It all started rather innocently enough. On the first of two off days between Games 5 and 6 of the Stanley Cup Final word leaked out that the Carolina Hurricanes were in the midst of finalizing an eight-year extension for defenseman Jaccob Slavin with Elliotte Friedman reporting the average annual value at $6.5 million, not a bad bit of work for the newly anointed general manger Eric Tulsky.
Things ratcheted up a notch when the long-awaited trade of Jacob Markstrom finally came to fruition as the netminder went to New Jersey in exchange for Kevin Bahl and a top-10 protected 2025 first-round pick. Not only did the Devils get their new number one goalie for a future pick and a prospect, they got Calgary to eat 31.25% of Markstrom’s remaining contract. If Markstrom provides even slightly-above average goaltending (and Jack Hughes stays healthy) the Devils are likely a playoff team next season and that draft pick drops into the mid-20s.
San Jose then got in on the trade action by acquiring 23-year-old forward Ty Dellandrea for a fourth-round pick in the 2025 draft. A former first-round pick, Dellandrea has seen his trajectory blunted a bit with the emergence of Wyatt Johnston and Logan Stankhoven with Mavrik Borque waiting in the wings. In San Jose, Dellandrea should get a lot more ice time.
Joining him on the ice in San Jose will be Barclay Goodrow. The former Bolt was placed on waivers yesterday by the New York Rangers and the Sharks claimed him. Along with some veteran leadership on the ice, Goodrow’s $3.641 million cap hit will help the Sharks get to the cap floor. They’re currently at $55,270,834 with the cap floor set at $65 million. Granted San Jose does have seven restricted free agents to sign, so that number will creep up over the next ten days.
Later in the day, there were reports that the Rangers were looking to trade Goodrow to San Jose, but the Sharks were on his no-trade list. Since they had the top spot in regards to waiver claims, New York elected to go the waiver route to get around the no-trade clause and settle for being clear of his cap hit.
All those moves would have made for a nice day (especially considering the league office tends to frown on clubs stealing the spotlight from the Stanley Cup Final) but there was one last big move left in the cards. The Los Angeles Kings and Washington Capitals executed a one-for-one deal for a couple of players that might benefit from a change of scenery. Forward Pierre-Luc Dubois is on the move (again) as he heads to the nation’s capital in exchange for goaltender Darcy Kuemper.
Despite picking up PLD and his 8-year, $8.5 million AAV just a year ago, things soured quickly in LaLa Land and there was a sense of urgency for the Kings to move Dubois. His no-trade clause kicked in on July 1st, but there was another deadline looming. The forward is set to turn 26 on June 24th. Once that happened, his buyout would jump from 1/3 of his remaining contract to 2/3. With the buyout window not opening until 48 hours after the final Stanley Cup game, that time frame was getting quite narrow. LA decided not to wait to see if Florida could end things in time for them to possibly use that option and traded for Kuemper, who will likely be their number one netminder.
As the league moves to just under two weeks away from the free agent frenzy, it seems like some general managers were getting a little antsy in regards to getting their rosters set prior to the draft and unrestricted free agency. While we probably won’t see too many more big trades, expect a lot more extensions for free agents who elect to stay with their current organizations, such as Filip Hronek’s eight-year deal with the Vancouver Canucks.
Who knows, maybe the Lightning will bless us with a Steven Stamkos extension over the next couple of days.
