Plenty of action north of the border
Habs trade Prust for Kassian; Oilers pay up for Sekera; Flames sign Ramo, Frolik
Free-agency day felt like trade-deadline day, with all seven Canadian teams getting in on the action.
The Maple Leafs made by far the biggest splash Wednesday, dealing Phil Kessel to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a six-player, three-pick blockbuster. That came on the heels of the Penguins missing out on Pittsburgh native Brandon Saad, whom the Blackhawks traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
For the past several days the freeagent and trade markets intersected, leading to plenty of Canada Day fireworks.
The Montreal Canadiens traded Brandon Prust to the Vancouver Canucks for Zack Kassian, and the Boston Bruins got Jimmy Hayes from the Florida Panthers for Reilly Smith and the contract of injured forward Marc Savard.
The Edmonton Oilers signed the biggest July 1 contract, giving defenceman Andrej Sekera $33 million (U.S.) over six years. After already trading Griffin Reinhart at the draft, the Oilers made a drastic improvement to their blue line in the wake of drafting Connor McDavid.
“He’s a really versatile D, very strong he can play on our top pair if need be,” Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli said in Edmonton.
The Calgary Flames kept the Battle of Alberta arms race going by bringing back goaltender Karri Ramo on a $3.8 million, one-year deal and signing winger Michael Frolik away from the Winnipeg Jets for five years and $21.5 million.
“He’s able to do a lot of different things that are very valuable,” Flames general manager Brad Treliving said of Frolik. “He probably is not going to be a guy that scores you 30 goals, but he’s going to do a lot of the heavy lifting in some of the areas that aren’t so sexy that help you win.”
The Jets were smarting after losing Frolik but brought back forward Alexander Burmistrov from the KHL on a two-year deal and signed defenceman Adam Pardy and forward Matt Halischuk to one-year contracts. Those were steps forward after re-signing winger Drew Stafford Tuesday night to an $8.7 million, two-year deal.
Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver made a handful of smaller moves, too. Most notably the Canucks resigned defenceman Yannick Weber after trading Kevin Bieksa to the Anaheim Ducks.
After Sekera and Frolik, the biggest deals of the day were the San Jose Sharks getting ex-Penguins defenceman Paul Martin for $19.4 million over four years and the Bruins signing winger Matt Beleskey for $19 mil- lion over five years.
Mike Green got the biggest cap hit at $6 million over three years from the Detroit Red Wings.
“In Mike (we get) a top-four defenceman that can run a power play and provide offence,” Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said. “Today was a great day to add a defenceman who can . . . give our team another dimension.”