NHL Rumors: Three-way cap deals here to stay, Seattle Kraken may have a number of high priced players to chose from, and Flyers have tough decisions coming
Anthony Scultore
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The NHL salary cap ceiling will remain relatively stagnant at around $81.5 to $82 million for the foreseeable future. That means regardless of this COVID shortened season, we will see more teams with cap space help contenders facilitate deals for high price rentals.
Three-way cap deals here to stay
Several trade made at the deadline involved teams utilizing a third party to complete a transaction. The two biggest examples were the Lightning acquiring David Savard from the Blue Jackets using the Red Wings to eat more cap hit. Or the Maple Leafs getting Nick Foligno from the same team with San Jose as the cap facilitator. These deals are not going to go away.
“Certainly now with the flat cap it’s become a much bigger deal. The David Savard deal, the Nick Foligno trade – all needed a third team to help with the cap space,” Pierre LeBrun said on TSN. “There are some team executives who weren’t comfortable with what was going on here with salary retention happening twice. As far as the league is concerned, there’s no money outside the system and at the end of the day a hockey asset was acquired by that team so they’re ok with it.”
Seattle Kraken about to have a lot of high priced talent exposed to them this summer
The Seattle Kraken are very likely to have a large amount of high-salaried stars made available to them this summer. Some key names they could be looking at if they are willing to take on the full brunt of their salaries are as follows:
- P.K. Subban (D, NJD, $9M AAV)
- Shea Weber (D, MTL, $7.857 AAV)
- Ryan Johansen (F, NSH, $8M AAV)
- Matt Duchene (F, NSH, $8M AAV)
- Matt Dumba (D, MIN, $6M AAV)
When it comes to the Kraken’s inaugural lineup it looks like they will have some serious star power coming out of the gate.
Flyers have tough decisions ahead
The trade deadline came and went without adding any pieces to help make a playoff push. Unlike the Rangers who also did not make any moves; the Flyers were considered a Cup contender coming in so this would appear ominous for Alain Vigneault’s future.
When GM Chuck Fletcher was asked about making a coaching change he quickly answered “No.” Of course, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen but for now it seems AV is safe. The same can’t be said about the Flyers who will likely make some very big changes this offseason.
“As we move forward here, obviously we’ll have a lot of decisions to make in the offseason, but the way I look at our group is we have enough talent to win more games than what we’ve won and to play better than how we’ve played. There’s certainly an opportunity for this group to finish strong and leave a positive impression on all of us.”
Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher via NBC
They have been tied to Johnny Gaudreau now for awhile and the Flames will be shaking things up this summer too. Expect action between these two franchise in the offseason.