Showtime for hockey on and off ice
There are now 26 NHL clubs that range from mildly to significantly dissatisfied with the results of their seasons, plus an aggressive new expansion operation in Sin City. Oh, the possibilities. This has become the time of year when things really happen in the world’s top hockey league, when teams try to aggressively upgrade and change their roster — or, in some cases, downgrade and reduce their roster to position themselves for future draft possibilities.
The end result is the most important trades and signings will be happening over the next seven to eight weeks. In the modern NHL, not much happens over the other 44 weeks, as least not much with as great an impact. The second half of May to the first week of July has become the time when hockey fans energized by personnel activity should be watching most carefully.
Moves have already started, with goalie Scott Darling moving from Chicago to Carolina, and then signing a multi-year deal, as the Hurricanes continue to evolve into a club very much worth keeping an eye on. Ben Bishop, who has gone from No. 1 goalie with a Stanley Cup contender in Tampa to being bounced around, had his rights acquired by the Dallas Stars after a trade from Los Angeles and was convinced to forgo free agency this summer, signing a sixyear, $29.5-million deal on Friday.
The Maple Leafs have signed defenceman Nikita Zaitsev to a longterm deal. The Vegas Golden Knights, meanwhile, signed Russian winger Vadim Shipachyov and seem intent on adding more Euro talent.
Only four teams are still active, while this week, after a pair of Game 7 defeats, Washington and Edmonton joined the group of the dissatisfied. The Oilers, naturally, are much less unhappy than the Caps, but Edmonton fans will still to some degree look at the playoff defeat to Anaheim as a series that could have gone the other way. Washington, meanwhile, is devastated and rightfully so, as yet another in a series of wonderful regular seasons leads absolutely nowhere.
There will be talk of big moves in D.C. and certainly, at least in theory, of the possibility that Alexander Ovechkin could be traded. That would require his OK and owner Ted Leonsis to be willing to end their 13-year bromance. It seems doubtful, but if it were to happen the likeliest scenario would be a onefor-one deal, something similar to the transaction that sent Shea Weber to Montreal last July for P.K. Subban.
Ovechkin may have run out of time in Washington, but there’s no shortage of teams that would like that kind of firepower up front. Chicago only scored three goals in four firstround losses to Nashville. Florida’s always looking for players to make fans in the Fort Lauderdale area pay attention. And the list goes on.
North of the border, meanwhile, the Ottawa Senators will carry Canada’s banner into the final four, with better than a puncher’s chance of knocking off the Pittsburgh Penguins and advancing to the Stanley Cup final. There are no powerhouse teams in the NHL any more, which means there’s no overwhelming favourite left.
The Sens could be the team that ends Canada’s 24-year Stanley Cup drought. But whether they do it or don’t do it this spring, it seems very, very likely that drought will be coming to an end within the next five years. There’s just too much talent being assembled in the Great White North for it not to happen. Canada’s time is coming. The Leafs have Auston Matthews, a terrific young roster and a willingness to use their financial muscle to bury millions of dollars if that’s what it takes. Winnipeg could be just a goalie away from being really dangerous. Ditto for Calgary, although that’s a team that might find it nec- essary to move one of its young blue-chippers to balance out the roster. Montreal is in uncertain territory, while Vancouver is more aggressively moving into rebuild mode.
All of these teams, you have to believe, are going to be aggressive in this coming period of manic activity around the league. While the Leafs are the wealthiest of the seven Canadian teams, none of them operate as small-market franchises as once might have been the case, and as Carolina does now.
Which brings us back to the Oilers, the Canadian team most likely to win it all soonest if Ottawa can’t get it done this time. Pushing a strong Ducks team to seven games demonstrated just how close Edmonton is, and GM Peter Chiarelli has options to make his team significantly better in the short term.
For starters, forward Jesse Puljujarvi, taken fourth after Matthews, Patrik Laine and Pierre-Luc Dubois last June, should be ready to contribute next season after a year split between the NHL and Bakersfield. In theory, he’s also a chip Chiarelli has to play if somebody offers up a more established player in the 23to-27 age range that could help the Oilers soon.
After trading Taylor Hall last summer, it’s probably fair to guess that time has run out in Alberta for ei- ther Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Jordan Eberle, or maybe both. Both carry $6-million annual cap hits, Eberle for another two years and RNH for another four, and neither contributed at that level, particularly in the playoffs.
The Oilers are going to have to open the vault for both Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid in the next two years, and some big salaries will need to be deleted to make room. Both finished in the top eight NHL scorers this season, and both are just getting started. Ultimately, they may represent $18 million to $20 million of cap commitments between them.
By trading Hall for Adam Larsson and signing UFA winger Milan Lucic during the May-July period last year, Chiarelli turned his team from a perennial playoff outsider into a club that could just as easily still be playing. If he does something similarly effective again this year with all the options he has, the Oilers could go into next season as a Cup favourite. You know Edmonton would love to be the team that ends Canada’s drought. We’ll see if Ottawa can beat the Oilers to it. Damien Cox is the co-host of Prime Time Sports on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. He spent nearly 30 years covering sports for The Star. Follow him @DamoSpin. His column appears Tuesday and Saturday.