D-Money

Chris MacFarland has a star quality…?

Not sure, but I’d say Miller is definitely worth his $8.5M.

I would have pushed for just a 1 year deal. Then he’s still RFA at the end of it. This contract just walks him to unrestricted free agency.

Yeah, those were a couple of shrewd moves by Colorado. Newhook wasn’t fitting in, so this helps them now, AND in the future.

The flip side of this is, Edmonton probably expected more out of him against Vegas. But he was really ineffective that whole series. To the point where he was benched most of games 5 and 6. So I could see that leaving them questioning if he is worth committing to.

Kings had to pay to dump Sean Walker’s $2.65M x1 salary. Why would Canucks willingly hand Bear over $2M to keep his rights? There isn’t any value there.

He’s definitely worth $1.5M. Oilers would sign him to that tomorrow if that’s all it took. Problem is, his arb award could be more than that. Based on his numbers, he could get over $2M, maybe even close to $2.5M. And Oilers would have no choice but to match at those numbers, if they qualified him.

That’s…odd? Seemed like a good fit there. Guess they were worried about a tough arbitration award due to that crazy couple of weeks where he put up big numbers. So thought they were better if not qualifying?

Toffoli is a proven playoff performer, cup winner at that, who scored 34 goals last year, for a $4.25M cap hit, and only has a year of term left. How is that remotely similar to what Vancouver is offering?

I could see Washington moving up to ensure they get Mitchkov.

The original rumoured deal involves Hayes retained and Sanheim for Krug and a pick (one of the Blues’ 1st rounders?). The bigger value for the Blues was getting younger on defence. But they still salvaged this part. It’s a great deal for the Blues. Hayes for 3 years at under $3.6M is better than what teams are going to be able to do in free agency this year. Surprised the Flyers couldn’t squeeze out a bit more value.

Sounds more like the worst time. With all these pending UFAs jumping ship, I suspect they’ll hang on to Weegar and Andersson - the only 2 who have term on their contracts.

Friedman said Hanifin will be looking for Horvat money, so more like 8 x $8.5M. Not worth that money, IMO, let alone the acquisition cost.

Despite their ages, I’d be all for trading Garland for one of Tanev or Backlund. Plugs a big hole for this season, and clears the books for Pettersson’s extension.

Yeah, but that’s sort of by default. Tanev is really the only quality top-4 D-man that Hughes has ever played a regular shift with. Love Tan-man, but he has a lengthy injury history and turns 34 in December. If the price was reasonable, sure. But if it’s going to cost assets to acquire him, I’d rather target someone who would provide more long-term value.

The cherry on top of this is Calgary doesn’t even have their 2025 1st round pick. They traded it to Montreal to dump Monahan’s contract.

Nobody seemed to have a problem signing in Calgary when they had a seemingly good team. But now that they are stumbling, and with a lot of older players not likely to improve much, it’s like a sinking ship. I also think Calgary made a major misstep in their coaching hire. The room was toxic last year due to Sutter, so they replaced him with…one of his assistants? Seriously? I would have just went with Mitch Love (or almost anyone else who was not part of last year’s debacle) and made things a fresh start for everyone. But now players feel like they need to leave to get the fresh start. …All that said, Calgary has a great opportunity here to retool and get younger, rather than continuing to commit big money and term to veterans who will depreciate. It’s in their best interests long term to trade guys like Toffoli, Backlund, and Tanev, rather than give out more woeful long-term contracts to players in their 30’s.

Kassian is no longer NHL-calibre. Nemeth, on the other hand, is still a decent player. Plays the physical, shutdown style we need more of. Might be a good buy-low option.

For one, he’s not that great of a player. If he was, he’d be dominating in the KHL, and be a fixture at international events. He was that in 2017-18, after a year of NHL experience and conditioning, but since he’s regressed. He hasn’t been chosen for any international events since then, and has been at the KHL all-star game a couple of times…no biggie. And size isn’t everything - he’s the same height as Tyler Myers (albeit a bit heavier), that doesn’t automatically make him the type of player we need, does it? Secondly, he’s absolutely not coming back here. There are 32 teams in the league. He tried Vancouver, and didn’t like it here - he publicly stated that it wasn’t just the team, but that there were things about the city itself he didn’t like. When we had his rights, there was at least a chance he’d try returning, but that ship has sailed. Why would he pick Vancouver over any other team? So…as I said, why bother? I would rather we talk about KHL defensemen that 1) have more upside, and 2) might actually consider playing in Vancouver one day.

Hanifin is not the move we should be making. We should be targeting a player who we can get for little in return - perhaps even getting a sweetener from a team desperate to clear cap (Boston - Forbort or Rielly will likely get you a sweetener, or Grzelcyk could be almost free). And/or target free agents that are willing to take less for 1 year due to the limited cap available. Taking 1 year bets is the best play, because if it doesn’t work, you flip them at the deadline for picks and try again next year, rather than be locked in to unknowns. And if it does work, you can decide who is worth what and negotiate from there.

I was interested in what Tryamkin was doing when he went back to the KHL and dominated. Especially since the potential for returning to Vancouver or being traded was there. But as he’s regressed from KHL all-star to just another KHL D-man (IMO, at least partially due to conditioning), and his rights expiring for Vancouver… why bother?

Tryamkin was out of shape when he came to Vancouver, it took the team a while to get him to passable conditioning. When he was there, he was good. But he hated the life of a well-conditioned NHL athlete, and ran home. When he went back to Russia, he was outstanding, due to the residual effects of that conditioning. But since, he’s only gotten older, and likely weaker. Hardest of passes.

If by “a 4m dollar defenseman”, you mean this guy: …Then yeah, maybe.

Pretty sure Calgary did exactly this with Michael Stone. https://flamesnation.ca/news/amp/flames-re-sign-michael-stone-who-they-bought-out-last-month