COVID-19 cap plays big role
Teams that expected the salary limit to increase found themselves in a bind
Jeff Skinner was enjoying an afternoon in his parents’ backyard, when suddenly the Buffalo Sabres’ forward thought his father was pulling an April Fool’s joke on him in mid- September.
“My dad came out and told me that Eric Staal is on our team,” Skinner said upon learning Buffalo had acquired his former Carolina Hurricanes teammate in a trade with Minnesota. “I thought he was joking with me at first.”
He wasn’t.
The Sabres’ addition of Staal was completed before the Stanley Cup was even awarded, and it wasn’t the most high-profile move made over the past four months.
But it was among the first of many trades and free-agent signings involving some of the league’s more notable players changing teams during the most unique of offseasons. The draft was held in October, training camps opened in late December and the league is preparing to embark on a 56-game shortened season with four realigned divisions — all a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
It may take a few weeks for fans to get accustomed to some of the NHL’S more familiar faces playing in different places with the regular season opening Wednesday.
Zdeno Chara is no longer in Boston after the Bruins’ captain signed with Washington. Capitals’ goalie Braden Holtby is now in Vancouver. Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo has left St. Louis — where he was replaced by veteran Bruins defenseman Torey Krug — to hit the jackpot in Vegas.
Eric Staal wasn’t the only member of the family on the move, with younger brother Marc traded from the Rangers to Detroit. And the Sabres made an even bigger splash in free agency by landing 2018 NHL MVP Taylor Hall in October.
Though NHL stars switch teams every offseason, the moves this year were, in part, precipitated by the effects of COVID -19, which has frozen the salary cap at $81.5 million for at least this season and likely the next. That placed teams anticipating the cap to increase in a bind.
The effects were evident before free agency opened, with teams not retaining the rights to some of their restricted free agents in fear of what the players might be awarded in salary arbitration hearings. That was the case in Buffalo, where the Sabres cut loose Dominik Kahun after the forward showed promise in playing six games after being acquired in a trade with Pittsburgh.
Hall signed a one-year, $8 million deal with Buffalo by realizing the free-agent market was going to be tight.
“I came into it thinking that it was either going to be a six- or seven-year deal or a one-year deal, and see where the marketplace went to potentially next summer,” Hall said. “I don’t know if I’ll get there.”