The bigger story today coming out of the 2018 NHL trade deadline is what did not happen for the Carolina Hurricanes and what happens from here.
I will write that up in some detail when I have time later tonight.
As the clock was striking midnight, the Hurricanes did pull off one trade sending Josh Jooris to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Greg McKegg.
In checking with a couple contacts who track the Penguins closely, the deal is basically this..
–Greg McKegg is an experienced AHL-level center who should help the Charlotte Checkers in their playoff chase. With 91 games of NHL experience, he also represents experienced NHL-level depth somewhat similar to Phil Di Giuseppe. But at 25 years old, he qualifies much more so as a good AHL player than an NHL prospect at this stage of his career.
–More significantly, what Francis did with this deal was swap a one-way contract (Jooris) for a two-way contract (McKegg). If McKegg spends the rest of the 2017-18 season at the AHL level (as I expect) and does so instead of Jooris, the Hurricanes will save about $130,000 if the general idea was to bury Jooris in the AHL anyway to free up a roster spot for an AHL call up. McKegg is also a restricted free agent this summer which gives the Hurricanes some flexibility on retaining him for AHL-level depth if they choose or cutting him loose to free up another contract in staying under the limit of 50.
From the Canes perspective, I think the trade nets out as saving $130,000 and freeing up another spot for an AHL call up. I guess the other shoe to drop (that has been floating in the air for two weeks now) is for an AHL call up to both go to Raleigh and also play more than a handful of shifts.
–From Pittsburgh’s side, they added another experienced and flexible depth forward who can play center or wing with what little they had left in cap space after the Derek Brassard deal in preparation for what hey hope will be another long playoff run.
More later…
Go Canes!
Hahahahah, I was wondering what was going to be Ron Francis’ one trade, and I was not disappointed. He always does something and it always underwhelms. Kudos Ron.
Seriously though, I was listening to Ron in a radio interview after the deadline and he made two very interesting points:
1. He said they discussed hockey deals, but the rental market was ridiculously pricey and with a five-game losing streak, they were just like ‘Screw that’. I don’t disagree, I support the accumulation of assets. We should be looking to emulate the Tampa Bay model, not go all in on a flawed team right now.
2. He also seemed to imply that TD wanted to do some deals and get some talent in here, but that Ron suggested that the offseason was the better window to do the kind of moves the team was looking to do. Which makes total sense, even if he intended to do a core roster shakeup. This forum has indicated numerous times that the offseason will be the likely time for action.
Greg McKegg. Awesome name.
I’m frustrated they didn’t get anything done, but it’s hard to argue with Francis’ logic. The fact that no one else got Pacioretty, Hoffman or Karrlson would seem to back RF up.
My ideal pickup is for us to get John Tavares, which I never really expected to happen until the summer. If Dundon is really eager to do a deal, that’s the to go for.
But did the interviewer happen to ask him what he thought about the fact that the team seems to have lost all confidence in their coach?
fogger has it right as far as I’m concerned.
When the alternative is for me to either follow my uneducated emotional rantings and reasoning or listen to Ron Francis, I’m siding with RF. What teams were paying for what I considered marginally talented players was far out of line. None of the players that moved would have helped the Canes. I’m settling in to support our team, RF, AND MOST OF ALL HEATHER AND JORDAN STAAL.
Agreed that none of the big names moving implies the prices were untenable. However, beyond that I think there is too much magical thinking. Put another way, Canes fans like 1970s poison–DDT.
Last year Duchene was all the rage. Then quite a few fans wanted to offer-sheet (basically trade away all the number 1s for four years) Draisaitl. Now the idea is to over-pay for Tavares. At last look none of Duchene’s, Draisaitl’s, or Tavares’s teams were in better shape than Carolina. In the case of the Ds, each is now on a team with an elite talent. Tavares is playing on a team that made a big offseason acquisition (Eberle), is getting career years from two forwards (Bailey and Lee), and has a rookie likely to win the Calder. Still Tavares isn’t winning enough to guarantee the playoffs. So how exactly is he going to transform a team–who many here think only has one talented forward (Aho) and a bunch of others who are either “streaky” (Skinner and Teravainen), soft (Rask) or were drafted too high (Lindholm and Hanifin)–into winners when he hasn’t done that with what appears to be a team with significantly more scoring talent.
I think Tavares is a great player. But in 3 years his $12M price tag will be a little high. By the 6th year of the contract, it will be an albatross on an otherwise excellent young team. I base this on the trajectory of many similar elite centers (Vinnie Lecavalier, Jason Spezza, Eric Staal) who saw significant drops in their production once they hit 30. Even Joe Thornton went from being a 95-100 point producer down to 75-80 point producer at age 31.
Fogger is on the right track–though the payoff might not be as immediate. Tampa is a good model. As is the team I think may well win the Western Conference in the playoffs–Winnipeg. Although Wheeler and Byfuglien were acquired from other teams, both were with the franchise while it was still in Atlanta. Otherwise, Wilson, Scheifele, Ehlers, Laine, Connor were all draft picks. Only now that they look likely to challenge VGK and Nashville are they renting Stastny. Remember this was a team with only one playoff appearance in the past decade.
Last year at this time it was nearly unanimous that a new goalie would make Carolina a playoff team. It was also nearly unanimous in June that the goalie was Darling–though credit to Matt for expressing some skepticism on that front. My point is that none of us know what will get Carolina (or any team, seriously I don’t think most of us can explain VGK) to the next level for certain. Maybe an off-season acquisition of JVR or Nylander (Toronto is going to have let someone go due to the cap) will happen. Adding a scoring forward should make a huge difference (but I KNEW Darling and Williams would do the trick).
Even my optimism is weakening for this season. But moving forward, I am as convinced as ever that among Necas, Bean, Foegele, Zykov, Kuokkanen, Wallmark, Saarela, Mattheos, Roy, Booth and Helvig the organization has the needed core that will join Aho, Pesce, Slavin, Hanifin, Lindholm, Staal, and Teravainen to become serial Cup contenders.
Good write up as usual ct.
Hear hear!
The deadline came in like I felt it would. I did not feel it was worth paying up. As much as I would like to see change now, I still believe the best time to make the necessary changes is in the off season. I did not feel RF would make a big splash at this time.
We have a lot of good pieces that are getting more experienced. Not all will make it, but the future still looks promising. It is really this offseason where I think we will see the big moves.
Yup, good comments CT.
Tick tock goes the Skinner clock?