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Several teams were apparently interested but to quote Kekaleinen 'the funny thing about cap space is that once it's gone it's gone'. Once teams start to fill out their roster and use up their cap space, trade opportunities become more and more limited. Only 1 team gets Karlsson so teams also don't wait around as they risk being left with limited choice in free agency. For whatever reason SJS was too slow to move Karlsson and their options then dropped to only Pittsburgh.

Feels more like the deal would have fallen through. Today was the last day of Pittsburgh 2nd buyout window. They weren't cap compliant and if they didn't make the trade then someone would have likely been bought out. With a buyout it would have been more complicated to pull off the trade as there would be dead cap on the Penguins' books for this year and following years. Less retention on Petry or higher trade cost + the buyout window is closed so more leverage to that 3rd team to ask for more assets. SJS seems to have waited too long. At the end of the season is when teams have cap space - contracts coming off the books + they are planning their rosters for the coming season. This late in the off-season rosters have been built and cap space used up. Interested teams can't wait on a Karlsson trade and then miss out. GMs also shut down late-July through August. Very few trades take place this late in the off-season.

Not the cap space though. They didn't add a 4M winger - was never going to be feasible cap wise. Pittsburgh was already 3M above the cap + had to find another 10M to fit Karlsson - ie they had to already clear 13M in cap space just to make the actual deal work.

They signed Orlov instead.

SJS only has 1 retention slot left. Myers has the highest cap hit of all UFA Ds. SJS won't be a good team so challenging to put up decent numbers. Pretty unlikely to trade him at 6M and even at 3M is high as other teams also retain to facilitate trades. Would need to use double retention just to bring him level cap wise to other 3rd pairing Ds available. They'll likely get a better return using their lone retention slot on someone else.

He trains there in the off-season.

The rumoured deal was Labanc for Myers 1-for-1 per Seravalli. SJS has been trying to trade Labanc ever since Grier took over. Feels like it was cap dump for cap dump and not real interest in Myers. Also SJS pulled out of the trade.

Per Joe Smith, Athletic beat writer covering the Wild, Arizona has been after him since the start of free agency but Dumba apparently wanted to wait for Karlsson to be traded to see if there would be more options available re the teams that miss out on Karlsson + possibly even an opening with SJS.

Pittsburgh started the day 3.2M above the cap per CapFriendly. With this trade they add Karlsson but also clear 3M in cap space to be near compliant without having to use their 2nd buyout window. Yohe covers Pittsburgh for the Athletic.

It's that or keep Karlsson. It's not like they have options to move Karlsson.

The buyout window has already closed - only opens up next June.

They have to make the cap work to move Karlsson. He's been all over media saying that he wants out. Wouldn't it be a distraction to keep him when it's evident he doesn't want to be there.

Maybe he thought they wouldn't want him back so left them off the list to be able to add another team.

Can't see a 3rd team retaining on Karlsson. Loss of a retention slot for 4 years + the salary cost. More likely a 3rd team involved to take on a contract.

They can't use up Guentzel's cap space as they'll need to re-activate him once he's ready to return. They were already rumoured to be interested in Karlsson (- Karlsson himself confirmed that he had spoken to Dubas) and that might be an added incentive to try and trade for him.

Trotz is the GM of Nashville not Columbus - that's Kekaleinen. CBJ has too many wingers already. If they wanted Boeser, Garland or whoever else from Vancouver they would have already traded for them last year. CBJ was ravaged by injuries and Davidson, Kekaleinen's boss, talked of how it forced them to recall players who weren't ready for the roles they put them in. He felt it hurt their development. They had the cap space to add anyone already then.

Except Trotz isn't trying to trade his young players - Nashville are in a re-set. He's explaining why patience is important in developing players at they aren't just going to step in and make an impact.

He was only 19 this past season. It's rare for players to already make an impact as teenagers. So many players broke out much later and took several years to find their game. Barry Trotz has repeated so many times this past months that he thinks 24 is the age where you finally know what a player is about. Several other teams talk of circa 5 years since being drafted before making a contribution at the NHL level.

Davidson, Kekaleinen's boss, assures that they are not trading Sillinger. He acknowledged that he struggled in his 2nd season but highlighted how young he still is (he only turned 20 in May - ie he was only 19 this past season) and that their injuries set everyone back. It's not clear whether they even see Johnson as a C. He's played wing while Sillinger stayed at C.

CapFriendly lists Megna on their main roster - he's probably not expected to be a lineup regular + they signed him to a 2-way deal which signals more AHL than NHL. If they demote him they'll be cap compliant with a roster of 22. Boston not the only team that is likely going into the season with a reduced roster - minimum is 20.

Shea Weber got 7.5M in arbitration.

They would have been even worse off cap wise if they didn't buy them out. Parise was already being a healthy scratch including in the playoffs. It was the choice between 15M healthy scratching Parise/Suter vs buying them out and the opportunity to adjust the culture and move on. Those buyouts allowed them to keep Fiala for another year (- the dead cap was 5M in year 1) and maximise his return after he reached ppg. It was also a dressing room/culture issue. Parise/Suter were vets of 1000 games and were the leaders on their team at their peak (Staal/Koivu too) - they still thought they were those players. You could see Boudreau doing windmills trying to get them to come off the ice as they extended their shifts. Yeo couldn't even set the pairings he wanted. There are also a lot of stories of a torn dressing room. Was already brought up under Fletcher. Fenton noted it as well as Guerin. Players coming in now say that it's been one of the tightest dressing rooms they've seen. Guerin admits that it's not realistic to contend with that much dead cap but insists that they are a better team after those buyouts and has pointed out to culture issues that needed to be fixed. He's building up their prospect pool while Evason is getting them to play and have the approach they think they need to win a Cup. The hope is to go for it once those buyouts come off the books.

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