Virus’ impact felt in offseason moves
Marleau is back in San Jose for a third stint in four years, while the Sharks’ lineup for the first time in 15 years will be without Joe Thornton, who is now in Toronto.
“Just soak it all in,” said the 41year-old Thornton, who grew up a 90-minute drive from Toronto. “I feel like I’m young again.”
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 when playing six games after being acquired in a trade with Pittsburgh.
And while several players earned lucrative paydays in free agency, such as Pietrangelo, who signed a seven-year, $61.6 million contract, his deal proved to be an exception when it came to length.
Hall, for example, signed a one-year, $8 million deal with Buffalo after realizing the freeagent 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.”
In Tampa Bay, the defending champion Lightning had to get creative with their roster.
They lost defensemen Kevin
Shattenkirk and Zach Bogosian to free agency and traded center Cedric Paquette and defenseman Braydon Coburn to Ottawa. The team acquired right wing Marian Gaborik and goalie Anders Nilsson from the Senators, but both will be placed on long-term injury reserve.
Oilers general manager Ken Holland chalked it up to the new economic realities facing the NHL.
“It’s salary-cap related, which is related to the pandemic, which has given us a hard, flat cap for the foreseeable future,” Holland said. “The possibility of a flat cap for the next few years has a factor in all those factors.”
That left teams having to manage their caps by deciding whether it’s better to keep a high-priced veteran or fill the payroll slot with two lowerpriced youngsters.
It’s a reason why several established players were left to wait until training camps opened before being signed to professional tryout contracts, which don’t count against the cap. They included defenseman Travis Hamonic (Vancouver), defenseman Michael Del Zotto (Columbus) and former Florida forward Mike Hoffman, who went on to sign a one-year, $4 million contract with St. Louis.
In Washington, defensemen John Carlson found it “definitely weird” not to see Holtby open camp between the pipes, saying, “I do miss him.”
And Krug was having difficulty envisioning the Bruins without Chara, while becoming familiar with his new surroundings in St. Louis after spending his first nine seasons in Boston.
“It’s a different challenge,” Krug said. “From a personal standpoint, I pretty much could’ve done training camp in Boston blindfolded.”