It’s been a newsworthy week in the NHL. A coaching change, an end to the Patrick Kane rumors, and a couple of trades headline a busy week around the league.
Coaching Carousel: Wild Replace Evason with Hynes
The Minnesota Wild have struggled to meet expectations out of the gate this season, sitting well back in the Western wild card race at the quarter mark of the season. Dean Evason paid the price as the Wild relieved him of their head coaching duties and replaced him with John Hynes.
The Wild’s penalty kill has been a big problem area this season and it’s probably fair to place some blame for that on the coaching staff. Goaltending has also been very underwhelming though, which is typically less of a coaching issue. I took a more in depth look at the Wild’s performance earlier this week.
Patrick Kane Rumor Mill Comes to Stop
Rumors have been swirling for weeks on possible landing spots for free agent Patrick Kane. The rumor mill finally came to a halt this week, with the Detroit Red Wings signing the winger to a 1 year deal with a $2.75M cap hit.
Kane arrives in Detroit following offseason hip resurfacing that other NHLers have struggled to return from, including Ed Jovanovski and Nicklas Backstrom. Considering Kane’s impact has also been declining in recent seasons, it’s not terribly clear what the Red Wings are getting. Defensive impact is certainly a concern but he still has good offensive vision. If the Wings can find an appropriate role for him in their lineup and his health holds up, he might provide a boost to a team that looks intent on making a push toward the postseason. Yes, there are a lot of ‘ifs’ in that statement.
Trades, We Have Trades!
Canucks Upgrade Defense
Looking to reward their players for a great start to the season, the Vancouver Canucks found a couple of deals on the trade market this week. First, they offloaded winger Anthony Beauvillier and his $4.15M cap hit to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a 2024 5th round pick. Then, they used their newfound cap space to acquire Nikita Zadorov from the Calgary Flames for that same 2024 5th round pick and a 2026 3rd round pick.
With very little cap space and with a logjam of middle six wingers on the roster, it made sense to look there for a moveable asset if the Canucks were interested in making upgrades this season. Originally acquired in the Bo Horvat trade last season, Beauvillier fit that bill and the cap saving paved the way for the Canucks next move.
Nikita Zadorov has been a great fit in Calgary over the past few seasons. He generally played in a fairly limited role with the Flames, either on the 2nd or 3rd pair, and put up strong 5v5 numbers in the process. Set to be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, Zadorov was one of the plethora of potentially available players on the Flames roster.
It will be interesting to see how Zadorov fits in with the Canucks. The Canucks blue line is not as deep as the Flames and it looks like a reasonable possibility that Zadorov may be asked to step into a somewhat larger role. His impact was excellent during his tenure in Calgary and it will be interesting to see if he can maintain that if his role increases with his new team.
After the dust settled, the Canucks overall team strength is largely unchanged in the model. They traded some depth up front for depth on the blue line and are back near the cap ceiling.
Blackhawks add Beauvillier
For the Blackhawks, adding an established NHL forward may have become a necessity after a couple of other pieces of recent news. First, the team announced that Taylor Hall would be out for the season with a knee injury. Shortly after, news broke that they would be cutting ties with Corey Perry after an off-ice incident.
Suddenly short two veteran wingers, the rebuilding Blackhawks went looking for reinforcements. They found Anthony Beauvillier and were able to add him for a 5th round pick. Beauvillier is also a pending UFA, so the possibility remains that the Blackhawks could flip him as a deadline rental and recoup (or upgrade?) their 5th round draft pick.
Flames Move a Pending UFA
When he took over as Flames GM, Craig Conroy stated that he had no interest in repeating the Johnny Gaudreau situation with the team’s 2024 UFA class. He’s made good on that promise so far, taking 3 such players off the Flames 2024 UFA list. Tyler Toffoli was traded to the Devils, then Mikael Backlund signed to an extension. Now Zadorov has been jettisoned.
Rumors were abound early in the season that the Flames had interest in locking up a number of their pending UFAs, but after a rough stretch that saw them fall well back in the standings, news surfaced that they were putting all extension talks on hold. Zadorov, one of the players previously rumored to be considered for an extension, then made a very public trade request. A few weeks later, the Flames are down another pending UFA and have a couple of draft picks to show for it.
Not only did the Flames add some draft capital, they were able to make the trade without retaining any salary. That opens up additional flexibility as the season goes on, potentially creating the environment to complete more of a ‘hockey trade’ with another of their pending UFAs or even act as a third party broker for salary retention. Not acquiring a roster player in return also opened up an NHL roster spot and it appears as if Ilya Solovyov will get a good look in the NHL after he was recalled earlier today.
