Florida may be a team that needs some cap space to help bring in some major defensive help after last night’s injury to Ekblad
Detroit played its best hockey of the season in a 2 game sweep of CBJ. If nothing else, it signals that there is hope going forward. The players that need to be more 3 dimensional in Zadina and Mantha are both working hard in three zones. Yzerman is still very much “offense comes from defense”, it seems. Watching Zadina and Mantha throw their weight around is a good sign.
Brome and Cholowski were sent to Grand Rapids, and Smith was brought back to the taxi squad. GR is in the middle of a road stretch. It has been a tough start for Brome. Upon arrival, he was a good, gritty player. The goals just haven’t been coming, and an AHL stint may do a lot to get him going. It’s difficult to transition to the NHL, and even more so on a team that is at the bottom of the pack. Cholowski had some decent looks, but it’s still difficult for the 23 year old to hold on to a spot. Marc Staal has been a good addition, and Cholowski hasn’t taken anyone’s job at this point.
Part of me always feels bad for DC. The difficulty isn’t so much who he is as a player, but who he isn’t. Chycrun. The price for dumping Datsyuk’s contract and opening cap space to sign Nielsen was Jake Chycrun and it stings. Yes, another pick was added that brought in Hronek. As “G” has rightly stated many times, that pick would still have been possible even keeping the original draft pick.
Thank God for Hronek though. His development has been a bright spot. Assuming Seider can stay healthy for this coming season, it will be our two best Right Shot Dmen combo in a long time. McIsaac (head shake), who knows. Another oft injured prospect that may or may not step up.
Seth Barton was signed to his ELC recently. 6’3” right shot defender who has spent 3 years developing at Massachusetts - Lowell. Very candid in how he knew he needed to add muscle and develop, and why he embraced the college route. He seems to be a bit more defensive minded, but is a welcome addition to the pipeline. Yes, I know we’re loading up on right shot D. I actually don’t mind. Tampa and Washington both have power plays with sometimes 4 right shooting players. It is a goalie’s nightmare. If you have to be imbalanced, I prefer right shot overages to lefties.
There are only 20 games left in this season. It has been a LONG stretch to get here, but I have the feeling it will be rolling quickly. In just over a month, we’ll be talking about the upcoming draft (which may be the most underscouted draft in the modern era due to jr league shutdowns). I actually don’t mind that either. GMs put way too much stock (Yzerman excluded) in the “Central Scouting Report”. It feels like the second and third rounds are much more thoughtful across the board. Inevitably, someone is going to blame COVID for making a bad first round pick.
With the season winding down, the trade deadline is just over 2 weeks away. Detroit has 25 contracts (between NHL/Taxi Squad/AHL) that are expiring after this season. Here are the forwards that “could” be moved (Bertuzzi won’t be) that are winding down their current deal:
I’m not putting any of the AHL current players because I don’t think anyone is hunting down Hirose, Pearson, Smith and company. Looking at this list, Glendening may well be the prize forward that could be dealt. Still at the top of the league in faceoffs, that’s the depth guy good teams want. His salary of 1.8 million is sub 1 mil after being prorated. I think Boston, Washington, Colorado and possibly Tampa will all be looking. Canadian teams in Montreal, Toronto and Edmonton are “rumored”, but those deals are borderline painful to make. If Colorado is looking to move on from Tyson Jost, than may be an interesting piece to bring back and see if there’s a reclamation project to be had.
Defense on expiring contracts (excluding AHL)
Staal
Nemeth
Hronek(RFA, no way he’s going anywhere)
Djoos
Merrill
Biega
Staal, for me, is leading the pack. He’s been a good depth defender, and is a solid pro. With this condensed year, teams may be burning through Dmen even more than normal in the playoffs. Low cost, with no commitment next year is important. Teams like Tampa that avoided paying the piper on the flat cap last year are going to pay heavily next year. Even Colorado, and give credit to Sakic, are up against it and have some major deals in Makar and Landeskog to re sign. They are showing 24 million in space for next year, but with only 12 players signed. They currently don’t have a goalie signed for next season. Getting 8-10 players in will be a bit snug. The problem is that Colorado doesn’t have a 2nd round pick this year or next year.
Detroit is projected to have 35 million in cap space at the deadline. 21 teams will have around 1 million or less, with 10 teams showing zero available. Florida is the next lowest team as far as cap, and they’ll have around $4million in deadline space. Ottawa, New Jersey and Los Angelos all have massive amounts of space as well. The rest of the league, not so much. 4 teams are all that are able to help with deadline money laundering (hold, retain, rinse, repeat) and there are at least a couple teams in each division that may want to bring in some muscle. Toronto, my God, they want to bring in more scoring forwards. That’s the hockey equivalent of being at Golden Corral and ordering a pizza.
Where is your ideal trade at? Do you want just draft picks, or are there prospects or projects (eg Tyson Barrie) that would make you want to retain some money or ship out a player? Let me know in the comments.
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