potentially In Play
- League executives have told Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch that center Stephen Halliday is someone to keep an eye on before the deadline. The 23-year-old has been fairly productive in limited minutes for the Senators, notching four goals and seven assists in 28 games despite barely averaging eight minutes a night of playing time. Waiver-eligible for the first time next season, Halliday is the type of player that rebuilding teams will often want to take a longer look at so if Ottawa can swing a move to add another piece before the deadline, he’s certainly a candidate to be part of the return.
Red Wings Acquire David Perron
The Red Wings and Senators announced a rare deal between teams in the same playoff race. Winger David Perron is headed back to Detroit, with the Wings sending a conditional 2026 fourth-round pick to Ottawa to complete the deal. Ottawa will receive the pick, the Blue Jackets’ 2026 fourth, if Perron plays in at least one game. It will upgrade to Detroit’s third-round selection this year if the Wings advance to at least the second round of the playoffs and Perron plays in at least half of the first-round games.
Detroit has been tied to forward targets of a much higher prestige and acquisition cost, and Perron wasn’t an obvious trade candidate with Ottawa still pushing to get back into the wild-card race. He hasn’t played since January after undergoing sports hernia surgery, and it’s fair to wonder if the 37-year-old requested a move back to a familiar environment with a higher likelihood of making the postseason in what could be his final NHL season. He’s nearing the end of his projected return timeline anyway, and if healthy, he legitimately provides a third-line scoring presence the Wings desperately needed to add this week.
In his last two trips through free agency, Perron has signed two-year deals – first with Detroit in 2022 and then Ottawa in 2024. Now a pending UFA, he took a marginal pay cut from his $4.75MM cap hit with Detroit to the $4MM price tag he carries now. He was a legitimately impactful top-nine presence during his pair of seasons in Hockeytown, averaging 21 goals and 54 points with 113 hits per 82 games while staying healthy the vast majority of the time.
Due to age-related decline and a pair of injury-plagued seasons in Canada’s capital, he’s not that player anymore. A back injury held him out of nearly half the 2024-25 campaign, and his ice time and production dipped. He did manage to get his scoring back on track before his surgery this year, though, notching 10 goals and 25 points through 49 games. That’s still not the rate he was producing in Detroit, but it is still a half a point per game. That’s a significant offensive upgrade over names like Michael Rasmussen and Elmer Söderblom, who have spent time on the wings in Detroit’s top nine.
A Stanley Cup winner with the Blues in 2019, Perron also brings a wealth of experience – 1,223 regular-season games and 110 playoff games – to a club primed for its first postseason appearance in 10 years. His time in Ottawa aside, he’s been one of the league’s more consistent producers in the 50-point range since debuting for the Blues way back in 2007. Assuming he can return to play from his surgery and suit up for the Wings in the playoffs, it’ll be his 12th time in 19 NHL seasons making it to the dance.
The move offers a clear reason why the Sens opted to leverage a second-round pick to land winger Warren Foegele from the Kings earlier today. Entering play tonight six points back of a playoff spot, they weren’t comfortable sending Perron away without ensuring they could bring someone in to replace him in a separate move. The Sens do clear $500K in current cap space with the pair of transactions, but are still on the hook for Foegele’s $3.5MM cap hit through next season, while Perron is long for the open market.
Kings Trade Warren Foegele To Senators
5:30 p.m.: The deal is now official, per both clubs. The details of the pick swap are as follows:
Ottawa will get the worse of the Kings’ own third round draft pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft or Dallas’ third round draft pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft (acquired in a previous trade). Los Angeles will get the better of Ottawa’s own third round draft pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft or Washington’s third round draft pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft (acquired in a previous trade). However, if both Ottawa and Washington do not qualify for the 2026 NHL playoffs, then Ottawa will instead transfer to Los Angeles the worse of Ottawa’s own third round draft pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft or Washington’s third round draft pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft (acquired in a previous trade).
The Kings also recalled forward Jared Wright from AHL Ontario in a corresponding move, per John Hoven of Mayor’s Manor. He was sent down just yesterday after making his NHL debut against the Avalanche earlier this week, but will be back in the lineup tonight.
4:13 p.m.: The Senators are adding some depth on the wings, with Darren Dreger of TSN reporting they’re acquiring forward Warren Foegele from the Kings. Ottawa is sending the Sabres’ 2026 second-round pick (acquired in last year’s Dylan Cozens/Joshua Norris deal) to Los Angeles in return, while the clubs are also swapping conditional third-round picks, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
Foegele, 30 next month, is a big left winger with some legitimate scoring upside, although he hasn’t shown much of it this season. He’s scored just seven goals and nine points in 47 games this year, and he was moved to the press box for five of the Kings’ last 10 games after being a lineup staple for L.A. and Edmonton for the last several seasons. Even still, he’s averaged 16 goals and 32 points per 82 games over his nine-year career.
Foegele is playing the season in year two of a three-year, $10.5MM deal and has a five-team no-trade list, which presumably didn’t include his home country’s capital. He still has another year left on that contract at a $3.5MM cap hit – a steep commitment if he can’t rebound to his career-average form, let alone the back-to-back 20-goal seasons he’d put up leading into this year. He’s making only $3MM in actual salary next season, though, so that’ll be financially attractive for the Sens’ books.
While he’d recently squeezed back into the Kings’ lineup thanks to their rash of injuries at forward, he’ll likely get a longer leash in Ottawa’s top-nine, at least to start. David Perron is close to a return from his sports hernia surgery, but his absence has stretched their depth scoring thin with Nick Cousins needing to step up into a third-line role (although even he’s produced at a better rate than Foegele has this year).
That makes a second-round pick a steep price to pay for a player on an undesirable contract who may not be in Ottawa’s regular lineup when Perron returns to health, but it’s only further evidence of the seller’s market this deadline is quickly turning out to be. Comparable fourth-line pieces like Michael McCarron and Nic Dowd have fetched similar returns in the past few days, but those names carry added value as centers (where Foegele has zero utility), and the Sens likely valued his controllability for another year while hoping a change of scenery could make his production more efficient.
Selling off a forward is at first glance counterintuitive for a Kings club that’s had nightmarish scoring troubles this season and is currently down a pair of top-nine wingers for the rest of the season in Kevin Fiala and Andrei Kuzmenko. After swinging a deal for Artemi Panarin last month, they were clearly trying to get themselves back into the playoff picture after a rough start, but their recent rash of injuries – plus the fact they managed to get Panarin extended for two more seasons – has seemingly pushed them the other way, with ESPN’s Emily Kaplan calling them a “wild card team in terms of direction.” Nonetheless, it’s tidy work in a vacuum to land a top-64 pick for a name they haven’t been using while opening up cap space to retool for next season.
Image courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images.
Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia was first to report a second-round pick was headed the Kings’ way, while Frank Seravalli of Victory+ was first to report a pick swap was included.
Lars Eller Emerging As Trade Candidate
As the trade deadline nears, one Ottawa Senators veteran that could draw trade interest is 36-year-old Danish center Lars Eller. According to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen, the Senators “have had calls on most of their pending UFAs,” and he “could see a scenario where Eller is moved.” Eller is Ottawa’s fourth-line center, his role entirely a result of his defensive capability rather than his offensive production. Over the last two seasons, Eller has managed just eight goals and 24 points in 109 games, but that doesn’t mean he’s not pulling his weight in other ways. He’s playing regularly on Ottawa’s penalty kill, and has been a key asset at the faceoff dot, winning nearly 58% of his draws. A team looking to add a veteran fourth-line center might have considerable interest in Eller, especially as he has something often highly coveted in veteran rental players: a Stanley Cup ring.
From Ottawa’s perspective, dealing Eller isn’t likely to return much other than a minor draft pick, but it would provide some other benefits to the club. The Senators sit a full six points behind the Boston Bruins for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot, having played the same number of games. With the club looking less likely to return to the playoffs with each passing day, it might be more prudent for the club to hand the regular role Eller occupies to a younger player, such as the promising Stephen Halliday. Halliday, 23, has 11 points in 28 games this season despite averaging just 8:11 time on ice per game, the fewest among regular Senators forwards.
Senators Reportedly Likely To Have Interest In Conor Garland
- As the Vancouver Canucks chart their course through an uncertain competitive future, one veteran name drawing interest ahead of the trade deadline is that of winger Conor Garland. According to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen, Senators head coach Travis Green is a “huge backer” of Garland, dating back to his own days as head coach of the Canucks, and as a result “it would be no surprise if the Senators checked in on” Garland. The 29-year-old has seven goals and 26 points in 49 games this season, and would instantly plug in somewhere in Ottawa’s top-nine. The main area of contention regarding a Garland trade is likely to be his contract, as his six-year, $6MM AAV contract kicks in next year. That contract has a full no-move clause attached.
Senators Recall Stephen Halliday
2/25: After two days of practice with the top club, defense prospect Carter Yakemchuk has also been reassigned to Belleville. The move was expected after the team ended Wednesday’s practice, head coach Travis Green told Julian McKenzie of The Athletic.
2/23, 4:00 p.m.: The Senators reassigned Boucher back to Belleville, confirming that his recall earlier today was simply for practice purposes. Belleville’s schedule resumes on Friday, when the team travels to take on the Utica Comets, who are AHL affiliates of the New Jersey Devils.
2/23, 10:03 a.m.: The Senators announced they’ve recalled forwards Tyler Boucher and Stephen Halliday, as well as defenseman Carter Yakemchuk, from AHL Belleville. They’ll give the Sens some roster insurance as they await the returns of captain Brady Tkachuk and top defenseman Jake Sanderson from Olympic play, with both questionable to return in time for Ottawa’s first game back against the Red Wings on Thursday.
This is Boucher’s first time being rostered during the regular season. The 23-year-old was summoned as a Black Ace for last year’s playoff run but has yet to make his NHL debut nearly five years after being selected 10th overall in the 2021 draft. He remains the only active player in the top 20 that has yet to make his NHL debut (Winnipeg’s Chaz Lucius, selected 18th overall, was forced into medical retirement).
That could now change. The 6’2″, 216-lb winger was viewed as a late first-round choice at best by prospect evaluators in his draft year, so it was a highly controversial decision for the Sens to spend such a high pick on him. The gamble hasn’t worked out. Boucher disenrolled from Boston University 17 games into his post-draft season after struggling to catch on and spent the following year and a half in junior hockey with the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s, where he struggled through injuries and managed 17 goals and 31 points in 45 games – not nearly the level of offense expected out of a top-10 pick after his draft date.
Boucher’s struggles persisted after he turned pro with the Sens in 2023. He’s spent his entire career to date in the AHL and had just two goals and five points in 21 games as a rookie two years ago. Last year’s 10 points in 47 games weren’t much better.
This season, though, the Arizona native has picked up a little bit of steam. He’s already set new career-highs across the board with six goals, 10 assists, and 16 points in 29 games with a +9 rating. Injuries have again limited him to just over half of Belleville’s schedule, but getting his offensive output up over half a point per game is a definitive step in the right direction. He’ll now get a shot to at least get some practice reps in with the Sens over the coming days until Tkachuk is back in the mix.
Halliday’s recall is more of a formality. He’s been up with the Sens for a big chunk of the season already and was only sent down over the break so that he could keep getting some playing time in Belleville. The 23-year-old figures to remain up with Ottawa’s NHL group for the stretch run, serving as a depth forward option while David Perron continues his recovery from sports hernia surgery.
The 6’4″ pivot had something of a difficult time generating offense in Belleville over the break, limited to three assists in seven games. That only brought him down to a point per game in 29 AHL contests this year, though. He’s also been exceptionally productive in a fourth-line role for Ottawa, managing four goals and 11 points in 25 NHL games despite averaging just 8:08 of ice time per night. Only Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, and Martin Necas have scored more points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 than Halliday’s 3.14 (min. 10 games played).
Like Boucher, this marks the first regular-season recall for Yakemchuk, who gives Ottawa a seventh defenseman available while Sanderson makes his way back to the club. The 20-year-old’s stint on the NHL roster isn’t likely to last any longer than necessary. Drafted seventh overall in 2024, he’s a first-year pro and hasn’t had a smooth transition from the WHL to Belleville. Yakemchuk has demonstrated the offensive acumen Ottawa’s hoped for, leading the B-Sens’ D group with 25 points in 41 games, but has a team-worst -33 rating in the process. The hard-hitting puck-mover will need to build out his two-way game a lot more before he’s considered for NHL minutes.
Olle Lycksell Linked To Swiss League
Senators forward Olle Lycksell is spurning interest from clubs in his native Sweden in an effort to move to Switzerland’s National League next season, Johan Svensson and Mattias Persson of Expressen report. In any event, it’s clear the pending Group VI unrestricted free agent won’t be re-signing with Ottawa or any other NHL team, for that matter.
Lycksell is in his fourth season stateside, but just his first in the Sens organization. A sixth-round pick by the Flyers in 2017, he spent several years coming up through the SHL before signing with Philadelphia in 2021. Philly loaned him back to Sweden’s Växjö Lakers for the following campaign, where he had a career-best 14 goals and 34 points in 47 games before being brought to North America the following season.
The 5’11” winger has been a consistently high-end AHL producer ever since. He averaged over a point per game twice through his four seasons to date and has 61 goals and 145 points in 160 career minor-league games, including 17 points in 25 outings with the Belleville Senators this year. It hasn’t translated into NHL success, though. He’s seen big-league action each year, three times with the Flyers and back earlier this season with the Sens, but only has two goals and 13 points in 52 career games. Being an unnatural fit for a fourth-line role, he’s had some wildly inconsistent possession impacts and hasn’t shown enough to push for a top-six role.
The 26-year-old will now be a Group VI UFA for the second summer in a row since he’s stayed under 80 career NHL appearances. His archetype makes him primed for offensive success in one of Europe’s top leagues in Switzerland, where he should immediately become one of the league’s leading scorers if he transfers there.
Trade Deadline Primer: Ottawa Senators
With the Olympic break upon us, the trade deadline is under a month away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? After looking at teams at the ends of the standings, we shift our focus to teams fighting for a playoff spot. Next up are the Senators.
The Senators are in a very tough spot as we approach the trade deadline. The team was built to compete this season, but it has failed to build on last season’s playoff appearance and risks regressing. Ottawa has a small competitive window left to win something of substance and isn’t likely to punt on this season, especially given that they don’t currently have a first-round pick in this year’s NHL Entry Draft. Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch has hinted that Ottawa would rather add than subtract from its roster, which makes sense given that Ottawa was heating up in the weeks leading up to the Olympics. If the Senators can get some goaltending down the stretch, they will be in the hunt for a wild-card spot. That being said, should they add to their lineup, stand pat, or sell off their pending UFAs?
Record
28-22-7, 6th in the Atlantic (42.2% playoff probability)
Deadline Status
Conservative Buyer
Deadline Cap Space
$13.95MM on deadline day, 1/3 retention slots used, 45/50 contracts used, per PuckPedia.
Upcoming Draft Picks
2026: BUF 2nd, OTT 3rd, FLA 3rd, WSH 3rd, OTT 5th, OTT 6th,
2027: OTT 1st, OTT 2nd, OTT 3rd, OTT 4th, OTT 5th, OTT 6th,
Trade Chips
If the Senators opted to sell off this season, they would have no shortage of pieces to move, including forwards David Perron, Lars Eller, Nick Cousins, and Claude Giroux, as well as defenseman Nick Jensen. PHR covered that angle a month ago, when it looked as though the Senators were headed for a sell-off, but now they may have positioned themselves to be buyers if they can keep rolling. But do they have any assets that could be moved to acquire talent that can help this season?
Ottawa doesn’t have much, but they have a few pieces that could be moved to acquire more talent. The first name that comes to mind for anyone familiar with Ottawa’s prospect system is Carter Yakemchuk. The 20-year-old defenseman is the Senators’ top prospect and currently plays for their AHL affiliate in Belleville, where he is having a solid first professional season. To put it bluntly, Ottawa isn’t moving Yakemchuk for any short-term gains and may not be inclined to move him at all. If they had a move available to address both their short- and long-term futures, they might be open to it, but for now, he is likely staying put.
Outside of Yakemchuk, the Senators have a few other prospects they might be more willing to move, including another defenseman, Logan Hensler. The Senators’ 2025 first-round pick (23rd overall) is currently in his second season in the NCAA with the University of Wisconsin. He has already matched his point total from all of last season (12) in just 23 games. Hensler’s game is quite different from that of Yakemchuk in that he plays a safe, steady game focused on gap control, an active stick, and using his explosiveness to make defensive recoveries. Hensler is well-suited to play alongside a defenseman like Yakemchuk, who is more offensively minded and gifted. Should Ottawa make Hensler available in a trade, he is the kind of player who could be the big piece in a package that includes draft picks and other players.
In the crease, the Senators have run the course with goaltender Mads Sogaard, and it certainly feels like his time with Ottawa needs to end soon. The former second-round pick has not shown much in his last two professional seasons, after a stellar start to his AHL career from 2020 to 2023. Sogaard is now 25, and although the Senators don’t exactly have a deep prospect pool in the crease, it seems likely they will non-tender him this summer. Given that trajectory, it makes sense for Ottawa to move him before the deadline (hopefully) for a late-round pick or let him walk in the summer for nothing. Sogaard isn’t going to fetch much of a return, but Ottawa could pair the pick with other assets to facilitate a bigger move elsewhere.
Shifting up front to the forwards, Stephen Halliday has been a nice story this season for the Senators. The 2022 fourth-round pick (104th overall) was an overage draft pick when Ottawa selected him, and he has had a terrific start to his professional career. The Senators have rewarded his progression by giving him 25 NHL games this year, and Halliday, in turn, has rewarded the Senators’ trust in him by tallying four goals and seven assists while averaging just over eight minutes per game. Halliday’s skating isn’t great, but his size and offensive skill set would be desirable to a team looking to add good young talent to its prospect pool.
Team Needs
A Top Six Center: Ottawa had hoped that last year’s trade-deadline acquisition, Fabian Zetterlund, could slide into a role in the Senators’ top six. However, that hasn’t been the case, as Zetterlund has struggled this season and has been relegated to fourth-line duties alongside Eller. The 26-year-old isn’t much of a play driver, but he has fared better in this department this season despite his demotion. Zetterlund can skate well and could likely play in Ottawa’s top six if needed, but at the moment, he’s been a disappointment this year. With his play moving him down the lineup, it’s become clear that Ottawa could use a top-six forward to bump some of their other players back to a more suitable role. Some fans might point to a veteran like Perron as a potential candidate for the top two lines, but given his age and recent injury history, that is not a safe bet. Ottawa doesn’t need to sell the farm to make an addition, and it probably wouldn’t be in on any of the trio of St. Louis Blues who are available (Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas, or Brayden Schenn). However, Ottawa could afford to target a player like Michael Bunting of the Nashville Predators or Andrew Mangiapane of the Edmonton Oilers. Both of those players are having down years, but perhaps an opportunity in Ottawa’s top six might reignite their play this year.
A 1B Goaltender: Linus Ullmark is a terrific NHL goaltender who has had a great career. He’s dealt with a lot this season, and unfortunately, it has affected his play on the ice. Had Ottawa received league-average goaltending this season, it would be comfortably in a playoff position at the moment, instead of sixth in its division. The Senators don’t have the assets to acquire another starting goaltender. Still, they could find a more consistent backup, or ideally, a 1B goaltender who can take more starts and allow Ullmark to work through his game without the pressure of shouldering the bulk of the goaltending load. The name Jesper Wallstedt of the Minnesota Wild has been thrown around quite often in online forums. Still, the Senators probably don’t have the trade capital to make that move, particularly given that the Wild are looking for center help and Ottawa likely doesn’t want to part with any of their young, cost-controlled centers (nor should they).
Photo by Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
The Danger Of Signing Goalies To Lucrative Contracts
The New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks are two of the NHL’s worst teams this season and are both on the verge of massive roster changes. While both teams face unique challenges, one parallel is that they’ve made a mess of their goaltending finances with pricey extensions that were miscalculations.
The Rangers and Canucks are far from alone in this predicament. High-priced extensions have also burned several other teams at the bottom of the standings, leaving them with goaltenders who had been performing well but whose play fell off a cliff after signing their new deals.
That isn’t necessarily the case for Shesterkin, however, it is the case for Linus Ullmark of the Ottawa Senators, Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators, and Jacob Markstrom of the New Jersey Devils, who are all making big money on recent contract extensions, with no guarantees their play will turn around. This has left three teams with win-now rosters featuring goaltenders who are vastly overpaid.
It’s become a trend over the past five-plus years that teams signing goaltenders to expensive deals must be seriously concerned about their performance throughout the term of the agreement.
There is concern about every player’s performance after they sign a lucrative long-term deal. However, goaltenders have become a unique cause for concern lately, and it’s hard to say why.
In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, many veteran goaltenders on the wrong side of 30 would sign expensive long-term deals without so much as a second thought from their new teams. In July 2002, for example, goalie Curtis Joseph signed a three-year, $24MM contract with the Detroit Red Wings, even though it wasn’t the best offer on the table.
Joseph had a three-year $26MM offer from the Toronto Maple Leafs but opted to move to Detroit. Toronto then pivoted and signed Ed Belfour to a two-year, $13.5MM deal.
By today’s standards, those contracts aren’t eye-popping, and the term is relatively short. But Belfour and Joseph were 37 and 35, respectively, and there was a chance their play would drop off significantly during the brief time they were signed.
Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine a team giving $8MM a season to a 35-year-old goaltender, and Joseph’s deal was inked 23 and a half years ago. The Senators gave Ullmark four years and $8.25MM annually just last year, but he had just turned 32 and was two seasons removed from a Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender.
It was a pricey gamble for Ottawa and hasn’t looked like good value this season, but Ullmark has been dealing with personal issues, so it’s hard to project how the deal will work out long-term.
Circling back to the Rangers and Canucks, they are a tale of two teams whose expensive goaltending has led to team-wide issues, but for wildly different reasons. In Vancouver, Thatcher Demko was signed to a lucrative three-year deal at the start of free agency, worth $8.5MM annually.
It was a gamble by Vancouver, as they hoped the former Vezina Trophy finalist could bounce back from a poor showing last season. Had Demko had a good year, he would have been a candidate to get $9MM or more on a new contract, but Vancouver thought it was wise to jump the queue. It has not turned out well.
If Demko had played well, Vancouver likely would have paid him an AAV slightly higher than the $8.5MM they gave him, but would’ve been on the hook for more term, which would’ve been riskier. Instead, Vancouver made a different bet and is now on the hook for more term than Demko would’ve received in free agency. But hindsight is 20/20, and for the Canucks, they are stuck with the Demko deal, one they’d love to have back.
In New York, it was a different calculation. Rangers’ general manager Chris Drury believed he had a Stanley Cup contender on his hands, which meant doing everything he could to retain his Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender, Igor Shesterkin. Drury moved out his captain, Jacob Trouba, to open up space to sign Shesterkin to a record-breaking eight-year, $92MM contract.
While it was the right on-ice move given Trouba’s cap hit relative to his play, the Rangers have never been the same since the trade. New York fell off a cliff last season and has remained at the bottom of the league this year, despite Shesterkin being good.
But that is the issue: Shesterkin has only been good. In the years leading up to his extension, Shesterkin was elite.
His play in those seasons masked many of the Rangers’ problems and led Drury and New York management to think the team was much better than it actually was. Shesterkin’s goaltending was a mask, hiding the fact that Drury had built a fatally flawed roster that relied too much on out-of-this-world netminding, which was clearly unsustainable.
While the Rangers, Canucks, Devils and Predators aren’t the only teams with pricey goaltending, they are the most apparent examples of paying a premium for goaltending. But even middle-of-the-pack teams can run into issues where their extensions turn into disasters.
There are good examples in Washington: a few years ago, with Darcy Kuemper, who had just won a Stanley Cup, and Philipp Grubauer, who had been solid for years before signing as a free agent with Seattle and becoming unplayable in the NHL. Matt Murray in Ottawa was the same story, but none is more egregious and obvious than Tristan Jarry in Pittsburgh, who was recently dealt.
Pittsburgh is a relevant example because of Stuart Skinner, who has been a revelation with the Penguins but is a UFA at the end of the season. Pittsburgh already has its goalie of the future in tow in Sergey Murashov, and the Penguins would be wise to ride Skinner into the playoffs and then let him walk in the offseason if his salary demands exceed $5MM annually, which they surely will. It should be interesting to see the Skinner story unfold, but there is plenty of evidence that the Penguins would be wise to avoid giving term to a netminder who is unpredictable.