With salary-cap space drying up around the league, it's sounding more and more like J.T. Miller will be back at training camp with the Vancouver Canucks in September.
Nazem Kadri and John Klingberg, two of the top UFAs in this year's class, still haven't settled in their new homes. Kadri was expected to command a big deal after his breakout season and Stanley Cup with Colorado and Klingberg is a coveted right-shot defenseman who ranks sixth at his position with 374 points in 552 games since he entered the NHL in the 2014-15 season. The only right-shot defensemen with more points during that time are Brent Burns, John Carlson, Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang and Tyson Barrie.
If Kadri or Klingberg had been offered contracts that hit their expectations, they'd be signed right now.
And Kadri's picky about destination. He previously blocked a trade from Toronto to Calgary before he was dealt to Colorado, so it seems unlikely that he'd entertain an offer from the Flames as a potential Johnny Gaudreau replacement at this point. There's talk this week that he spurned a big offer from Columbus before Gaudreau signed there on Wednesday.
Since Kadri is also a centre, his eventual decision could potentially set the stage for a landing spot for Miller. It sounds like multiple teams could be chipping away at their cap situations to make space. But of course, only one will ultimately reel him in. At that point, other squads could turn to Plan B, which could be Miller.
The Penguins freed up some cap space on Saturday in a defenseman swap with New Jersey — dealing John Marino to the Devils in exchange for Ty Smith and a third-round pick.
As a righty who had connections to Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin, Marino had been rumored as a possible trade target for Vancouver. He's 25, signed for five more seasons at a cap hit of $4.4 million, and was teammates with Jack Rathbone at Harvard. But he also may have no interest in playing in Canada: he was originally drafted by Edmonton in 2015, then dealt to the Penguins in exchange for a sixth-round pick at the end of his junior year, when it started to look like he'd head to free agency before he'd sign with the Oilers.
Ty Smith is on the last year of his entry-level deal, so his cap hit is just $863,333 next season — and he's still waiver exempt. A high-end prospect who was drafted 17th overall in 2018, Smith had a strong rookie season in 2020-21, finishing seventh in Calder Trophy voting and named to the All-Rookie Team. But he struggled last season and saw his ice time drop by more than two minutes a game, and was healthy scratched for some games late in the year.
That, I suppose, is why the Devils had to add a draft-pick sweetener to get the Penguins to take Smith. He could still bounce back — he's certainly not the first NHL player to go through a sophomore slump. And the move gives Pittsburgh an extra $3.5 million in cap space for the 2022-23 season — not enough to make Kadri an offer, but it does provide some breathing room after Pittsburgh was able to re-ink its own key impending UFAs Letang, Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust.
Does that make room for them to also bring back Evan Rodrigues? He had a good year with Pittsburgh last season on a deal that paid $1 million, and remains unsigned as of Saturday morning.
UPDATE: The Penguins made a second trade on Saturday, adding Jeff Petry on the right side while sending lefty Mike Matheson to his home town of Montreal. The Penguins also get forward Ryan Poehling in the deal, while the Canadiens get a fourth-round draft pick.
With Malkin and Sidney Crosby still locked up for three more years, I think it's unlikely that Pittsburgh would take a run at Miller — although with Jason Zucker's $5.5 million coming off the books next season, they could have the space to sign him to a long-term extension. And he is a Pittsburgh-area native....
In the flat-cap era, Kadri's target of a contender with cap space is now practically an oxymoron.
The home page on
CapFriendly can give an incomplete picture, as some teams still have key RFAs to sign. But of the 13 teams that are currently showing more than $9 million in available cap space, only three made the playoffs last year — Nashville, Dallas and Calgary.
I am surprised to see that, even after re-signing Filip Forsberg and acquiring Ryan McDonagh, the Predators still have some room to add. They've made a bunch of depth signings in free agency but have been very cautious with their money and cap space. Their biggest splurge to date is signing goaltender Kevin Lankinen to a one-year deal at $1.5 million.
For their part, the Canucks made one additional depth signing on Day 2 of free agency. Christian Wolanin is a 27-year-old left-shot defenseman who was signed to a two-way deal that will pay $750,000 at the NHL level and $350,000 in the AHL. The son of former NHL defenseman Craig Wolanin, who was selected third overall by New Jersey back in 1985, Christian has good size at 6'2" and 190 pounds, and was a fourth-round pick by Ottawa in 2015 and has 70 games of NHL experience with the Senators, the Los Angeles Kings and the Buffalo Sabres.
After the Kings acquired him from Ottawa in exchange for Mike Amadio at the 2021 NHL trade deadline, Buffalo snatched Wolanin off waivers at the beginning of the 2021-22 season. The Kings then re-claimed him when the Sabres put him on waivers on Dec. 1, after playing just one NHL game. After that, Los Angeles was able to get him successfully through to the Ontario Reign, where he had 18 points in 33 regular-season games and four points in five playoff games — amidst several recalls by the Kings, who dealt with numerous injuries on their blue line over the course of the season.
With development camp now wrapped up as well, I expect the news cycle around the Canucks will slow over the next six weeks or so. I'll certainly bring you any developments that do unfold, as well as taking a closer look at the prospects that were here in Vancouver this week.
By breaking the prospects into teams for the Grouse Grind on Friday, we don't get to see individual results for the climb. I'm going to assume that, with their experience in pacing themselves, the Sedins still reign supreme.
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