NHL Transactions, Injuries & Rumours

[lightupdadarkness]

Hearing Washington is making a coaching change. Todd Reirden is out.

[ltcompton]

Interesting situation. It seems like everyone but Washington management knew that the decision not to bring back Trotz was a bad one. Perhaps the Caps core is now too old anyway but the window was certainly open last year for another cup run yet they have not been able to recreate that winning culture that Trotz brought to them in 2018. Baffling decision.

[Jordan (VGK)]

WEW

[dave1959]

and it sounds like they are not sure about Holtby for next year.

[Matthew]

Would need to go goalie hunting, cuz that would be a lot of pressure to put on Samsonov. (Although if that did work out, would be a nice cap saving for Washington)

[Shoalzie]

Kapanen goes back to Pittsburgh...Leafs get the Pens' 1st. Forgot that Kapanen came to Toronto in the Kessel deal.

[Matthew]

The Maple Leafs have acquired the Penguins' first round selection in the 2020 NHL Draft (15th overall), F Evan Rodrigues, F Filip Hallander and D David Warsofsky in exchange for F Kasperi Kapanen, F Pontus Aberg and D Jesper Lindgren.

[Matthew]

Pittsburgh giving up a fairly high pick here, but understand the move given they need to surround Malkin/Crosby/Letang for their last couple years and that pick will be a while. They also get a nice pickup in Hallander.

Edit: just noticed hallander is going to leafs and not other around. this is bad for Pittsburgh.

[Shoalzie]

That's a pick that could be used in another trade if they aren't planning to make the pick.


I want to give a tip of the cap to Stevie-Y on the Fabbri low-risk trade working out and he earned himself a nice new contract yesterday. He looks like a good fit in the top 6 considering how weak they are offensively. He was a shot in the arm when he joined the team. Don't know about his long-term value but for now as the team is rebuilding, he'll get plenty of opportunity to play quality minutes. Since Lafreniere isn't coming to town, it's a great opportunity for guys in the organization to show out play big minutes. Can't say with certainty the player they take #4 is going to go right into the lineup.

[kyuss]

Rutherford is basically the NHL version of Shiv, both in terms of keeping business active and leaving only ruin once done with his tenure.

He is lucky that unlike Shiv his coach won him a Cup, saving his legacy

[Shoalzie]

The league is littered with the "mushy middle". Teams that are too good to bottom out but probably aren't good enough to win more than a round in the playoffs. The Penguins are probably in that group. The Capitals might be entering the zone after another first round exit.

With the flat cap era...are you actually going to be able to trade Malkin or Crosby or Letang? For teams that have identified (and locked up) a core group...they're going to ride the group for better or worse because who is going to want to acquire them? A rebuilding team doesn't want old expensive players. I think in the Penguins' case...they basically have to lean into their situation and try to squeeze what they can while they have that core.

Let's be honest, who is closer to winning a title...the Penguins or the Maple Leafs? The Leafs need to be very careful that they aren't on the path to becoming the NHL's answer to the 76ers. Hell, the Oilers are already a warning to teams that just think that staying in the lottery will fix your problems.

[Handsome&FairMike]

Love the move for the leafs and for kapanen for me in BBKL. WIN-WIN

[KapG]

What a great trade for toronto!!!

[Loki]

Big overpay from the Pens, take out the first and it's about even. I like Kapanen but GMJR paid double the sticker price

[Shoalzie]

Mike Green retiring

#bbklDetroit

He made it official on The Athletic this morning.

[Shoalzie]

You can reasonably say the Penguins can try to squeeze two more years with this group considering Letang and Malkin's deals both expire after '21-22. Crosby still has 5 more seasons. After the next two seasons, they better hope they have identified who the next group of players will usher in the final years of Crosby.

Potentially the Penguins are getting ready to see 3 guys who just won't be replaceable...similar to when Lidstrom, Datsyuk and Zetterberg marked the end of the Wings era of success. There just wasn't anyone behind those guys to carry the torch. Datsyuk and Zetterberg were bridges from the departures of Fedorov, Yzerman and Shanahan.

In a way, having success becomes a burden because it's harder to make the tough decisions on whether or not you decide to pull the chute as your key players begin to age out or are you fortunate enough to extend their careers if you can find the right complimentary players. The Penguins have a good forward group but they're a bit of a mess on defense and seem to have some questions in goal.

[Jordan (VGK)]

I can’t wait for the BBKL lottery plans when Arizona doesn’t make the playoffs next year.

[kimmer]

? just make sure whatever pick they end up, coincide with the standings in both real life + bbkl standings.

[Jordan (VGK)]

? just make sure whatever pick they end up, coincide with the standings in both real life + bbkl standings.

love u kim

[Shoalzie]

Next year's draft will be interesting because we'll have Seattle involved as well. I believe they'll be slotted into the 3rd position like Vegas was in 2017. The team that finishes 3rd from the bottom gets the 4th spot in the lottery.

Hard to say how the NHL will handle that pick for Arizona if they end up in the lottery. Do you keep them in the lottery and include them in the drawing but obviously their pick is dropped. We can still take the real lottery results like we did with this lottery.