Today, the Carolina Hurricanes announced that the team had traded center Marcus Kruger to the Arizona Coyotes for depth wing/center Jordan Martinook.
As part of the deal, the Hurricanes retained 10 percent of Kruger’s salary, and the teams swapped draft picks with the Hurricanes giving up a third-round draft pick and receiving a fourth-round pick in return.
Closing the book on last summer’s strategy to build an experienced fourth line
The trade closes the door on an ill-fated attempt to build a solid, veteran fourth line that could play behind Jordan Staal’s line and solidify things defensively. The strategy failed on multiple fronts. Somewhat as expected, the line primarily comprised of Joakim Nordstrom and additions Josh Jooris and Marcus Kruger scored virtually nothing. But more significantly, the line did not excel in areas that figured to be its strength. The Hurricanes penalty kill took a significant step backward with Kruger in a leading role, and the line was fair, not great as an even strength shutdown unit.
When one nets it out, the line was light on scoring even for a fourth line. The players also led to a step down for the penalty kill. After waiting it out for a long time, the original plan was finally jettisoned when Josh Jooris was traded at the trade deadline and Marcus Kruger was demoted to the AHL.
In his short stint with the Hurricanes, Marcus Kruger scored only a single goal on an odd forechecking deflection that found the net and five assists for a total of six points in 48 games. To his credit, he was a class act despite not working out. He continued to plug away and contributed at the AHL level once demoted.
The math and logic
At the most basic level, this was a change of scenery trade to unload Kruger who did not have a future in a Hurricanes’ uniform.
The Hurricanes paid a draft pick upgrade of just less than a full round to make it happen.
In eating 10 percent of Marcus Kruger’s salary, they also nearly evened up the salary costs for the two players. The Hurricanes will now have to pay $1,850,000 for Martinook and also $230,000 of Kruger’s salary for a total of $2,080,000 in 2018-19 which is small discount of $220,000 over just paying Kruger’s $2,300,000 (salary not cap hit).
More significantly, the Hurricanes eliminate a player who was outside of the fold at this point and add a somewhat similar depth forward who has a greater potential to contribute in 2018-19.
Jordan Martinook
Jordan Martinook is similar to Marcus Kruger in that he is a veteran depth forward who is a fourth-line type player. Martinook brings a bit more of a physical edge to his game and has the potential to fill the penalty kill slot that Kruger could not. Scoring-wise, Martinook projects to a 15-25 point level which is pretty similar to Kruger before his arrival. Also significant is the fact that Martinook can play either wing or center which makes him a bit more flexible as the Hurricanes potentially fill center slots with youth for the 2018-19 season.
As far as the 2018-19 season goes, Martinook joins players like Phil Di Giuseppe (if re-signed), Joakim Nordstrom and a batch of rookies who will compete for the last couple depth slots at the forward position. His one-way contract makes him likely to stick at the NHL level, but he will need to earn a slot in the lineup and also ice time.
My 2 cents
The deal gets a ‘meh’ rating from me.
The Holy Grail would have been somehow unloading Kruger and his $2.3 million with no return but without eating any salary. That was going to be tough to pull off.
The next level would have been an even ‘change of scenery’ swap for a similarly priced, similarly out of place player somewhat similar to today’s deal player-wise.
In this deal, the Hurricanes did not really unload salary, and in eating $230,000 of Kruger’s salary, the Hurricanes saved only $220,000. They also paid to do so in the form of downgrading a draft pick to make the deal happen.
The positive is that it does officially cut ties and move forward from a player who was not part of the plan at the AHL level next season and return a player who at least potentially offers veteran depth and a new option to improve the penalty kill for 2018-19.
ADDITION TO ORIGINAL 2 CENTS LATE THURSDAY AFTER TIME TO DIGEST THE NEWS
Important disclaimer first…If the primary purpose of this deal was to obtain Jordan Martinook because the Hurricanes scouting staff and team management really like him and believe he is a significant improvement to the team, then this deal could make sense simply because of that fact. As a depth player in the Western Conference, I do not have enough knowledge or a strong enough opinion on Martinook to make an assessment on that.
If, however, this deal was primarily about jettisoning Marcus Kruger and his contract, then I am not sure the Hurricanes really gained anything (so a second round of ‘meh’). The Hurricanes could have bought Kruger out for $1,583,000 (salary not cap hit) to be spread over two years which would save about $500,000 compared to the cost of paying Martinook and the ten percent of Kruger’s salary that the Hurricanes kept, not downgraded their third-round pick to a fourth and left another roster slot open for a rookie without the complication of another one-way contract getting in the way. Again, assuming that the team is not enamored with Martinook but rather this was the deal available, the team might better off with the $500,000 cash and an open roster spot.
Go Canes!
If this guy will stand up for teammates this is a great trade. Save some money and only signed for one year. Scored 25 points a year ago. I like it.
I like this deal. Check out the Martinook vs. Nathan MacKinnon fight from March. Martinook is a bigger body that hits and is strong in the corners. He fits the new mantra “harder to play against”.
I agree with those above. I like the deal. Martinook had some good seasons for some not so good Coyotes teams. I’m pretty sure he played some 3rd line in years past. If healthy and with some of the Checkers we think we’ll have next year, should be a solid addition in the bottom 6.
Kruger was totally worthless to us. Zero scoring and the defense he was supposed to bring was a dream. At the end of the day we got somebody who has more grit and potentially more scoring. We were stuck with the Kruger contract so this is a better use of that money. We save 200K but I believe the cap is even more of a savings. Cap is certainly not an issue near term.
With the potential new prospects (AHL) and 2nd round pick we have coming, not sure he will stay on the team.
Usually there is no “winning” of a trade when it involves a guy you waived and demoted to the minors who is expected to make 2+ million. At least not unless it involves offering significantly more. To swap middle round picks and retain basically a minor league salary in return for a serviceable 12th-13th forward is not a bad deal. Even if the trade yielded little cost savings, we added grit while and a player we MIGHT utilize versus carrying deadweight.
Martinook is a proven PK player – a role Krugs was supposed to provide but could not do effectively. What I like most about this is excited Martinook seemed to be when talking about coming to Carolina. It sounded like more than just usual polite talk. You want a player who really wants to be here. He is a player’s player who is active in the community as well. You have to like that in addition to his apparent comfort in the penalty box and frequently mentioned grit.
I would not call him a part of a reboot and if I am looking for reboot trades (and I am) this was singularly disappointing. But he is a better trade chip than Kruger if we decide to wheel and deal while he does a real role with the team if not.
I think it was the ESPN On Ice podcast that talked about how recent hires seemed poised to put Dundon or Tulsky in the official GM position. I hope it’s the latter if they’re right.
If this is the work of the new brain trust there doesn’t seem like much of a change. This is a surprise GMRF kind of move. Seems uninteresting, but could possibly address a couple of issues if it works.
Addition of something not mentioned before…
In my opinion, the fact this current front office made a move to take action to improve on a guy who we all agree was not in our future should be a positive. Maybe it is a signal for us Caniacs that they are looking at the roster the same way we are, and pinpointing the same improvement areas we are see pretty clearly.
Maybe other contracts like Darling and Rask are next?
I think we may have just replaced both Kruger and Nordy with acquiring Martinook to sit in the 12/13 slot. I like Nordstrom but this potentially opens up a slot for another rookie instead of blocking one.
More importantly this sends a message that our front office isn’t in total disarray like many want to paint it as. Is this a blockbuster trade? Absolutely not. But I think it’s a fairly solid trade. I for one am still excited to see what comes next.
I think GMET is an interesting proposition….
…. no one is talking about the mid 3rd round pick we gave up in this. That’s like what… the 75th-ish pick in the draft? That’s a lot of value… that’s around the spot in drafts where the talent seems to drop off relatively sharply… I mean it may not be THAT significant of a drop from there to wherever the 4th rounder we got in return is, but it’s not insignificant either.
Maybe Martinook is intended to replace Bickell. Remember him?
Toward the end of his too short term with us, Bickell was paired with Skinny. It worked very well. Bickell raised chaos in front of the enemy net while Skinny scored.
If anyone has any doubts about the importance of such a combination, see how well Ovechkin is doing without Wilson.