Lyle Richardson
With the Stanley Cup playoffs completed and the 2018 NHL Draft (June 22-23) in Dallas, Texas, fast approaching, general managers will begin wheeling and dealing to build up their rosters for next season.
Thanks to a projected raise in the salary-cap from $75 million to around $80 million, a number of teams will have considerably more cap space to work with. As a result, some of those clubs be in the market for some noteworthy talent.
Ottawa Senators defenceman Erik Karlsson could be among the potential trade candidates. The 27-year-old superstar is a year away from unrestricted free agent status. Considered among the league’s elite players, he could prove too expensive for the Senators to re-sign. There’s growing speculation suggesting he could be dealt in the coming weeks.
Other stars popping up in the trade rumour mill include Montreal Canadiens left wing Max Pacioretty, Buffalo Sabres centre Ryan O’Reilly, Edmonton Oilers left-wing Milan Lucic and Carolina Hurricanes left-wing Jeff Skinner.
The 2018 NHL Awards will be held in Las Vegas, Nev., on Wednesday, June 20, and among the notables up for awards are Colorado Avalanche centre Nathan MacKinnon and Vegas Golden Knights head coach Gerard Gallant.
MacKinnon, 22, is a finalist for the Hart Memorial Trophy as league MVP. He played a big part in the Avalanche’s rise from a dead-last team a year ago to a playoff berth this season. He put up career-best numbers (39 goals, 58 assists, 97 points) to lead the Avalanche in scoring while finishing fifth among the league’s top scorers.
The Cole Harbour, N.S., native, will face stiff competition from fellow finalists Taylor Hall of the New Jersey Devils and Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings. He led both in scoring, potentially giving him the edge among the voters.
Gallant, meanwhile, joins the Avalanche’s Jared Bednar and the Boston Bruins’ Jack Cassidy as finalists for the Jack Adams Award as this season’s top coach.
Bednar and Cassidy did a fine job guiding their teams into the playoffs, but Gallant is the favourite for this award. The Summerside native coached the expansion Golden Knights to a division title with 51 wins and 109 points and a berth in the Stanley Cup Final.
Acadie-Bathurst Titan defenceman Noah Dobson is among this year’s top prospects. The 18-yearold Summerside native played a crucial role in the Titan winning the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League President’s Cup and the 2018 Memorial Cup.
In the NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings, Dobson ranked fifth among North American skaters. Though lanky at sixfoot-three and 180 pounds, he’s considered a gifted two-way blueliner who can log a lot of ice time.
The Detroit Red Wings hold the sixth-overall selection in this year’s draft, followed by the Vancouver Canucks (seventh overall), Chicago Blackhawks (eighth) and Edmonton Oilers (tenth). All of them could use a skilled young defenseman such as Dobson.