The Anaheim Ducks are looking to trade Adam Henrique, according to The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta.
Henrique scored 12 goals and 21 points in 45 games this season, a pace of 22 goals and 38 points per 82 games. However, he scored at a pace of 30 goals and 50 points per 82 games in the 2019-20 season and can typically be counted on for around 45-50 points per year.
He’s 31 years old and has three years remaining on his contract, at a $5.825 million AAV. Henrique does have a partial no-trade clause but according to Pagnotta, he’d be open to a move.
However, given that Henrique didn’t get claimed off waivers this season, we can be pretty certain that nobody is taking Henrique without the Ducks retaining salary.
So to move Henrique, the Ducks basically have two options: try to attach assets along with Henrique to get his contract taken or retain salary to make him a more attractive trade option.
With the Ducks entering a rebuild, giving up assets to get a contract off the books just doesn’t make sense right now, as they won’t be competing anyways. So obviously, the more ideal option would be retaining salary – the question though, is how much salary they’d need to retain.
If Anaheim retained half of Henrique's salary, it would bring his cap hit down to roughly $2.9 million, which would make him a pretty attractive option, to the point where the Ducks could probably get some decent assets in return. That said, with three years remaining on his deal that’s quite a bit of salary to retain and it may be unrealistic, even if it would get the best return.
I think if the Ducks were willing to retain a little under $2 million per year to drop his cap hit to around $4 million, this could make a deal more realistic. At that price, there would be some interest, even if the return wouldn’t be as strong as if half the salary was retained. Considering the Ducks are entering a rebuild, they shouldn’t have to worry too much about their cap situation and retaining salary shouldn’t be a huge issue.
Making a Henrique trade work would tricky, but certainly can be done and will likely come down to how much salary the Ducks would be willing to retain.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Ducks Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Ducks for updates on articles, Ducks news, etc.***
Do you think the Ducks will trade Adam Henrique this offseason?
Anaheim Ducks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»