Moving into contention
Tavares joining Leafs, Western teams’ moves shift balance of power
Several signings and one big trade drastically shifted the balance of power across the NHL in a matter of days. With John Tavares going home to Toronto, Paul Stastny leaving Winnipeg for Vegas, St. Louis signing three free agents and trading for Ryan O’Reilly, the landscape of the league has changed. The Washington Capitals are bringing back a vast majority of their team, the Western Conference is loaded and yet the Maple Leafs now appear to be Stanley Cup favourites after adding Tavares.
“He’s one of the best players in the league,” Tampa Bay general manager Steve Yzerman said. “And I think it’s obvious to say that Toronto is a better team today with that acquisition.”
Tavares’s decision to leave the New York Islanders knocks them out of contender status and puts a whole lot of pressure on coach Mike Babcock’s Maple Leafs to make a deep playoff run. Losing out on Tavares despite reportedly offering more money than the Maple Leafs’ $77 million (U.S.) over seven years kept the Sharks from moving into front-runner status in the West — but they may not be done yet.
“We pride ourselves on being able to take a swing on difference makers like this,” San Jose GM Doug Wilson said. “John was the one that we wanted to swing at.”
The Sharks, who extended Logan Couture and re-signed Joe Thornton and Tomas Hertl to keep their core together, have plenty of enticing assets and will keep swinging for a differ- ence-maker. One is off the market following the Blues’ trade for O’Reilly that now gives them a potent 1-2-3 punch down the middle with Brayden Schenn and free-agent signing Tyler Bozak.
O’Reilly saw the Blues sign Bozak to a $15-million, three-year contract and wondered if there wasn’t room for him anymore. Now they have centres to match up with just about any opponent in the league.
“You look at all the teams that have success, they definitely have guys down the middle that compete,” O’Reilly said Monday. “And I’m thrilled to be a part of that.”
The Capitals boasted depth with Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom and Lars Eller during their Cup run, and Babcock can now roll out Tavares, Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri.
Here’s a look at where a few more teams stand early in the off-season:
GOT WHAT THEY NEED
Lightning: Tampa Bay signed restricted free agent forward J.T. Miller to a long term deal, extended defenceman Ryan McDonagh, got a deal done with Slater Koekkoek and should have much of the same team that won the Atlantic Division last season.
Flames: Inking winger James Neal to a $28.75-million, fiveyear contract would be a nice capper to the Flames’ off-season that began with acquiring centre Elias Lindholm and defenceman Noah Hanifin from Carolina. (Both are restricted free agents.) New coach Bill Peters could put Neal or Lindholm on right wing with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan. Kings: Long-term, signing franchise defenceman Drew Doughty to an $88-million, eight-year extension is the most important thing Los Angeles did. In the shorter term, it also won the bidding for returning Russian winger Ilya Kovalchuk, who GM Rob Blake believes can play with either top-six centre, Anze Kopitar or Jeff Carter, and produce at age 35.
WORK LEFT TO DO
Senators: They traded Mike Hoffman, bought out Alexandre Burrows but still have at least one big problem with the future of Norris Trophy-winning defenceman Erik Karlsson. The Senators have reportedly given Karlsson’s camp permission to speak with other teams about a contract — which is expected to look a whole lot like Doughty’s deal — which would open to door to Ottawa trading its captain rather than losing him for nothing.
“We start Oct. 4,” GM Pierre Dorion said Sunday in Ottawa. “We’ve got lots of time.” Oilers: GM Peter Chiarelli publicly dangled the10th pick in the draft to try to get an offensive defenceman and hasn’t been able to acquire one yet.
Meanwhile, left wing Milan Lucic is 30, coming off a 34point dud of a season and still has five years left on his contract at a $6-million annual cap hit. Lucic’s name has come up in trade talks, but moving him now won’t be easy, so the Oilers have to prepare for life with him next season. Islanders: Without Tavares, New York is chock full of cap space with nothing to do with it. Ownership signalled the need for change by hiring Lou Lamoriello as president of hockey operations.
Without a Lamoriello miracle this off-season, they’ll miss the playoffs for the 12th time in 15 years.