Week In Review

The days leading up to the trade deadline have, as usual, produced some notable trades.  As those were the biggest stories around the league over the past seven days, let’s take a look back at the biggest swaps over that span.

Islanders Strike First: With Anders Lee’s injury being a season-ending one, he was able to be placed on LTIR to give the Islanders a chance to spend to add a replacement.  They did just that as GM Lou Lamoriello once again turned to his former team in New Jersey, acquiring Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac from the Devils in exchange for a 2021 first-round pick, a conditional 2022 fourth-rounder, plus two minor leaguers to match contracts.  New Jersey retained half of Palmieri and Zajac’s contracts to facilitate the move.  Palmieri gives New York a top-six winger to take Lee’s spot while Zajac will give them some more skill in the bottom six and waived his no-move clause to join the Isles after declining to do so a year ago.

Colorado Gets A Goalie: For the second time this season, Avalanche GM Joe Sakic felt it was necessary to trade for a goalie.  This time, he brought in Devan Dubnyk from San Jose in exchange for defenseman Greg Pateryn and a 2021 fifth-round pick.  There was no retention in this swap but Pateryn’s presence in the deal effectively offset the salary side of the ledger.  Dubnyk is having a tough season but still represents an upgrade on Jonas Johansson and Hunter Miska who were filling in for Pavel Francouz who has missed the entire season due to a lower-body injury and has been ruled out through the end of the regular season.

Foligno To Toronto: Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas didn’t hide that his desire was to add a key rental forward and he did just that, acquiring Nick Foligno from Columbus (plus Stefan Noesen from San Jose) in a three-team swap.  The Sharks were involved in the deal to retain extra money; with them retaining 25% and the Blue Jackets 50%, Toronto was able to add the veteran winger without sending anyone out though it cost them a first rounder and a pair of fourths to do so.  Thanks to the addition of Riley Nash to create an expanded LTIR pool, they were able to get enough flexibility to do this move and still be able to activate Frederik Andersen off LTIR when he’s ready to come back and get a strong complementary piece in Foligno.

Montour To Florida: The Panthers were on the lookout for a defenseman to try to fill some of the void from Aaron Ekblad’s season-ending injury and picked up an intriguing rearguard in Brandon Montour.  Montour didn’t fit in well with Buffalo but now will have an opportunity to join a surprising contender to rebuild some value heading into free agency.  With Florida not needing the Sabres to retain salary, they only had to part with a 2021 third-round pick to get him.  Considering they already had cap room and cleared out Brett Connolly’s contract to Chicago earlier in the week, they have plenty of cap space to try to add another piece or two by Monday’s deadline.

Savard To Tampa Bay: The Lightning weren’t expected to do much of anything by the deadline but instead, they managed to land one of the top rentals on the market in Blue Jackets defenseman David Savard.  The deal involved double retention again with Columbus holding 50% and Detroit another 25% which made the price tag – picks in the first, third, and fourth round – a bit higher but Tampa Bay now adds a capable top-four defender to an already strong group.  Considering they’re expected to get Nikita Kucherov back for the playoffs as well, they have to be viewed as a strong contender to try to repeat as Stanley Cup champions.

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While things were largely quiet on the trade front over the past seven days, there was still plenty of notable news around the league which are highlighted in our key stories.

COVID Outbreak In Vancouver: The Canucks have been hit extremely hard with a COVID-19 outbreak.  As of today, 16 players are on the CPRA list and are in quarantine protocol and that list doesn’t include taxi squad players or coaches.  Their games have been postponed through April 6th but it feels like it’s only a matter of time before that gets extended.  Vancouver has started recalling players from the AHL in order to try to field a full roster whenever they are cleared to resume play but after the North Division schedule was juggled when Montreal had to sit for a week, it will be facing another set of changes.  But for now, the focus is on hoping everyone affected by the outbreak comes out of it healthy.

Palmieri Scratched For Trade: Earlier this weekend, the Devils and Kyle Palmieri were expected to take one last run at hammering out a contract extension.  Evidently, those talks went nowhere as he was held out of New Jersey’s lineup on Sunday in anticipation of a trade.  The 30-year-old is slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer and while he’s having a quiet year offensively with just eight goals in 34 games, his track record – at least 24 goals in each of the previous five seasons – should result in several suitors for his services.  With a $4.65MM AAV and an eight-team no-trade clause per CapFriendly, the Devils may have to work with Palmieri to find the right trade while some sort of contract retention will likely be necessary.

Five For Demko: For years, Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko has been touted as Vancouver’s goalie of the future.  He has lived up to those expectations this season and was rewarded for his efforts as he signed a five-year, $25MM contract extension.  The deal represents a substantial raise on his current $1.05MM cap hit but he has certainly earned it with his performance, posting a .917 SV% in 25 starts this season.  That number may not seem too strong on its own but Vancouver is allowing 3.24 goals per game and is in the bottom ten in the league in that department.  GM Jim Benning can now turn his focus to his other two prominent pending restricted free agents in Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson.

Gostisbehere Clears Waivers: It has been a steep fall from grace for Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere over the last few years.  After putting up 65 points in 2017-18, his numbers fell off sharply the following two seasons and this year, he had been a healthy scratch on several occasions.  Things got even worse from there as he cleared waivers on Wednesday.  Obviously, his $4.5MM price tag made a claim from most teams impossible but it’s still a sign of how much of a hit his value has taken.  A few years ago, he would have fetched a sizable return on the trade market but now, Gostisbehere’s deal looks like one where Philadelphia will have to include an incentive to simply find any taker for him.

College Free Agency: Two of the top players in college free agency are now off the market.  First, Jordan Kawaguchi inked a one-year, entry-level deal with Dallas that will be effective next season.  The 23-year-old finished fourth in NCAA Division I scoring this season with 36 points in 28 games after putting up 45 points in 33 games in his junior year to finish second in scoring.  The next day, arguably the top free agent on the market came off the board as the Panthers signed Matt Kiersted to a two-year, entry-level pact.  The 22-year-old was immediately inserted into Florida’s lineup as he made his NHL debut on Saturday as they hope that he’ll be able to help fill a small part of the void opened up with Aaron Ekblad’s season being over.

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While it was relatively quiet on the trade front this past week aside from Colorado adding a bit of goaltending depth, there was still some notable news around the league which receives an extra look in our key stories.

Coyotes Open To Moving Garland: The Coyotes are one of the lower-scoring teams in the NHL and Conor Garland is their leading scorer with 25 points in 30 games.  Despite that, it appears as if Arizona is open to trading the 25-year-old.  The reason would appear to be two-fold.  The first is that he’d yield a good return, especially with a price tag that’s just above the league minimum that even most cap-strapped teams would be able to afford.  The second is that he’s arbitration-eligible for the first time this summer and is poised to land a significant raise.  Arizona’s prospect pool has taken a hit the last couple of years and while they have some veterans that they can move, Garland would undoubtedly allow them to add something of significance to their group.

Krueger Fired: With things going off the rails in Buffalo, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before a coaching change was made.  That time came on Wednesday when the Sabres fired head coach Ralph Krueger along with assistant coach Steve Smith with Don Granato taking over head coaching duties on an interim basis.  Krueger was in his second season with Buffalo but only managed to compile a 36-50-12 record; only six of those wins came in their 29 games this season.  An extensive coaching search is expected as GM Kevyn Adams will now be tasked to find the right person to help lead Buffalo out of what is about to become a decade-long playoff drought.

Lee Out For The Year: The Islanders will be without one of their top forwards with the announcement that Anders Lee is out for the year due to ACL surgery.  It’s undoubtedly a big blow to their attack as the captain is tied for the team lead in goals with 12 while he averages over 17 minutes per game.  However, the potential silver lining is that the placement makes him eligible to go on LTIR, thus allowing New York to bring in someone making up to his $7MM AAV in as a replacement.  They will be limited to shopping on the rental market for a replacement but all of a sudden, they become a team to watch for between now and the trade deadline although the opportunity to add comes with a big price in Lee’s absence.

Roy Extension: The Kings have received a strong contribution from Matt Roy over the past couple of seasons and have rewarded him for his efforts, inking the 26-year-old to a three-year, $9.45MM contract extension.  The $3.15MM AAV is a huge jump on the league-minimum $700K he has made over the last two years but in that time, Roy has established himself as a top-four piece on the back end for Los Angeles.  Notably, the contract also buys out two UFA-eligible years which certainly was factored into the price tag.

Surgery For Chiarot: The Canadiens will be without one of their defensemen for a while as Ben Chiarot underwent surgery to repair a broken hand sustained in a fight earlier in the week.  The expected recovery is six-to-eight weeks although GM Marc Bergevin expressed optimism that the veteran will be able to return before the end of the regular season.  Chiarot is in his second year with the Canadiens and had spent most of the season partnered with Shea Weber in their top-four while logging just shy of 22 minutes a night in ice time.  The fact that he’s expected to return will effectively restrict Montreal from going deep into LTIR to try to replace him.

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Even as we reached the midway point of the season, several of the biggest stories from the past seven days pertain to things for the offseason and beyond.

Draft Notes: The league has proposed some changes to the draft lottery rules.  If ratified by the Board of Governors, teams will only be allowed to pick first overall two times in a five-year span and teams will only be able to move up a maximum of ten spots (down from the current 13).  Those changes wouldn’t come into effect until 2022 while the change that sees only two spots drawn in the lottery instead of three would occur for this year.  Meanwhile, while several teams were hoping for some sort of delay to the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, that does not appear to be happening with the current expectation now being that it will occur in July as scheduled.  With the trade deadline approaching, a formal ruling on this has been anticipated for a while.

Panarin Returns: Rangers winger Artemi Panarin has returned to the team after missing several weeks on a leave of absence following allegations that surfaced back home in Russia.  The 2020 Hart Trophy finalist is a welcome addition to a New York team that currently sits sixth in the East Division and is in the bottom ten in goals scored.  He made an immediate impact upon returning, picking up an assist against Boston on Saturday.

Binnington Extension: Arguably the top UFA goaltender is off the market before even getting there as the Blues and Jordan Binnington agreed to a six-year, $36MM contract extension.  The deal contains a full no-trade clause in the first three seasons before dropping down as low as ten teams in the final season.  The 27-year-old is still relatively untested at the NHL level with just 100 career regular season starts under his belt.  However, he was dominant in his rookie season where he helped lead St. Louis to the Stanley Cup in 2018-19 and established himself as the full-time starter last year.  Suffice it to say, it is quite the turn of events for a goaltender that was loaned to Boston’s AHL team back in 2017-18 after declining an ECHL assignment and now he has a $36MM contract under his belt.

Latest On Kane: As part of Evander Kane’s bankruptcy proceedings, he and the team filed a joint motion in California court indicating that a contract termination is a possibility which would certainly drastically affect his list of assets moving forward.  It’s only one possible outcome and some rulings will need to be made before then (including whether this should be a Chapter 11 or Chapter 7 case) but this is a situation that isn’t going to be resolved quickly.  The case has been delayed until early June which still leaves some time before the free agent market opens up but this is certainly something that we haven’t seen the end of just yet.

Back With ESPN: The NHL has decided to split its rights package in two and the first of those will be with ESPN as the two sides announced a seven-year agreement.  The exact financial terms weren’t formally disclosed but the belief is the deal more than doubles the $200MM average that the league was receiving from NBC while the league still has the second package to sell with NBC joining CBS and FOX in those discussions.  ESPN will get four of seven Stanley Cup Finals in that span along with comprehensive streaming rights.

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The opening week of March featured quite a few notable headlines across the NHL which are highlighted in our key stories.

Stepan’s Season Over: Senators center Derek Stepan had been in trade speculation for the past several weeks.  It was the likely outcome for a team that was expected to flip him to a contender and they were hoping to get him back to the United States where he could be with his family.  He’ll be able to rejoin them now but not by a trade as it was confirmed that he will miss the rest of the season due to a shoulder injury that required surgery.  Stepan’s season ends with just one goal and five assists in 20 games, hardly the level of production he was hoping to have in his final year before becoming an unrestricted free agent.  All of a sudden, Stepan goes from potentially being one of the better centers available to one that will simply be looking to have a bounce-back year.

Tarasenko Returns: Forget about waiting to see what the Blues are able to do at the trade deadline.  No, their best acquisition came on Saturday when Vladimir Tarasenko, their top winger, was activated off LTIR and made his season debut that night.  The 29-year-old has been one of the more dangerous scoring threats in the league when he is healthy and will give a St. Louis attack that’s already tied for third in the league in goals scored another level.  With several other players on LTIR, no corresponding cap-clearing move was required.

Seabrook Hangs Them Up: Heading into the season, Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook was expected to return but was ruled as unavailable with no timeline for a return.  As it turns out, there won’t be a return after all.  Instead, the 35-year-old announced that his playing days have come to an end due to a lingering hip issue.  Seabrook was a key cog on Chicago’s back end for parts of 15 seasons, playing in over 1,100 career regular season games plus another 123 in the playoffs where he helped lead the team to three Stanley Cup titles.  He remains under contract through 2023-24 and hasn’t officially retired which means he will be on LTIR for the rest of this season plus the next three although Chicago will be able to spend over the cap to replace him.

Calgary Changes Coaches: With the Flames scuffling and sitting on the outside looking in at a playoff spot, Geoff Ward’s tenure as head coach appeared to be tenuous and ultimately came to an end as he was relieved of his duties.  While that may not have been too much of a shock, what was quite surprising was his replacement as Darryl Sutter was brought back for a second stint with Calgary, signing a three-year contract.  The 62-year-old was behind the bench with the Flames from 2002 through 2006 during which the team made it to the Stanley Cup Final.  Notably, he’s a direct contrast from Ward’s coaching style as it appears that GM Brad Treliving believes a stricter bench boss will bring out the best from his underachievers.  Sutter had to go through quarantine before joining the team so his debut won’t come until they start a two-game set against Montreal on Thursday.

Wilson Suspended: Capitals winger Tom Wilson drew the ire of the Department of Player Safety again from a boarding incident on Friday night against Boston on a hit on Brandon Carlo.  While boarding penalties themselves typically don’t carry hefty suspensions, Wilson’s track record suggested a sizable one would be coming.  In the end, the league handed him a seven-game ban, one he has opted not to appeal.  It’s the fifth suspension of his career and will cost him over $311K in salary, an amount that would have been substantially higher had it not been more than two years since his previous suspension.

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While it was a quiet week on the transaction front aside from the usual long list of daily taxi movement, there were still plenty of newsworthy stories around the NHL which are highlighted in the key stories of the week.

Skinner Saga: Last season was a tough one for Jeff Skinner as he managed just 14 goals in 59 games, hardly the type of performance they were expecting from a $9MM commitment.  However, his struggles last year pale in comparison to this season as he has just one assist in 16 games.  Things came to a head when he was a healthy scratch for three straight games with his agent, Don Meehan, getting involved on behalf of his client.  Skinner has since returned but Buffalo’s offensive drought continued as they’ve been shut out in two straight games.  While a trade at this point is all but impossible with six more years left on his deal after this one so it will be worth watching to see if they try to put him back in a top-six role to try to get him going or if he’ll be spending more time in the press box before long.

More From Buffalo: Skinner’s situation wasn’t the only notable news.  It was also revealed that defenseman Jake McCabe would miss the next six-to-eight months due to several injuries to ligaments in his right knee, ending his season.  It’s a tough blow for the Sabres who lose a top-four defenseman while McCabe now will be entering unrestricted free agency coming off a season that was limited to just 13 games.  Meanwhile, another pending UFA has hit the trade block in blueliner Brandon Montour.  The 26-year-old looked like a core addition when Buffalo acquired him back in 2019 but he has struggled considerably over parts of three seasons with the team.  With a $3.85MM price tag, the Sabres will either have to retain salary or take a contract back to facilitate a trade.

Canadiens Change Coaches: The first coaching change of the season has taken place with Montreal firing head coach Claude Julien and associate coach Kirk Muller.  Assistant coach Dominque Ducharme was promoted to the top spot on an interim basis for the rest of the season while Alex Burrows was added to the coaching staff after spending parts of three seasons with AHL Laval.  The Canadiens actually got off to a hot start this season winning seven of their first ten games (and picked up a point in two of their losses) but have won just twice in ten games since then.  Julien is 13th in all-time NHL coaching victories (17th in games played) and is still owed $5MM this season and next on his contract.  Meanwhile, this is Ducharme’s first head coaching role in the NHL.

Vancouver-Anaheim Trade Talks: While a trade ultimately didn’t materialize (or hasn’t yet, at least), the Canucks and Ducks were involved in discussions surrounding wingers Jake Virtanen and Danton Heinen.  Making the money work has been a challenge so far despite the fact that the difference in cap hit between the two is only $250K.  It goes to show how tricky making the salary cap element work is going to be with so many teams tight to the Upper Limit of the cap this season.  Both wingers have struggled this season and could certainly benefit from a change of scenery but it doesn’t appear as if they’ll be getting moved for each other just yet.

Panarin Leave Of Absence: Rangers winger Artemi Panarin has been granted a leave of absence from the team following public allegations of an assault on an 18-year-old female during his time with Chekhov Vityaz in the KHL ten years ago.  Panarin denies the allegations, which some believe are politically motivated with his prior public support of opposition leader Alexi Navalny while the Rangers have also issued a statement supporting their star.  There is no timetable for his return.

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After a relatively quiet first week of February, there were several big headlines around the NHL over the past seven days which our highlighted in our key stories of the week.

Virtanen On The Block: It has been a tough season for Canucks winger Jake Virtanen.  Despite getting a two-year, $5.1MM deal over the offseason, his hold on a full-time spot always seemed tenuous.  His early-season performance (just one goal in 13 games) has had him as a healthy scratch already and it appears that GM Jim Benning is open to giving him a change of scenery as he is being shopped around the league.  Still just 24, Virtanen had a career year last season with 18 goals and 18 assists in 69 games and has the ability to be an effective middle-six forward.  However, his consistent inconsistency and slow start have Benning trying to make a deal when his value is rather low.

Pittsburgh Hires: The Penguins were looking to move quickly to find former GM Jim Rutherford’s replacement and they did just that.  However, they didn’t just find a new GM in Ron Hextall, they also added a new President of Hockey Operations in Brian Burke.  Hextall comes over from Los Angeles where he was working in their front office but he was at the helm of the Flyers from 2013-2018.  Burke, meanwhile, last served in the NHL as Calgary’s President of Hockey Operations, leaving that post also in 2018.  Patrik Allvin had been serving as interim GM during the search and will now resume his old role.

Senators-Hurricanes Swap: Carolina and Ottawa decided to swap some underachieving veterans with the Sens bringing back winger Ryan Dzingel in exchange for winger Alex Galchenyuk and center Cedric Paquette.  Dzingel had two straight 20-goal seasons with Ottawa but has struggled away from the Senators over the past two years, notching just 14 goals in 96 games with Columbus and Carolina.  Paquette had seen limited playing time in Ottawa after coming over in a salary cap-motivated move from Tampa Bay but should factor into Carolina’s fourth line before too long.  As for Galchenyuk, his immediate future is in question as the 2012 third-overall pick was waived by the Hurricanes today.  If he isn’t claimed, he’ll likely wind up on their taxi squad.

Changes In Arizona: It wasn’t that long ago that John Chayka left Arizona’s front office, abruptly resigning his role as GM.  Steve Sullivan took over on an interim basis before Bill Armstrong was brought in.  Now, Sullivan is out as well as he was fired by the team who also announced that the position will not be filled this season.  Sullivan had been with the Coyotes since 2014 in a variety of roles but will now be looking for opportunities elsewhere.

Koivu Retires: Mikko Koivu’s time away from Minnesota was short-lived.  After struggling in the early going this season with Columbus as he worked his way back from a battle with COVID-19, the 37-year-old decided to call it a career, announcing his retirement.  Koivu was a key two-way center for the Wild for many years and leaves with 1,035 career NHL regular season games, all but seven of which were with Minnesota and is one of only 150 players in league history with at least 500 career assists.  While the Blue Jackets gave Koivu a one-year, $1.5MM contract, it won’t count on their books for the remainder of the season.

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It was a bit of a quieter week around the NHL with most of the major news coming on the injury and scheduling front.  Those are highlighted in the top stories of the week.

McNabb To LTIR: The Golden Knights will be without an important piece on their back end as Brayden McNabb has been placed on LTIR, meaning he will miss at least 10 games or 21 days due to his lower-body injury.  He joins Alex Pietrangelo (CPRA list) as blueliners that are unavailable for Vegas.  The team had been forced to dress just five defenders for several games this season as a result of their cap situation so while they’ll certainly miss McNabb’s contribution, his placement at least frees up enough short-term cap space for them to be able to dress a normal lineup.

New Title For Drury: For the past few years, Chris Drury has come up as a target for any team looking for a new GM although most of those interview requests were rebuffed by the Rangers.  While the Penguins did get permission, Drury abruptly withdrew his name from consideration just before it was announced that he had been ‘promoted’ to associate GM.  That’s not a particularly common job title around the league and Drury’s role hasn’t really changed but the change likely gives him a pay raise and extra job security.  It seems like only a matter of time before Drury gets his opportunity to run an NHL franchise but for now, he’s sticking around with the Rangers.

MacKinnon Injury: Colorado will be without their top scorer for a little while as Nathan MacKinnon has been listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury.  It’s yet another blow to an Avalanche squad that has been hit extremely hard by the injury bug thus far as five other regulars are also on a similar timeline to return though of those, only Pavel Francouz is currently on LTIR.  Their cap situation made it so that they’ve had to play short a player once already this season.  But losing MacKinnon – their top scorer – is an even bigger blow; he’s off to another strong start with 14 points in 10 games which is his best point-per-game mark of his career.  The Avs got a bit of a reprieve when some of their games were postponed and they were hardly the only team in that situation.

Schedule Changes: With several teams have multiple players on the COVID Protocol Related Absences list, there were quite a few changes made in the schedule beyond Colorado’s postponements.  The Sabres and Wild both saw their season paused.  With Colorado and Minnesota both off, the league then rescheduled a pair of games between the Blues and Coyotes to allow them to keep playing.  But the biggest changes came on Saturday when 27 East Division games were rescheduled with all eight teams seeing games moved around.  Considering we’re not quite at the one-quarter mark of the season yet, it’s safe to say that the schedule makers will still have quite a bit of work ahead of them.

Surgery For Mrazek: The Hurricanes will be without their starting goaltender for a while as Petr Mrazek underwent successful surgery on his right thumb.  There is no timetable for his return.  The 28-year-old was off to a stellar start to his season with a 0.99 GAA and a .955 SV%, numbers that place him in the league lead in both categories.  It’s a big blow for Carolina who will now turn to James Reimer and Alex Nedeljkovic to hold down the fort in his absence.

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The final week of January featured quite a few surprises which are highlighted in our key stories.

Blues Discussing Dunn Trade: It wasn’t that long ago that Vince Dunn was viewed as a key part of the long-term core for the Blues.  He had a 12-goal, 35-point season in 2018-19 but saw his production dip last year.  Things haven’t gone great this season either and he has already been scratched.  As that benching was happening, it was revealed that St. Louis has been discussing the defenseman in trades with other teams, seeking a first-round pick in return.  The 24-year-old is on a one-year, $1.875MM contract and with the Blues needing to be cap compliant for when Vladimir Tarasenko returns midseason, they’re not in a position where they can take on a more expensive player in a return.

Rutherford Resigns: The Penguins are suddenly on the lookout for a new general manager after Jim Rutherford abruptly resigned his title, citing personal reasons.  The 71-year-old joined Pittsburgh in 2014 after spending two decades at the helm in Carolina and Hartford and helped build a Stanley Cup-winning roster in 2016 and 2017.  Patrik Allvin has been elevated to the interim GM role while the team is hoping to have a full-time replacement named over the next few weeks.  That will take someone like former Arizona executive John Chayka out of any possible consideration as he was suspended for all of 2021 for conduct detrimental to the league when he tried to resign from Arizona to go elsewhere; his contract was eventually terminated.

DeAngelo On Waivers: Last season, Rangers defenseman Anthony DeAngelo led the team in points by a defenseman and was tied for fourth league-wide in that regard.  That helped land him a two-year, $9.6MM contract this offseason.  However, things haven’t gotten off to a good start this season with him being benched for two games while there have been some other incidents, including a reported fight with a teammate following Saturday’s game.  As a result, New York has placed DeAngelo on waivers.  His cap hit is high enough that only a few teams can afford to place a claim and with these off-ice concerns coming to light, there’s a good chance he’ll go unclaimed.  At that time, it will be worth monitoring to see what the Rangers plan to do with the 25-year-old.

Trade Requests: A pair of clients of Darren Ferris (Quartexx) are seeking a change of scenery.  First Flames center Sam Bennett is hoping for a trade after a tough start to his season.  While the fourth-overall pick in 2014 has had some success offensively in the playoffs, it hasn’t translated to much in the way of regular season success.  He had just a dozen points in 52 games in 2019-20 and has only one assist in seven contests this season.  Bennett has a $2.55MM AAV and is eligible for arbitration this summer.  Meanwhile, Montreal blueliner Victor Mete would also like to be moved with a lack of playing time being the issue there.  It wasn’t that long ago that he was on their top pairing with Shea Weber but his playing time and role have dipped considerably since then to the point where he had limited minutes in the bubble and has been a healthy scratch in all eight games this season.  After accepting his qualifying offer, Mete has a $735K price tag and will be arbitration-eligible in July.

Howard Retires: Veteran goaltender Jimmy Howard has decided to call it a career, hanging up his skates at the age of 36 after a 14-year NHL career, the entirety of which was spent with Detroit.  Howard played in 543 games for the Red Wings, good for third in franchise history.  Ken Holland, who was Howard’s GM back in Detroit for many of those seasons, tried to bring the netminder to Edmonton when Mike Smith was injured but instead, Howard decided to retire having played only for the team that drafted him back in the second round in 2003.

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In a season where it appears as if trades will be occurring less frequently than normal, it was a pair of deals that grabbed the headlines in the NHL over the past seven days and they are highlighted among the key stories of the week.

Change Of Venue: The 2021 World Hockey Championships were slated to be held in Latvia and Belarus but the search is on for a new partner for Latvia after the IIHF announced that they were pulling the portion from Belarus due to the ongoing political unrest.  As of now, the plan remains to hold the tournament as scheduled beginning on May 21st but they will either need to find another city to serve as co-host, see if Riga can host the entire event, or look for a new host entirely with Latvia getting another opportunity in the near future.  With the tournament less than four months away, it’s a decision that will need to be made sooner than later.

Capitals Hit By COVID: While there have been teams with multiple players on the COVID Protocol list, there hadn’t been any fines for players’ conduct until the league levied a $100K fine to Washington to four of their players not adhering to protocols.  Goalie Ilya Samsonov, defenseman Dmitry Orlov, center Evgeny Kuznetsov, and winger Alex Ovechkin were all in the same hotel room without a mask and Samsonov wound up testing positive for the virus.  As a result, all four have placed on the COVID Protocol list, making them ineligible for at least four games.  Two of those have been played already with the other two coming next week.

Blockbuster: Patrik Laine, Jack Roslovic, and Pierre-Luc Dubois had all made it clear that they would welcome a change of scenery and they all got their wish as they were traded for each other, as Laine and Roslovic went to Columbus for Dubois and a 2022 third-round pick.  Winnipeg also retained 26% of Laine’s contract (which expires after this season) and Roslovic received a two-year, $3.8MM contract.  Winnipeg has been seeking a second impact center that isn’t just a rental acquisition and gets that in Dubois while Laine, who went one spot before Dubois in the 2016 draft, gives the Blue Jackets one of the elite scoring wingers in the league while Roslovic should fit in their middle six.  The trade deadline is still more than two months away but there’s a good chance this winds up as the biggest swap of the season.

Ekman-Larsson Out: The Coyotes will be without their top defenseman for a while as Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s lower-body injury, which was originally listed as a day-to-day issue, will now cause him to miss the next three-to-four weeks.  The 29-year-old has logged at least 23 minutes per game over each of the last eight seasons, leaving a big hole to be filled.  On top of that, they had been dealing with work visa issues for Ilya Lyubushkin so the Russian, who played 51 games for Arizona last season, has yet to be available for them as well.

Avs/Wild Swap: There was another trade in the NHL with Minnesota acquiring blueliner Ian Cole from Colorado in exchange for Greg Pateryn; the Avalanche also paid down $800K of Cole’s $4.25MM price tag.  On paper, it’s a big upgrade for the Wild as they add an upgrade to their third pairing at the expense of someone whose role had been limited.  Meanwhile, Colorado still preserves some cap room and also opened up a spot on the left side of their blueline for top prospect Bowen Byram who has gotten into his first two career NHL games since the swap.

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