The NHL’s signing season hits on Sunday when the UFA market opens on Canada Day, as is tradition. John Tavares is, of course, the biggest fish and when he decides where he’ll end up it could have a domino effect on other free agents, especially at centre.
This time of year the news and rumours are fluid, but here we give you the latest buzz from around the league on various players.
JOHN TAVARES
At least six teams are still in the running for Tavares, who flew back to Toronto from the CAA offices in Los Angeles where he heard pitches from Boston, Dallas, San Jose, Toronto, Tampa Bay and the Islanders earlier this week. None of those teams have been ruled out and, according to Arthur Staple of The Athletic, the Islanders would “almost certainly know” whether or not Tavares would return by Friday afternoon.
The advantage Lou Lamoriello and Co., have is that they can offer Tavares an eighth year on his new deal, whereas any other team is capped out at seven. However, that advantage comes to an end when the market opens and Tavares officially becomes a UFA. At that point every team, including the Islanders, are maxed out at seven years.
On the Bruins’ pitch, centre Patrice Bergeron told TVA Sports that he had been in touch with Tavares to answer any questions he had about playing in the city.
Every team that met with Tavares has at some point said they came away thinking it went well, so although there is plenty of speculation around this situation, all six teams still appear to be in the running.
https://twitter.com/NicholsOnHockey/status/1012768665895198720
ANTON KHUDOBIN
The Bruins backup struggled mightily in 2016-17, but played an important role in 2017-18, especially over the first two months of the season when Tuukka Rask’s save percentage was below .900. Khudobin opened at .932 with a GAA of 2.22 and a 7-0-2 record to stabilize the Bruins out of the gate. Now it looks like he’ll parlay is strong bounceback season into an opportunity elsewhere.
The 32-year-old is a career backup with a career high of 36 appearances in 2013-14 with the Carolina Hurricanes, when he posted a .926 save percentage. Khudobin’s career save percentage is .915 so the risk is that you’ll get one or more of his down years.
Khudobin is coming off a contract that paid him $1.2 million against the cap, but his deal prior to that one had a $2.25 million AAV so he could move back up towards that number. He’s unlikely to end up as an undisputed No. 1 anywhere, but there are a number of teams from Edmonton to St. Louis to Carolina and more who are looking for at least an experienced backup to push a starter already in place.
RYAN REAVES
After a four-goal, 10-point, 94-penalty minute season, fourth-liner Ryan Reaves had reportedly drawn significant interest around the league from teams looking for his sandpaper element.
The St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers were among the teams interested in Reaves and the Vancouver Canucks were also in the mix. But it appears now he could be headed back to the Golden Knights, who traded for him in February.
And now there is word Reaves may go back to Vegas. So, never mind.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 29, 2018
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CARTER HUTTON
According to various reports, this could be one of the earlier contracts made official on July 1.
Earlier this week the Sabres elected to not qualify Robin Lehner, who was due to be paid $4 million at least. That decision made the 26-year-old Lehner a UFA and left the Sabres without a goalie at all — both Lehner and Chad Johnson are set to become free agents on July 1.
In Hutton the Sabres would pick up a 32-year-old who posted a .931 save percentage and 2.09 GAA. But Hutton has always been a backup goalie in the NHL and he’s a later bloomer who broke into the league at 28 years old. In his first NHL season, 2013-14, Hutton appeared in a career-high 40 games and posted a .910 save percentage so he’s never been tasked with playing even half a season. In fact this past season was the first time Hutton finished with a save percentage above .920 — his career average is .915.
PAUL STASTNY
While John Tavares is the primary UFA centre target this summer, Stastny comes in behind him. Montreal was the team most commonly linked to Stastny, though it was initially believed the 32-year-old’s preference was either to go back to St. Louis, or stay with the Jets.
The Jets present the most intriguing option, considering Stastny waived his no-move clause to go there in the first place and they remain one of his best bets with which to chase a Stanley Cup. But although they currently have $24 million in cap room, a significant portion of that is set to go towards re-signing RFAs Connor Hellebuyck, Jacob Trouba and Josh Morrissey — and there are still a few more minor RFAs to keep.
And a year from now, Winnipeg will be due to pay RFAs Kyle Connor and Patrik Laine, and UFAs Blake Wheeler and Tyler Myers. There is a cap crunch coming here soon, making a Stastny extension a tricky proposition. If he were to seek top dollar and the most security in term, Winnipeg may not be the best fit.
Still, according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston, Winnipeg may end up being the place Stastny signs.
“I should also mention that it does sound like Paul Stastny, there’s a good chance he’s remaining in Winnipeg right now,” Johnston told the FAN 960’s Big Show on Thursday. “That some of the other teams that thought they were in the mix on him have been told, for the time being, that he’s going to remain a Jet. That does involve the Jets clearing some room. Perhaps Mathieu Perreault gets moved on, Steve Mason another possibility just cause they have a lot of cap maneuverings to do this summer with their restricted free agents, but it does sound like he’s not going to hit the open market either and that he’s going to stay in Winnipeg after waiving his no-trade to go there at the deadline.”
If the Jets keep Stastny, Perreault would be an intriguing trade candidate. The 30-year-old makes $4.125 million against the cap for another three seasons and though he hasn’t been a significant point producer — usually in around the 40-50-point mark and just shy of 20 goals — it’s his versatility that would be valuable. Perreault has played at both wing and at centre, and anywhere from the first to third lines. He was also the sixth-most used forward on Winnipeg’s power play this past season.
In 31 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman noted that the Jets could also explore trading a player/prospect asset or draft pick to a team willing to take on the final season of Steve Mason’s $4.1-million cap hit to clear the room.
PAT MAROON
Alongside Connor McDavid in 2016-17, Maroon potted a career-high 27 goals which was always going to be hard for him to match this past season. He did score another 14 in 57 games with Edmonton before they traded him to New Jersey — Maroon scored three times and added 10 assists for a productive 17 games with the Devils.
He isn’t a high-end scorer, but a nice complementary piece and a big body to use somewhere in a top-nine role. Maroon should be getting a fair amount of interest and you have to imagine he’d think long and hard about signing with the team he grew up around as a boy in St. Louis.
We’ll take this opportunity to remember one of the more moving post-game interviews in recent memory when Maroon talked with Sportsnet’s Gene Principe about playing, and scoring, in front of his son when the Oilers visited St. Louis in December of 2016.
CANUCKS SHOWING ACTIVITY
The 2018-19 season is all about seeing growth from young players to set up a potential to contend in a few years, but in the meantime Vancouver wants to surround that core with experienced players.
As Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre wrote, the Canucks have some specific UFA needs, none of which would be centrepieces of the future, but NHLers who can provide minutes at places in the lineup where the Canucks don’t want to rush an unready prospect.
The Canucks can think short-term with some of their targets.
“It depends on term,” Canucks president of hockey operations Trevor Linden told MacIntyre. “If you can sign a guy you really think can bridge you until some of these (prospects) are up and running, and play the right way and bring an element of stability to your lineup, there’s an argument to bringing a veteran in.
With a couple days to go before free agency, Vancouver is reportedly on various grit-and-character players to fill depth roles and possibly penalty kill time.
At the same time, the Canucks have also been linked to Tobias Rieder, a 25-year-old who became a UFA after being left unqualified by the Los Angeles Kings. Rieder could at least play a third-line role, but has top-six upside in the right spot.
And Edmonton Oilers draft pick in 2011, Rieder has finished between 12-16 goals in each of his four NHL seasons.
