NHL HEATS UP
Devils trade for former No. 1 pick Hall Subban shipped out; Stamkos staying
THE ICE shavings haven’t even begun to settle after this NHL blockbuster Thursday that appears to have turned Friday’s opening of the freeagent market into an anticlimax before it even begins.
For within hours on a traditionally sleepy day on the league calendar, two of the highest-paid players in NHL history, P.K. Subban and Shea Weber, exchanged places in a one-for-one deal; the Devils pulled off a heist of notable proportions in acquiring young marquee left winger Taylor Hall from the Oilers in exchange for promising young defense- man Adam Larsson; and Steven Stamkos reached a decision to leave millions on the table in eschewing free agency to remain with the Cup-contending Lightning.
Devils deal for Hall
The Devils entered the offseason with a top-five goaltender in Cory Schneider, a young and relatively deep defense and an admirable work ethic, but also facing a huge talent gap at forward between themselves and the best teams in the East.
This deal, in which general manager Ray Shero added the 24-year-old Hall from Edmonton, goes a long way to addressing that gap.
Hall, the first-overall selection of the 2010 entry draft, is a speed-and-skill winger who plays with an edge and can put the puck in the net, getting 26 goals with 39 assists a year ago. Of all those high-end lottery picks that came before Connor McDavid a year ago, Hall owns the most formidable game.
The Devils, who have missed the playoffs four straight years since their unexpected run to the Cup final in 2012, scored the fewest goals in the NHL last year (184) and the second fewest over the past two seasons (365, three more than the Sabres). This acquisition should go a long way to remedying that deficiency, with Hall set to reunite with first-line center Adam Henrique, the pair having played together for two-time Memorial Cup champion Windsor in 2008-09 and 2009-10.
Larsson is a good one — mobile, smart in his own end and able to make the first pass — but the Devils have a pretty good stable of young defensemen. More will be needed now from Damon Severson, David Schlemko and pending free agent Jon Merrill to fill the void left by the club’s 2011 first-rounder (fourth overall).
But Hall is a special one whose price seems rather low given the widespread interest in him around the league. Fact is, New Jersey has its most formidable winger since Ilya Kovalchuk fled to Russia following the 2012-13 season. And the Devils, who hung in the playoff race into March de- spite their offensive woes, are a credible contender for a 2016-17 tournament berth.
Subban-Weber blockbuster
Subban’s larger-than-life persona was too big for either coach Michel Therrien or the Montreal room (or both), so GM Marc Bergevin dealt the Spirit of 76 to Nashville for the immensely respected Weber in a shocking one-for-one swap.
Weber is the righty defenseman who is a lock to make the Canadian national teams that Subban does not, such as the 2016 World Cup squad. He also is going to be 31 this summer, seems to have lost a step and has 10 seasons remaining on his contract that carries a cap hit of $7.8 million per. Weber is second among defenseman with 58 goals over the past three years (one less than Arizona’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson — hey, maybe that’s who Edmonton GM Peter Chiarelli thought he was getting for Hall). He is an on-ice presence, a nodoubt first-line matchup headache.
But no one in the NHL has more of a presence on or off the ice than Subban, who plays with a flair and whose risk-reward game produced 164 points the past three seasons, second among defensemen to Erik Karlsson’s 222.
Issues surfaced between Therrien and Subban during the second half of last season. The Montreal front office and room was surprisingly muted in support of the defenseman, who has six years at $9 million per remaining on his contract.
Though this was a trade of styles — Weber a more stable and physical presence; Subban a flashier performer — it also represented a Montreal purge of an athlete who had become a lightning rod in the city, if not the organization, as well.
Stamkos re-signs
The Post was about to report the Islanders had made a pitch to Stamkos’ agents when news broke of his decision — reported first by TSN’s Bob McKenzie — to keep his talents along the Florida Gulf Coast.
The eight-year, $68 million ($8.5 million per) offer Stamkos accepted had been on the table for months. Though he certainly left some money on the table to remain with Tampa Bay — but likely not a significant amount given Florida’s status as a no-tax state and the contract term limit of seven years that would have applied beginning Friday — Stamkos surely remained with the Lighting because doing so gives him his best chance to win the Stanley Cup within the foreseeable future.
It is not known whether Stamkos received any type of assurance from coach Jon Cooper that he will play primarily at center, rather than right wing, which is where No. 91 had been deployed a fair amount of time the last two years. (Certainly the Islanders couldn’t promise Stamkos first-line minutes in the middle.)
But less than 48 hours from becoming the most highly sought-after free agent in NHL history, and likely the highest paid player of the cap era, the 26-year-old Stamkos — sidelined with a blood-clot condition for all of the playoffs except for Game 7 of the conference finals against Pittsburgh — took himself off the market.
Lightning GM Steve Yzerman held firm on Jonathan Drouin and on Stamkos, and he was rewarded for each decision. On a day of big names in the NHL, it is worthwhile to suggest Yzerman’s is the biggest of all of them.
And then, in a different sphere are the Rangers, who, The Post has learned, remain in discussions with Viktor Stalberg to keep pending the free-agent winger who emerged as one of the club’s steadiest players down the stretch in New York.
At this point, the asking price appears to be too high, but the Blueshirts are working at it.