NHL Trade Deadline Lookback: Did Projected Salary Cap Spur Flurry of Deals?
For hockey fans around the continent, Monday’s NHL trade deadline felt like Christmas had come early, as the news of deal after deal flooded the airwaves all the way up to (and, in some cases, even through) the official cutoff.
Before the clock struck 3 p.m., 24 deals involving 43 players were made on March 2, the most filed on a deadline day since 2010. Teams looking for that extra piece – or two or three – that they believed would put them over the top made themselves heard early and often in what will go down as one of the more fascinating trade deadlines in recent memory.
Big winners at the deadline included the Montreal Canadiens, who loaded up, swinging deals for forwards Brian Flynn and Torrey Mitchell, while also trading for defenseman Jeff Petry. This came less than a week after sending Jiri Sekac to Anaheim for Devante Smith-Pelly. The Anaheim Ducks also notably beefed up their lineup, adding defensemen James Wisniewski and Simon Despres to bolster their blue line that can now compliment an already strong offense.
Longtime Bruins target and Peter Chiarelli favorite Chris Stewart was finally shipped out of Buffalo – but not to Boston, as he landed with the Minnesota Wild. Other big names that were on the move on Monday included Braydon Coburn (traded to Tampa Bay), Zbynek Michalek (traded to St. Louis), and Marek Zidlicky (traded to Detroit).
But why such a high volume of movement this season? It may have something to do with next year’s salary cap.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said back in December he expected the 2015-16 cap to be around $73 million, but he told the media during the Bruins-Canucks game on Feb. 24 that the cap could be lower than $72 million if the current value of the Canadian dollar were to hold.
The salary cap has risen steadily over the past couple of years, going from $64.3 million in 2013-14 to $69 million this season. There were hopes that next year’s cap could have been as high as $76 million, but the actual number won’t come anywhere close to that.
With that in the back of their minds, some NHL GMs that were on the bubble on whether to go “all-in’’ this season may have decided to take a shot, knowing this was their team’s best chance to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup before possibly having to blow up their rosters this summer. The Chicago Blackhawks faced that situation after the winning the Stanley Cup in 2010, as a cap crunch forced them to get rid of players such as Antti Niemi, Andrew Ladd, and Dustin Byfuglien, all three of whom were essential in bringing the Cup back to Chicago for the first time since 1961.
Bruins fans know all about the salary cap troubles of the Black and Gold, but the B’s are not alone. The Blackhawks and New York Rangers, among others, are up against the cap as it is, with little room to work with come the offseason.
The Rangers, in particular, seem to be mortgaging the future in order to try and win now, dealing away John Moore, Anthony Duclair, Lee Stempniak, a 2016 conditional first round pick, their 2015 second round pick, and their 2016 fourth round pick. The return was enormous, however, as they netted defensemen Keith Yandle and Chris Summers, forwards Carl Klingberg and James Sheppard, and the Coyotes’ 2015 fourth rounder.
The Blackhawks may have similar thinking, however, as starting next season they’re scheduled to pay Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews a combined average salary of $21 million, and currently have 14 players under contract for next year at a total of $64 million. Not including restricted free agents such as Brandon Saad and Marcus Kruger, the casualties may be current Hawks staples such as Patrick Sharp and Brent Seabrook, who may have to be traded in order for Chicago to bring their number down.
With that cap reality on the horizon, the Blackhawks acquired a slew of players before the deadline, including forwards Antoine Vermette, Andrew Desjardins, and Spencer Abbott and defenseman Kimmo Timonen, while trading away players Ben Smith, Klas Dahlbeck, and T.J. Brennan.
A big sign that Chicago is taking the “all-in’’ approach this year is the draft picks they traded away. Projected to be one of the deeper drafts in the past several seasons, the Blackhawks dealt their first and one of the two second round picks they hold in this year’s draft, in addition to two more picks over the next two drafts, leaving them without a selection this year until No. 54.
How did the deals change the face of the playoff landscape?
Two weeks before the deadline, the Blackhawks held the pole position as the betting favorite to win the Cup, according to Bovada.lv, with their 11/2 odds better than the Ducks’ 7/1 and Predators 9/1 odds. Rounding out the top-10 were the Penguins and Blues at 10/1; the Canadiens, Islanders, and Lightning at 12/1; and the Bruins, Red Wings, and Rangers, all of whom had 14/1 odds to hoist the Cup.
After the deadline, things shifted up a bit. As of March 4, the Blackhawks still held the best odds, but they had dropped to 15/2 favorites, while the Ducks dropped to 9/1 and the Predators held at 9/1. The Canadiens moved up to 10/1, odds they shared with the Blues, while the defending champion Kings moved up into the top-10 as they vaulted from 16/1 odds all the way up to 12/1. Others at 12/1 include the Islanders, Rangers, and Penguins.
So what does all this mean? It’s going to be an incredible playoff season in the NHL. Almost every team in the postseason picture could be a legitimate contender come the third week of April, with The Hockey News’ Matt Larkin summing it up in the following Tweet, at least as it relates to the Eastern Conference.
[fragment number=0]
The West will be a different story, as the Ducks and Predators appear to have the strongest teams, while the Blues and Blackhawks aren’t far behind. But as the Kings taught us twice in the past three seasons, once the playoffs begin, it’s a whole new ballgame, with Los Angeles taking the Cup in 2012 as an eight-seed and again last season after finishing with just the sixth best record in the West.
Is it April yet?
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com