Looming expansion draft turns up trade chatter
The prospect of losing talent to Vegas is keeping a lot of NHL general managers up at night.
“Sometimes at 3 in the morning I wake up and remind myself of that: ‘You can only lose one player. Go back to sleep,”’ Minnesota’s Chuck Fletcher said.
All 30 existing teams must submit their protected list for the upcoming expansion draft by Saturday afternoon, which has made for a week of trade chatter and speculation as GMs jockey for position. Only seven forwards, three defenseman and a goaltender (or eight skaters of any position and a goaltender) can be protected.
Not knowing who Vegas GM George McPhee is going to take has everyone on edge.
“Everyone’s a little nervous, they’re a little reluctant,” Florida Panthers GM Dale Tallon said on Toronto’s TSN 1050. “They don’t want to lose two players if you make a deal. They’re not quite sure. So everybody’s in the same boat.”
The Washington Capitals acquired Tyler Graovac from Minnesota so they could meet the minimum exposure requirement and protect center Lars Eller.
Similar moves are rumored before the league’s trade freeze goes into effect Saturday. The Wild have too many defensemen, so Jonas Brodin’s name has been bandied about in trade rumors, and the Senators will have to do something because defenseman Dion Phaneuf said he won’t waive his no-movement clause.
“It forces us that we’re in a situation that we felt that this could happen,” Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion said. “Is it a trade? It’s a possibility. But trades are way easier talked about than to do.”
The Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins avoided making a potentially harmful trade several months ago when they asked veteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury if he’d waive his no-movement clause so they could protect 23-year-old goalie of the future and present Matt Murray. Fleury agreed before the March 1 trade deadline, saying it gave the team more flexibility down the stretch.
The positive for Pittsburgh is that if Vegas takes Fleury to be the face of the new franchise next season, it doesn’t have to worry about potentially losing a valuable young defenseman like Olli Maatta. There’s a similar concern from the Western Conference champion Nashville Predators, who will most likely expose a few intriguing forwards to protect defensemen Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm.
Lightning deal Drouin to Canadiens
The Tampa Bay Lightning got the young defenseman they have been looking for in Mikhail Sergachev, even though it cost them highly skilled forward Jonathan Drouin.
Tampa Bay acquired the soon-to-be 19-year-old Sergachev from the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday in a trade that checks off one box on general manager Steve Yzerman’s offseason checklist and could provide short- and long-term benefits. Dealing Drouin helps the Lightning ahead of the Vegas expansion draft and in their tight salary-cap situation, and adding Sergachev potentially strengthens their blue line for the next decade.
Along with Sergachev, Tampa Bay got a conditional 2018 second-round pick.