Predators Sign Matt Carle For $700K
The Nashville Predators have dipped into the free agent market Wednesday, signing UFA Matt Carle to a one-year, $700K contract. Recently bought out by the Tampa Bay Lightning, we profiled Carle’s free agency and projected a contract between $750K-$1MM. Obviously, this comes in below that and with it the Predators get a veteran blueliner with over 700 games experience.
After signing a huge six-year, $33MM contract with Tampa Bay before the 2012-13 season, Carle was never able to replicate the strong two-way play he provided for Philadelphia. Last season, he only contributed 9 points (2-7) in 64 games, though he did chip in five assists in the playoffs.
The Predators came to an agreement with Petter Granberg the other day, avoiding arbitration and seemingly putting him in contention for a bottom-pairing spot; this Carle deal may throw a wrench in those plans, unless Nashville decides to start him in the AHL to try and rediscover his game.
Only 31, Carle has two 40+ point seasons under his belt and was once considered an excellent puck-moving defenseman. With P.K. Subban, Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm already locked into the top-four in Nashville, all Carle would have to do is provide solid bottom-pairing minutes against team’s third or fourth lines. For a player who once logged over 23 minutes a night on a consistent basis, this is a low-risk, fairly high-reward move for the Predators.
Lightning Re-Sign Vladislav Namestnikov
The Tampa Bay Lightning have come to terms with RFA centerman Vladislav Namestnikov, as reported by ESPN’s Craig Custance. It is a two-year deal worth $1.937MM a season. The signing avoids a July 29th salary arbitration hearing.
The Russian finished the last year of his ELC by scoring 14G and 21A in 80 games, which was good for seventh in team scoring. He slowed down in the playoffs, however, and only accumulated 1G and 2A in 17 games. The deal is slightly lower than market value, as fellow RFA Kevin Hayes agreed to $2.6MM, but then both Peter Holland and Mikhail Grigorenko signed for $1.3MM with slightly lower stats.
The Lightning have approximately $6.59MM in cap space after the signing—and will need every cent to sign remaining RFAs Nikita Nesterov and Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov especially, as he led the team in scoring and will be looking for a substantial raise. Moreover, next season Jonathan Drouin, Ondrej Palat, and Tyler Johnson all become RFAs, with the latter two arbitration-eligible. Tampa will be tight up against the cap this season, and will have to use creative cap-saving methods popularized by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Current Trade Candidates (Part Two)
Now almost a month into free agency, the NHL off-season is nearing a point where the flow of transactions, once a raging river of signings during the first few days of July, will slow down to only a trickle. A few notable unrestricted free agents remain unsigned, a handful of young restricted free agents are set to still be extended, and arbitration cases continue to be settled prior to their hearings, though perhaps one of two will come to fruition. However, the days of big signings are over; all remaining deals handed out will either be expected, in the case of RFA’s, or underwhelming, for the UFA’s lucky enough to even find a new home. So what off-season excitement is left for hockey fans to follow? The trade market. August often brings a change of mindset for many NHL front office executives, from adding free agents before someone else scoops them up, to instead subtracting from the current roster as the season nears and cap space, depth, and even character concerns become more clear and focused as opening night approaches. We’ve already touched on the talented and troubled Evander Kane, the inevitable move of Marc-Andre Fleury, and the cap-strapped Red Wings. The following players are a few more who have had their names floated around the trade market all summer, and the next few weeks could bring a change of scenery to one or more:
Valterri Filppula, Tampa Bay Lightning
Given the salary cap crunch of the Lightning, as well as their talent and depth up front, and in particular down the middle, Filppula seems like a very “tradeable” player. With nearly $8.5MM in cap space still available, it seems like the Bolts shouldn’t be too panicked about their situation, right? Wrong. Still to be signed by Tampa are young forwards Nikita Kucherov and Vladislav Namestnikov, as well as arbitration-bound defenseman Nikita Nesterov. One side effect of having a great young core of players is the struggle to re-sign them, and this off-season, sacrifices must be made. Kucherov alone should command between $5-$6MM or more per season (depending on the length of the deal) and Namestnikov and Nesterov easily combine to go way over the remaining few million in cap space. Unless the Lightning make the bold choice to move one of these restricted free agents, a veteran will have to be moved off the team, and it will be someone that carries a decent cap hit. Enter Filppula, who at 32 can still produce and plays a solid two-way game. A contender with ample space or a young team in need of some veteran leadership and defensive stability up front could both use his services, unless the $5MM price tag is too much for them. He presents the Lightning’s best chance at relieving their cap troubles without significantly effecting the team, but they must first convince someone that the price for Filppula is worth it, as trading him and holding on to contract dollars makes no sense. Filppula will continue to hear his name batted around the rumor mill, and if a team falls in love with him like Tampa Bay did, he could be on his way elsewhere for 2016-17.
Braydon Coburn, Tampa Bay Lightning
If the Lightning are unable to move Filppula and unwilling to move any other forwards, they would turn next to the defense, where Coburn is the prime trade candidate. Although Jason Garrison represents the least value for production on defense, with only 11 points last season despite being pegged as an offensive defenseman, other teams can see that as well. Garrison and his $4.6MM cap hit are essentially untradeable. Coburn on the other hand, is a reliable stay-at-home defenseman, who may not be a perfect fit in Tampa but has great value on the market. The Bolts would risk losing arguably their strongest defensive player if they choose to move Coburn, but they would also get plenty in return and his departure would allow younger defenseman like Nesterov, Andrej Sustr, and Slater Koekkoek to have guaranteed playing time all season long. The goal for any team that is up against the cap is to gain the space and flexibilty necessary while reducing the negative impact on the team. While Filpulla and Garrison would hurt the Lightning less, Tampa Bay may be forced to move Coburn and suffer the consequences because he is easier to trade than the other two and would give the team $3.7MM in space that they desperately need.
Ben Bishop, Tampa Bay Lightning
Bishop, of course, is the crown jewel of Tampa’s trade candidates. As one of, if not the best goalie in the NHL, it would be hard to find a team that wouldn’t be at least somewhat interested in acquiring him. He will be an unrestricted free agent after this season, but could be appealing as both a relatively cheap one-year rental at $5.9MM or a steal for a team willing and able to give him a long-term extension worth somewhere in the arena of eight years and $64M before they have to battle it out in free agency. Either scenario will likely draw interest from the Dallas Stars, who we’ve already connected to both Jimmy Howard and Marc-Andre Fleury, but who have shown special interest in Bishop. While the Lightning don’t necessarily have to get rid of the likes of Filppula or Coburn, they do have to eventually say goodbye to Bishop, as they can’t keep both he and the recently-extended Andrei Vasilevskiy through next summer’s expansion draft. The only question that remains is whether Tampa Bay wants to hold on to Bishop for one last run at the Cup with him in net and then let him walk in free agency, or trade him away and get a very impressive haul in exchange from Dallas or another interested team. The Bishop trade winds will not be dying down any time soon.
Nail Yakupov, Edmonton Oilers
The Oilers have already traded one past first overall pick this off-season, but don’t be shocked if another moves on. Yakupov has not come anywhere close to reaching the playing level of former teammate Taylor Hall, but still holds some trade value despite his “bust” label. Still just 22 years old, the former Sarnia Sting star who was taken #1 in 2012 has seemingly gotten worse and worse every year since his rookie season. That year he had 31 points in 48 games, not to shabby for a rookie, but has since followed it with two mid-twenties point totals in sixty-odd game seasons in 2013-14 and 2015-16, sandwiched around only 33 points and a -35 rating in 81 games in 2014-15. A change of scenery seems imperative for Yakupov at this point, as he has not found a fit in Edmonton, and the Oilers would be smart to trade him while he still has any value left and not fall victim to a sunk cost. Yakupov trade rumors have been non-stop for years, but expect this season to finally be the one where the former Russian prodigy moves on to hopefully greener pastures.
Tyson Barrie, Colorado Avalanche
D-needy teams across the NHL are waiting for this trade rumor to become a reality. Barrie, who has developed into an elite puck-moving defenseman with great offensive ability, has been a bargain for the Avs over the past two seasons at just $2.6MM. Now that it has become time to pay the man, he has instead been met with incessant trade chatter. There are questions as to whether coach Patrick Roy sees him as a top-pairing caliber defenseman worth the $5-$5.5MM per year that he is worth on the open market, not to mention that Colorado has only about $7MM dollars in cap space and a deal of that size would leave their cap flexibility greatly restricted. However, the Avalanche are also not very deep on defense, having already traded away solid contributor Nick Holden, and especially on the right side have no one other than Barrie and Erik Johnson who can play major NHL minutes. Of every trade rumor listed today, Colorado would likely be the most ill-advised to trade the rumored player. $5MM is the going rate for a defenseman like Barrie right now, and the Avs would be smart to just lock him up. If they instead choose to trade him, it will make another team very happy and the impact of the loss will be felt in Denver.
Unresolved Off-Season Stories
Most of the focus of the off-season is on the top unrestricted free agents. Most of them are off the board by now, but there are still plenty of pressing plotlines left to be explored. Whether it’s extension talks, possible trades, or area of needs for a particular team, there’s still plenty left to do. Here are some of the biggest issues that are yet to be resolved.
- Kevin Shattenkirk: The Blues’ defenseman has been subject to trade rumors all summer, and for much of his career, with various sources linking him to the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Boston Bruins. Several sources reported that the Oilers could have had him in exchange for Taylor Hall, and balked because he remained unsigned, had no intention of re-signing, and prefers to play on the east coast. Shattenkirk grew up in Westchester, and given their tendency to sign big name free agents, one may wonder if “east coast” mostly means the New York Rangers. This late into the summer, the Blues may have decided to hold onto him, given how close they were to last year’s finals.
- Rangers’ Cap: The Rangers managed to clear some space trading Derick Brassard to the Ottawa Senators for fellow center Mika Zibanejad. The Rangers have a lot of work to do, after falling off from a hot start, being unceremoniously dumped out of the first round of the playoffs by the eventual champion Pittburgh Penguins, and once again relying heavily on goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who turned 34 in March. The Rangers also had several expensive players disappoint last year, including Marc Staal (signed until 2021), Dan Girardi (2020), and Rick Nash (2018). If they are to make a move for Shattenkirk, or make many improvements at all, they’ll have to clear cap space. Their second buyout window may tempt them into cutting their losses with Girardi, and there’s been trade speculation surround Nash for a while now.
- Stars’ Goaltending: No playoff team allowed more goals than the Dallas Stars this year, and in the entire league, only the Calgary Flames had a lower team save percentage. Two of the top available goaltenders, former Blue Brian Elliott, now of the Flames, and former Duck Frederik Andersen, now of the Maple Leafs, are off the market. There’s been a lot of talk about Tampa Bay’s Ben Bishop, given his pending free agent status, the Lightning’s cap situation, and the percieved promise of backup Andrei Vasilevskiy, who turns 22 on Monday. Still, a Stanley Cup contender in Tampa Bay may not be keen on moving an established star in Bishop, the runner up for this year’s Vezina trophy, to run with someone unproven. There aren’t a lot of other option out there, though there’s been trade talk surrounding the Penguins’ Marc-Andre Fleury, and they may end up having to wait until mid-season to get a goaltender. Incumbents Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen are under contract at $10.4MM combined per year in the mean time.
- Ducks’ Budget: The Ducks don’t really have a lot of work to do this offseason. They never did, having won their division, and clearly deciding that coaching was the problem, rather than their core of players. Still, they’re a budget team, with just under $65MM in budgetary commitments, though some of that will be eased by the Maple Leafs, having already paid half of the newly acquired Jonathan Bernier‘s salary in his July signing bonus. But they still have to sign restricted free agents Rickard Rakell and Hampus Lindholm, and the betting was on the Ducks moving one of their young defensemen this off-season. The Ducks would probably do just about anything possible to keep Lindholm, Sami Vatanen, or Josh Manson, but they’ve displayed a willingness to move Cam Fowler for the right price. It’s difficult to say what exactly they’ll do now, given that the market clearly isn’t paying the Ducks’ asking price for Fowler, but it’s more likely they’ll lower their price for him than let someone like Lindholm go.
Snapshots: Lightning, Subban, Patrick, Coyotes
The Bleacher Report’s Adrian Dater answered Twitter questions today, and when asked which team won the off-season, he went with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Dater’s reasoning is popular, that GM Steve Yzerman managed to convince his biggest name player, Steven Stamkos, to stay at a price lower than many expected, he was able to re-sign Victor Hedman a year before free agency, and extended Alex Killorn as well, while leaving more than enough cap space to re-sign Nikita Kucherov long-term.
With respect to Dater, and he’s far from alone in saying this, it’s not really as thrilling as the names involved would imply. Yzerman carries a sort of reverence through the hockey world, and will be praised profusely with little effort, despite the fact that his accomplishments this off-season are mostly things contending team GMs do with little problem. Dallas Stars’ forward Jamie Benn also signed a long term contract a year out from free agency, and the Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have never really come close to the open market. Stamkos getting as far as speaking to other teams is an anomaly itself. After Yzerman’s messy situation with Stamkos’ mentor Martin St. Louis, his re-upping of a coach who Stamkos reportedly dislikes, and who played him out of position, his offer which was well below what others were willing to pay, and the trade demand by the team’s best young player in Jonathan Drouin, it’s fair to wonder if this was really a wooing by Yzerman, or if he Stamkos signed because he looked around at the other options and couldn’t find a fit. Yzerman has done some great work in Tampa, but Stamkos staying rather than taking more money from his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs, or close to home Detroit Red Wings or Buffalo Sabres, is likely the result of the work Yzerman did years ago in making the Lightning a team a player wouldn’t want to leave to begin with. Yzerman’s best move of 2016 may just be not giving into Drouin’s trade demand, understanding the leverage he held, the attractiveness of the Lightning situation, and the fickleness of the typical 21 year old.
More snapshots from around the hockey world:
- NHL.com has some quotes on PK Subban today from around the Predators’ organization. Subban touches on the lack of distraction in Nasvhille, and GM David Poile responds to talk about Subban’s personality saying that while some would prefer a more homogeneous group, the Predators “don’t want that. We can’t win with 20 players that are exactly the same, either skill-wise or personality-wise. I want different types of players, and I want different personalities.”
- James O’Brien at NBC Pro Hockey Talk profiles the Brandon Wheat Kings’ Nolan Patrick today. Patrick, the son of former NHLer Steve Patrick, and newphew of former NHLer James Patrick, is expected to be taken with the first pick in the 2017 NHL entry draft.
- Craig Morgan of Arizona Sports quotes on Twitter Coyotes GM Jonathan Chayka suggesting that today’s signing of former Kings’ defenseman Luke Schenn could open up room for the team to offload an extra defenseman.
Arbitration Tracker
Ten days ago, the NHLPA released the schedule for player and team-elected arbitration hearings. Since then, four hearing dates have come and gone with no hearings, with eight players agreeing to contracts to avoid the unpleasant process.
Here’s an updated list of all 24 players who were scheduled for an arbitration hearing:
Player Elected Filings:
Arizona Coyotes
Michael Stone – Stone and the tough-negotiating Coyotes have a hearing set for August 4.
Colorado Avalanche
Tyson Barrie – Hearing set for July 29. Barrie has been the subject of near-constant trade rumors this summer.
Mikhail Grigorenko – Agreed to a one-year, $1.3MM contract on July 20, just two days before the scheduled hearing.
Detroit Red Wings
Jared Coreau – Agreed to a two-year, $1.25MM contract on July 6, well before any hearings were scheduled.
Danny DeKeyser – Signed a six-year deal on July 26th, locking him up long-term for the Red Wings.
Minnesota Wild
Jordan Schroeder – The Wild signed Schroeder to a one-year, two-way deal on July 23rd worth $675K in the NHL and $275K in the AHL.
Nashville Predators
Petter Granberg – Signed a two-year, two-way deal worth $575K / $175K (300K guaranteed) in the first year, and $650K / $175K in the second.
Calle Jarnkrok – Signed a six-year, $12MM deal July 27th.
New York Rangers
Kevin Hayes – Signed a two-year, $5.2MM deal Friday afternoon, hours after Kreider.
Chris Kreider – The Rangers and Kreider agreed to a four-year, $18.5MM contract Friday morning, beating the scheduled 9am arbitration meeting.
Dylan McIlrath – The massive defender signed a one-year, $800k contract last week, beating his hearing by a week.
J.T. Miller – World Cup-bound Miller and the Rangers settled on a two-year, $2.75MM contract on July 13.
Ottawa Senators
Mike Hoffman – After a long negotiation, the Senators and Hoffman agreed to a four-year, $20.75MM deal on July 27th.
Philadelphia Flyers
Brandon Manning – Manning got an unexpected second year in his two-year, $1.95MM deal he signed on July 26th.
Brayden Schenn – Schenn and the Flyers agreed to a four-year deal worth $5.125MM AAV.
Jordan Weal – Acquired by the Flyers in the Vincent Lecavalier trade, Weal signed a one-year, two-way, $650K contract the day the arbitration schedule was released.
St. Louis Blues
Jaden Schwartz – The Blues signed their young star to a five-year, $5.5MM contract last week.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Alex Killorn – The clutch playoff performer signed a long-term extension over the weekend, agreeing to $4.45MM per year for seven seasons.
Vladislav Namestnikov – World Cup-bound forward signed a two-year deal worth $1.9375MM on July 26th, three days before arbitration hearing.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Frank Corrado – Toronto signed Corrado to a one-year, one-way deal worth $600K on July 25.
Peter Holland – Holland signed a one-year deal worth $1.3MM on July 25.
Martin Marincin – The promising young shut-down defenseman is scheduled for arbitration on August 2.
Washington Capitals
Marcus Johansson – Johansson agreed to a three-year, $4.58MM contract just minutes before his hearing was set to begin.
CLUB ELECTED FILINGS:
Detroit Red Wings
Petr Mrazek – Just before his hearing on July 27th, Mrazek and the Red Wings inked a two-year, $8MM deal. With Jimmy Howard still earning $5.3MM for next season, the duo is one of the more expensive in the league.
We’ve previously explained the arbitration process as part of our Capology 101 series. Check out our Mike Furlano’s articles on eligibility and the arbitration process.
Free Agent Profile: Matt Carle
In June, partially as a response to the re-signing of captain Steven Stamkos, the Tampa Bay Lightning bought out the remaining two years of defenseman Matt Carle‘s six-year contract. Carle never found his footing in Tampa Bay, his possession numbers declined continuously, along with his ice time, and after putting up impressive seasons of 35, 41, and 38 points in his last three years with the Flyers, his 31 point year in 2013-14 is the only year with the Lightning where he finished with more than 22. This was all a particular disappointment, since Carle came with a hefty $5.5MM cap hit.
Carle made his name in San Jose as a puck moving defenseman, and was originally dealt to the Lightning in 2008, as part of the trade for Dan Boyle. This was a short-lived arrangement, as 12 games into his first term with the Lightning, he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for a package centered around forward Steve Downie.
Carle blossomed in Philadelphia, and was a consistent offensive presence for the Flyers, helping them reach the Stanley Cup finals in 2010, before losing to the Blackhawks. In that run, Carle scored 13 points in 23 games, playing primarily with future Hall of Fame defense partner Chris Pronger. He also appeared with teammates James van Riemsdyk, Ian Laperriere, and Scott Hartnell in the 2012 comedy This Is 40. By the time the movie was released, only Hartnell was still with the Flyers, in part because in July of 2012, Carle had signed his six year contract with the Lightning, worth a total of $33MM.
Potential Suitors
When it comes to players who’ve seen their careers hit the skids, it’s not uncommon for coaches and general managers who’ve worked with them before to look to give them a second chance. Former Flyers’ GM Paul Holmgren is still the team president, and may be willing to offer him a chance, and it’s possible to envision former Flyers’ coach Peter Laviolette pushing to get him to camp in Nashville, considering how much he’s relied on him before, though the Predators have a very deep defense core, so he may be difficult to fit in. Ottawa Senators’ coach Guy Boucher also has experience with Carle, though he was fired two months into said experience.
Then there are the San Jose Sharks, with GM Doug Wilson having drafted him in 2003. Granted, Wilson was only weeks onto the job in San Jose when he did so, and traded him fairly early into his career. After those teams, the list is fairly non-specific, open to anyone who could use cheap defensive depth. His salary and term won’t be restrictive.
Expected Contract
Carle’s age and recent history make him a gamble, and considering he lacks spectacular upside, at this point, that’s a gamble a lot of teams won’t be looking to make. Should he choose to continue his career, which just about every player wants to do as long as they can, and he isn’t old enough to assume he’d happily walk away, it will likely be by trying to stick through a training camp invitation. Should he make a team out of camp, he’ll probably cost in the range of $750k to $1MM, which is roughly what room a team has left to pay a depth defenseman at the end of camp.
Snapshots: Tanev, Ohlund, Barrie, Kreider, Vesey
Jason Botchford of the Province writes today asking about the future of Canucks defenseman Chris Tanev. Botchford compares the possibility of such a deal to the Adam Larsson for Taylor Hall trade, suggesting that since Tanev is also a right handed defensive defenseman, but better at it, one should wonder what the Canucks could get in exchange for him if Larsson was able to bring a player of Hall’s caliber back to the Devils.
Botchford discusses Tanev’s prowess at things measured by analytics, and his conclusion is fairly tempered. He writes that the Canucks should certainly explore the possibility, but not be looking to give him away. Given Tanev’s age, that seems like a fair assessment. The Canucks may enter a rebuild stage if they don’t succeed this year. They’ll have a head start, given their relative wealth of young players. Because Tanev is just 26, it’s not hard to imagine him still being useful by the time the Canucks are ready to compete. If they can get high end young pieces from a team more desperate to win now, it would be worth exploring long term, but Tanev has too much value and is too young to be just dumped for the sake of getting younger. Tanev also plays the right side, something that is currently scarce, and highly valued. Data suggests that defense pairings should involve one player who shoots each way.
Here are some more links to start your hockey morning:
- Speaking of skilled defensemen to have played for the Canucks, Aftonbladet in Sweden reports that Mattias Ohlund has retired at the age of 39. Ohlund, who also spent two seasons in Tampa Bay, has been out since 2011 with a knee injury, and has been on the Lightning’s long-term injured reserve ever since. It’s a sad way to go out, but Ohlund had a really strong career, and signed one of the earlier bonus-laden offer sheets with the Toronto Maple Leafs, though it was matched by the Canucks. Ohlund had yet to play a game in the NHL.
- Mike Halford of Pro Hockey Talk at NBC Sports writes that now that the Avalanche have re-signed Mikhail Grigorenko, their attention is squarely on the status of defenseman Tyson Barrie. Barrie, who has an arbitration hearing nine days from now, has been subject to trade rumors all summer, and while Avalanche GM Joe Sakic says he isn’t trading him, the negotiations have been drawn out, and speculation has persisted. Barrie will turn 25 on Tuesday, and is coming off a season in which he scored 13 goals, and 49 points, following up on his 2015 year that saw him score 12 goals, 52 points, both very impressive for a defenseman.
- Larry Brooks at the New York Post reports on the difficulties in the Chris Kreider arbitration case. Kreider, 25, is eligible for unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2018, meaning that a two year arbitration decision takes him to the open market, and a one year deal leaves the Rangers exposed to the possibility of a breakout year, and deciding whether to commit a lot of money and term, or letting him go to arbitration again, and then hitting the market.
- Mark Divver of the Providence Journal tweets that Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman was in Foxboro, Massachusetts last night, watching unsigned Sabres prospect Jimmy Vesey. Vesey, who played at Harvard last year, and whose rights were traded to the Sabres by Nashville for a third round pick in June’s entry draft, can become an unrestricted free agent on August 15th, and says he plans to.
Brad Richards Retires
According the NHLPA website, veteran pivot Brad Richards has retired from the NHL following a distinguished 15-year career.
Richards, who spent the 2015-16 season with the Detroit Red Wings, ends his career with 932 points in 1,126 regular season games. He’s also been part of two Stanley Cup championship squads, winning a Conn Smythe award as playoff MVP in 2003-04 while a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Drafted originally in the third-round (64th overall) of the 1998 entry draft (the same draft that saw Vincent Lecavalier go #1 overall to Tampa), Richards formed a deadly tandem down the middle with Lecavalier, and helped to elevate the team into the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. He would spend the first six-plus campaigns of his career with the Lightning before being shipped to Dallas at the 2008 trade deadline. With Lecavalier in the midst of an 11-year, $85MM deal and Richards under contract at $7.8MM annually, the Lightning decided they could no longer afford both centers and executed the trade with Dallas.
Richards spent parts of four seasons with Dallas, averaging better than a point-per-game and helping the Stars to a berth in the 2007-08 Western Conference Finals, where the club lost to eventual Stanley Cup champion Detroit in six games. Unfortunately that would be the highlight for Richards during his tenure with the team as the Stars failed to again make the postseason.
Richards would leave the Lone Star State following the 2010-11 season and as one of the marquee free agents that summer, would go on to sign a lucrative, nine-year contract worth $60MM with the New York Rangers. As was typical with big money free agent contracts of the day, Richards’ deal was heavily back-loaded in an effort to drive down the AAV and subsequently the salary cap hit. Richards was to collect $57MM of the money in the first six seasons, with each of the final three years coming with salaries of just $1M each.
While perhaps not quite living up to that price tag with the Rangers, Richards did help the club make it to the Eastern Conference Finals his first year with the team. He was also part of the squad that lost to the Los Angeles Kings in the 2013-14 Stanley Cup Finals.
After three years with the club and in desperate need of cap space as they continued their pursuit of a championship, the Rangers exercised a compliance buyout on Richards following the 2014-15 season. Under terms of the new CBA, the Blueshirts would have faced stiff cap recapture penalties had they not gone that route and Richards retired prior to the end of his contract.
Richards would move on as a free agent, signing with Chicago and winning another Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks. But the writing may have already been on the wall as Richards tallied just 37 points that season, the lowest full-season total of his career to that point.
Following his one year in Chicago, Richards signed with Detroit where his offensive production continued to wane. In 68 contests with the Red Wings, Richards scored just 10 goals and 28 points.
The announcement comes just weeks after former Lightning teammate Vincent Lecavalier also stepped away from the game. It’s also quite possible Dan Boyle joins in to make it a trio of former Lightning players walking away from the NHL this summer. One year ago, Martin St. Louis, who played with Richards, Boyle and Lecavalier in Tampa and again with Richards and Boyle as members of the Rangers, announced his retirement.
Richards was a free agent, profiled recently on Pro Hockey Rumors here, but after apparently not finding the right fit, has elected to hang up his skates and move on to the next phase of his life. Those of us here at Pro Hockey Rumors would like to congratulate Richards on his wonderful career and wish him the best in his future.
Snapshots: Tootoo, Lightning, Johansson, Staubitz
Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman had some help when it came to recruiting winger Jordin Tootoo to sign with Chicago, writes Tracey Myers of CSN Chicago. Defensemen Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook both reached out to the 33 year old who signed a one year, $750K deal earlier this month. All three players live and skate together in Kelowna in the offseason.
Tootoo will likely be counted on to replace some of the grit vacated by the trade of Andrew Shaw to Montreal and Bryan Bickell’s deal to Carolina last month.
More news and notes from around the hockey world:
- Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman acknowledged to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times that the team will likely have to make a trade later this summer in order to accommodate their remaining restricted free agents. The Lightning have just over $8.5MM in cap space per Cap Friendly but still have RW Nikita Kucherov, C Vladislav Namestnikov, and D Nikita Nesterov to re-sign. It’s likely that the team will look to sign Kucherov to a long-term deal as they have with Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and, earlier today, Alex Killorn. Of their three remaining RFA’s, only Namestnikov is arbitration-bound with a hearing set for July 29th if a deal isn’t reached by then.
- Barring a last minute deal, it appears as if the Capitals and center Marcus Johansson are heading for arbitration on July 20th, writes Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post. If it does go to a hearing, he would be the first player in a decade to go to arbitration twice. Johansson’s agent J.P. Barry acknowledged that they have tried several times to get a long-term deal done but as of yet have not been able to agree to terms. Barry also noted they plan to talk again after pre-hearing briefs are exchanged. Johansson was awarded $3.75MM via arbitration last offseason and set career highs in goals (20), assists (27), and points (47) in 2015-16.
- Former NHL enforcer Brad Staubitz has been named an Assistant Coach of the OHL’s Sarnia Sting, the junior team announced. The 31 year old retired prior to last season. In 230 career NHL games between San Jose, Minnesota, Montreal, and Anaheim, Staubitz recorded 10 goals and 11 assists to go along with 521 penalty minutes.