NHL Abuzz With Acitivity
Matt Bodenschatz | National Hockey League
Feb 12, 03:27 PM | Hype this story!
Updates at the bottom
Last night, the Ottawa Senators knocked off the NHL’s top team, the Washington Capitals. The win bumped them into first place in the Northeast Division and third in the Eastern Conference.
Now, general manager Bryan Murray has earned a one-year contract.
Not to worry, Sens fans, Murray chose to celebrate at work rather than at a local establishment.
Fresh off his extended contract, Murray has reached out to impending free agent defenseman Anton Volchenkov, offering the Russian a new contract and declaring him off the trade market leading to the NHL’s March 3 trade deadline.
Murray then shifted focus to bolstering his roster through trades, and already he has something to show for it.
TSN reported this morning that the Senators have traded defenseman Alexandre Picard and a second round draft pick to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for center Matt Cullen.
Not bad for an 18-hour stretch.
Update at 12:24 p.m.
- Zach Boslett just informed me that Murray now has placed Jonathan Cheechoo on waivers. Not a surprising move for a forward who has been nothing but a disappointment since arriving in Ottawa.
- This is not Senator related, but the Detroit Red Wings have placed Brad May on waivers, a move I alluded to last night. Also, the Calgary Flames have placed Jamie Lundmark on waivers.
Update at 12:45 p.m.
- New York Rangers enforcer Donald Brashear has cleared waivers. No word on whether he will be demoted to the AHL or placed on re-entry waivers.
Update at 1:41 p.m.
- The Philadelphia Flyers have signed checking forward Blair Betts to a multi-year contract extension, reports Kevin Allen via Twitter.
Update at 3:27 p.m.
- All trades must have been finalized by 3 p.m. Some may still trickle in, though.
- The San Jose Sharks send enforcer Jody Shelley to the New York Rangers for an undisclosed draft pick. I guess we can assume Brashear is done in Manhattan.
- The Minnesota Wild have sent Kim Johnsson and Nick Leddy to Chicago for Cam Barker.
Update at 3:57 p.m.
- Details on Shelley deal: Rangers trade a conditional 2011 sixth round pick to San Jose. If Shelley re-signs with the Rangers it will become a 2011 fifth round draft pick.
Comments
Zach Boslett
Feb 12, 12:33 PM
Panthers told their season ticket holders to expect major changes today. Both of them weren’t surprised
DaBich
Feb 12, 12:36 PM
LOL! Quit it Zach, you’re killing me :P
DaBich
Feb 12, 12:39 PM
As far as Cheechoo, I know a lot of people think he did well because of Joe Thornton. Maybe he’ll be better with a change of scenery again and a different coach. Look at our own team under Bylsma.
Matt Bodenschatz
Feb 12, 12:43 PM
@Dabich, not sure if you’re suggesting the Pens claim Cheechoo, but I want nothing to do with him and his $3 million salary for this and next year.
He had his best year in 2005-06 (93 points), but has been in a free fall ever since — and he spent some decent time with Thornton since then.
2006-07: 79
2007-08: 37
2008-09: 29
2009-10: 14
DaBich
Feb 12, 12:46 PM
Nope, not suggesting that at all. He makes too much $$. Just saying, he might be a good fit for the right team.
DaBich
Feb 12, 01:14 PM
Now that info on Brashear is funny.
Zach Boslett
Feb 12, 01:16 PM
Well Brashear requested a trade… Who would want a no-talent hack making that much money who couldn’t crack a terrible Ranger team… Not to be critical…
Mike Adams
Feb 12, 01:24 PM
@ Zach
Bob Gainey? He took one onorous contract off Staher’s hands already.
Darryl Sutter? He took two more of Sather’s mistakes.
Don Waddell? He can always be counted on for some deadline stupidity.
Ben Schmidt
Feb 12, 01:52 PM
Cheechoo was actually a 30+ goal scorer even before Thornton arrived in San Jose. Cheechoo’s problems is that he had a series of injuries (and surgeries) to his shoulders.
It’s a shame, because he did used to be a good player – he knew the right places to be and when to be there, and was able to cash in as a result. But those shoulder injuries really seemed to have killed his ability to put the puck where he wants it to go anymore.
I would have loved to have the pre-injury Cheechoo on the Pens. But the post-injury one? No thanks.
DaBich
Feb 12, 02:03 PM
Zach, you’re really on a roll today :P
Ben, thanks for the info on Cheechoo. I knew there was more to it.
HitTheMark
Feb 12, 02:46 PM
I find it curious that Shero hasn’t cleared any cap space yet. How many teams are going to take a player off the current Pens’ roster in a trade that would clear enough space to get the type of player the Pens need? Also, I could see Shero holding off until the March 3rd deadline just to save the total amount of cap space he’d need to clear. If he did that, what percentage of a players contract would count against the cap if he waited until the deadline?
Matt Bodenschatz
Feb 12, 02:53 PM
@Hit, at this point, the only player capable of being cleared is Skoula, who has been worthless since prior to Christmas. I can’t figure out what the reason is for not waiving him when Lovejoy is, at the very worst, his equal — and that’s an understatement of Lovejoy’s skills.
Ultimately, though, I think Shero feels he has enough cap space to add a player or two on reasonable contracts by March 3. And you hit the nail on the head, unless Shero does an even salary swap with another team, there’s a very slim chance Shero will make any moves prior to March 3. He’ll wait it out until the last minute to make the most of his cap situation.
Lastly, CapGeek reports the Penguins have $1,948,741 of full season acquisition space as of today. That is counting Letestu as being on the roster the rest of the season, which won’t happen. I don’t have the time to do the calculations of what that number will be on March 3 — plus I’d probably screw it up. I’m a writer, not a mathematician :)
DaBich
Feb 12, 02:56 PM
Matt, don’t be so modest …
Moq
Feb 12, 03:24 PM
The daily cap hit of Skoula is $2,979 and $2,591, if they’re waived and demoted respectively on sunday that’ll be approx. $95,000 saved until the deadline. That translates to a pro-rated $450,000.
At least, I think that is somewhat accurate.
Moq
Feb 12, 03:38 PM
The total acquisition space would then be:
($595,729+$95,000)*193/40 = $3.3 mio.
Ben Schmidt
Feb 12, 03:50 PM
I’m going to take the worst-case scenario, cap-wise, which is that Letestu will be sent down after the game against Nashville, and then called up for the March 2nd game, and stays on the roster for March 3rd. I’ll also assume Skoula is not waived (because if they were going to waive him for cap space, I would have thought that they would have done so already). Here’s what I get if the only thing done prior to the deadline is to send Letestu down to the AHL for the Olympics:
Letestu: Daily Cap Hit: $2591
Feb 14th days remaining: 57
March 2nd days remaining: 42
57 – 42 = 15 days off for Olympics
15 * $2591 = $38,865
Cap space at March 3rd: $595,729
Add in cap space saved by sending down Lestestu for the Olympics: $634,594
Equivalent in full-season cap hit ($634,594/40*193): $3,061,916
REBEL
Feb 12, 03:50 PM
MOQ, are you also taking into account that Godard will probably not play again until the playoffs when his salary won’t count against the cap?
Ben Schmidt
Feb 12, 04:26 PM
@Rebel – I can’t speak for Moq, but for my part, I’m not.
Everything the Pens have said is that they expect him to be out 4-6 weeks. They haven’t put him on LTIR, and there has been no mention of surgery, so at this point, I expect him to return before the playoffs. Which means they need to keep the cap space free. If they expect him back before the playoffs anyway, then putting him on LTIR doesn’t give them any cap benefits, because LTIR only allows them to exceed the cap by Godard’s cap hit during the time he’s on LTIR. Which means that LTIR doesn’t grant any pro-rated space.
Moq
Feb 12, 04:42 PM
No, Rebel, I didn’t take Godard into account. How long have Godard been on IR until now?
Add that to 59 days (rest of season) and multiply it with $3,886. That would give you the replacement money available if Godard misses the rest of the season. Probably around $275,000 added to the salary cap ceiling of $56.8M.
Ben, even if Godard returns before the playoffs a LTIR can be filed. If he fulfills the requirement of missing 10 games and 24 days, there will be the possibility of compensation (given that we intend to exceed the salary cap, of course). Even a minimum compensation, eg. for missing 24 days, will give significant pro-rated acquisition room.
Pens1967
Feb 15, 06:26 AM
You know, I think the best acquisition Shero could make would be a Russian-speaking assistant coach.
DaBich
Feb 15, 07:22 AM
lol
Pens1967
Feb 15, 07:32 AM
No, seriously, Dabs, I do believe Bylsma and Malkin have a significant language barrier. Bylsma denies it, but, to me, he just seems uncomfortable or defensive when he’s asked to discuss Malkin, esp when Geno’s not
playing up to par.
Matt Bodenschatz
Feb 15, 08:50 AM
@Pens, I think you may be analyzing a bit too much. Shero may be a bit uncomfortable because Geno is one of his team’s stars an he doesn’t want to throw him under the bus for poor play. Gonchar and Fedotenko both speak Russian and, I’m sure, make up for anything lost in translation between Malkin and Bylsma. Additionally, all parties around Malkin have stressed his improved English, and it shows in his interviews (both in quality and frequency). If there is a communication barrier there, where was it last year, when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup?
Pens1967
Feb 15, 10:13 AM
Matt, I think both parties understand each other on the basic word level. Where I think the problem is that neither guy can sit down with the other and really talk because Malkin’s english vocabulary is so limited. I think we all agree that Malkin’s more of an emotional player than, say, Sid. No doubt Feds and Sarge,(we know Sarge took Geno aside and had a long talk with him about his recent play), are invaluable because they can talk to Geno in his native language, but they aren’t coaches and the adage “lost in translation” exsists for a reason. Hiring a Russian speaking asst coach would eliminate those problems.
A happy side effect could be to move Mike Yeo off the bench (and the PP)to a less stressful job. :)
Albert
Feb 20, 12:59 PM
#1 Target: get Hejda.
Solid for Columbus, he’s been esp. stout for Czech Rep. in the Olympics. He’s signed thru the end of next year at a reasonable $2M/year. Just the type of player the Pens need most.
On Skoula…I think the reason he wasn’t released is at least partly to maintain a semblance of a stronger bargaining position. He’s gone by March 4.
#2 — Whatever they need to do to keep Staal and Malkin on the same line.
...for example but not limited to, adding a 3rd line pivot that can win draws AND provide a bit of O alongside Cooke and Kennedy (ie, not Adams or Rupp or a banged up and undersized Talbot).
IF the Top 2 lines are:
Kunitz – Crosby – Guerin
Fedotenko – Staal/Malkin
...the Pens will NOT need to add a goal-scoring winger of which there appear to be few available and the ones that are available appear to be exceedingly expensive—esp. relative to their talent/ability and contract status.
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