NHL Trade Deadline Live: No trades. No Kessel.
NHL teams have one last chance to buy and sell players ahead of the playoff push with Friday's trade deadline. Follow this blog for updates.
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The NHL’s trade deadline is Friday but, as has become the norm in recent seasons, teams haven’t waited to pull off their blockbuster deals.
Between now and noon PT today (March 8), we’ll include news and notes about the moves that the Canucks and their rivals make — or don’t make.
Make sure to check back here over the next 6 hours!
Friday
Hello!
The Vancouver Canucks ended up doing nothing.
They didn’t sign Phil Kessel. They didn’t make a trade.
But plenty of their rivals did.
In the end Canucks GM Patrik Allvin said he wasn’t prepared to sacrifice his team’s future for the sake of this year’s team. There were a lot of players that interested him, yes, he acknowledged, but in the end the prices didn’t suit his vision.
Nor did Phil Kessel, who he noted has had an illustrious
Vegas bombshell
What a move by the Golden Knights under the wire, adding a star forward in Tomas Hertl.
Podkolzin papered to AHL
Vasily Podkolzin, who has played three strong games for the Canucks this week, is back to the AHL for the time being.
It’s a simple move to make him eligible for the AHL Calder Cup playoffs. He’ll surely be back in the NHL.
If the Canucks are going to make a big move before the deadline, they can also make almost $1.6 million in further cap space by farming out Mark Friedman and a forward, like Nils Åman or Phil Di Giuseppe.
No Guentzel, no Toffoli
Today’s the day. NHL teams won’t be able to make trades after lunchtime today. AHL playoff rosters get set.
Cap rules and roster rules start to unwind.
The Vancouver Canucks remain hopeful to add a top-six winger and perhaps a defenceman. And maybe Phil Kessel.
They just don’t have a lot of cap room to work with.
Jake Guentzel, who the Canucks dreamed of trading for but for whom they were always unlikely to pick up in a trade, is now a Carolina Hurricane.
Carolina flipped a boat-load of mid-tier prospects for the pending unrestricted free agent.
Even though Carolina didn’t give away any of their top prospects, like Alexander Nikishin, Jayden Perron, Scott Morrow, and Jackson Blake, they still gave away a package that put in Canucks terms would have paid a price on the future.
Here’s how Elite Prospects’ J.D. Burke compares it:
And so now the Canucks’ attention turns elsewhere.
Irf Gaffar, who is pretty dialled in, has a priority list that makes sense:
I’m intrigued to hear Barabanov is a name they’re interested in, he’s someone I pondered. He’s had a tough year in San Jose, but he was pretty good for them the previous two seasons.
Oh and his agent is Dan Milstein, who represents Ilya Mikheyev, Nikita Zadorov and Andrei Kuzmenko.
No Toffoli
The Canucks do not seem set to land a big fish. First Jake Guentzel went to Carolina Thursday night, then Friday morning Tyler Toffoli was scooped up by the Winnipeg Jets.
The Jets, of course, face the Canucks on Saturday so it seems there’s a good chance the former Canuck will make his Jets debut against the team he thought he was going to play a few years for but ended up not.
Toffoli went for a third rounder this year and a second rounder this year.
There’s a “WOW” to all this: the Devils retained salary on Toffoli.
Could the Canucks have beaten the Jets’ offer? They’ve flipped a pick that likely has more value than the Canucks could have offered.
No Zucker
Jason Zucker was seen by some as a backup plan for the Canucks.
Rutherford did trade for the veteran winger in Pittsburgh.
But he’s also showing his age. He had a big season last season, but it sure looked like an outlier on his career arc.
Anyway, he’s off to Nashville, who the Canucks might face in the playoffs.
The deal was for a very light price. Arizona is constantly thinking about the bottom line: Zucker’s contract was pure salary, so they’ve cleared cash off the books.
Maybe Kessel?
As has been noted more than once in these pages, Phil Kessel remains a possibility, but obviously if he signs, it won’t be till just before the deadline.
The Canucks are definitely interested in him as a dart throw, but only if they have cap space left to do so.
Dhaliwal’s take here has been my take all along:
No Ruhwedel
Chad Ruhwedel was a guy I thought would fit the Canucks well as a No. 7/8 defenceman.
But he’s not coming west.
No Dumba
Matt Dumba is off to Tampa. He’s a defenceman that would have looked good on the blue line here, but he’s going for full-freight to Tampa. If the Canucks had had any interest in picking him up, they’d have needed the Coyotes to retain salary and they were never doing that.
This isn’t much of a price…but Arizona is obsessed with shedding cash.
Thursday
Forget about Jake Guentzel
Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel was the top trade chip available heading into Friday’s deadline.
There was some chatter going into Wednesday that perhaps he’d be traded to Vancouver, but that always felt like a longshot.
By Thursday morning, everyone was convinced, including team sources speaking to Postmedia on background, that Guentzel wasn’t going to be a Canuck.
By Thursday afternoon, it appeared Guentzel was headed to Carolina.
Carolina was among a few teams making a metaphorical lineup outside Kyle Dubas’ metaphorical door, looking to pick up the proven playoff performer.
If you parsed carefully what Jim Rutherford told Postmedia on Wednesday, that his preference has always been to make your big move early, that was a pretty big hint of what the Canucks would, or wouldn’t do ahead of Friday’s deadline.
There was some talk about a three-way deal where the Canucks would have sent Elias Lindholm to Boston and presumably picks or prospects to Pittsburgh, the Bruins would have sent Jake DeBrusk and presumably picks or prospects to Pittsburgh as well and the Canucks would have ended up with Guentzel, but that always sounded like a real long shot.
After it became clear Guentzel wouldn’t be headed to Vancouver, chatter pivoted towards Tyler Toffoli.
We’ll see.
Team sources have told Postmedia more than once that they really do want to add a top-six winger here. It’s a hard task, no doubt, so it won’t be a huge surprise if nothing comes, but they clearly have an intent they want to deliver on.
Kessel coming?
Phil Kessel has been skating in Abbotsford for a few weeks now. The deadline for him to sign with the Canucks was always tomorrow; he had to be on the team’s reserve list before the trade deadline.
Insider Chris Johnston — no relation to your author — says that the veteran winger is now likely to sign with the Canucks.
Kessel, I’ve always understood, would be the backup plan to the backup plan, a signing that would only happen if they struck out on anything bigger.
Things could yet change, of course. Like the Canucks picking up Tyler Toffoli or another winger currently playing NHL hockey.
Podkolzin back up
As Jim Rutherford essentially told me Wednesday, Vasily Podkolzin is back up in the NHL, as the Canucks announced he’d been recalled from the AHL a day after being demoted to Abbotsford.
He’s back a little quicker than I expected, since it’s fair to assume he’ll be reassigned back to Abbotsford ahead of the deadline to make him also eligible for the AHL Calder Cup playoffs.
Rutherford said the coaches are feeling very good about Podkolzin and Arshdeep Bains as potential depth in the playoffs. One would assume Linus Karlsson falls into that mix as well, given how comfortable Rick Tocchet was putting the lanky Swede in the lineup earlier this eason.
Old friend pt. 1
“We ran out of time,” Jim Benning said about trying to re-sign Toffoli following the interrupted 2019-20 season. With the pandemic keeping the stands empty, Benning’s budget was heavily restricted by ownership and so the GM had to operate in a money-in, money-out scenario.
As colleague Ben Kuzma detailed three years ago, surely Benning could have found a way to move out Jake Virtanen, rather than re-sign the bust, and also trade defenceman Jordie Benn away. That would have created enough space in the budget to ink Toffoli to a deal similar to the four-year one he signed with Montreal, a contract he’s oddly enough in the final year of.
Toffoli now appears to be a trade chip for the New Jersey Devils and would surely make a great fit in the Vancouver lineup.
But his $4.25 million cap hit is too big for what cap space the Canucks have left and so they’d need New Jersey — or another team — to retain about 40 per cent of his salary to make it fit. Are there other teams with less restrictions?
And, like the Guentzel sweepstakes, do the Canucks really have enough to offer in a trade for a player who has a few suitors interested in his services?
In any case: Toffoli isn’t playing for the Devils tonight. He’s going to be traded, there’s no doubt now. But where to?
Old friend pt.2
There were a few fans who were quietly hoping that the Canucks would bring in Troy Stecher as defensive depth. The Richmond blueliner has become a regular mover at the deadline and this year is proving no different: he’s off to Edmonton from Arizona.
More old friends, the epilogue
A big day in south Florida for ex-Canucks.
The headline move is Gustav Forsling, who the Panthers picked up off waivers three years ago, signed a long-term deal with the Cats.
And then there’s Jonah Gadjovich, who has built himself into a hard-nosed fourth liner.
Old friend, the cameo
Anthony Beauvillier is now on to his third team this season alone.
The Predators sit fourth in the Central Division and look likely to grab one of the Western Conference wild card spots for the playoffs.
There’s an outside chance the Preds could pair up with the Canucks in the playoffs, assuming Vancouver wins the Pacific Division.
Beauvillier facing his old team would be a small, somewhat fun, story.
A miss?
There was some chatter around the Canucks being interested in the Wild’s Brandon Duhaime, but the Avalanche have scooped him up.
That probably means the chances of Phil Kessel are now closer to reality.
Avs just keep loading up
A day after adding Casey Mittelstadt and Sean Walker in a trade, the Avs keep moving. They added Duhaime and now also Yakov Trenin, a very handy, gritty centre from the Predators.
He’s the kind of guy I wondered if the Canucks might look at as an upgrade on Nils Åman, but the recent decision to move Lindholm back to his preferred centre spot, pivoting the third line, pushed Teddy Blueger back to the fourth line and somewhat resolved this question.
Wednesday
Canucks cooking?
Will the Canucks make another big move at the deadline or will they stand pat?
As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, they hadn’t made a trade, though they’ve been linked to talks with several teams, including the Pittsburgh Penguins about bringing Jake Guentzel west and the Boston Bruins about shipping out Elias Lindholm east.
Lindholm, of course, was added by the Canucks in a January trade, but he’s struggled to make an impact so far. It’s far from a certainty he gets moved, but the Bruins did try to add Lindholm before so it’s not a big surprise the Canucks have apparently buzzed the Bs about possibly trading him again.
But if they were to do so, it’s guaranteed to be aligned with another trade with another team to bring in a top-six quality winger, like Guentzel.
The challenge with adding Guentzel is there are a lot of potential suitors — who wouldn’t want a winger with his pedigree — but he’s also got a substantial cap hit and the Canucks, unless they made a concurrent move to clear space, would have to get the Penguins to retain a large portion of his salary.
Of course, if you do look at how president Jim Rutherford has operated in the past, you can’t help but think he’s advised GM Patrik Allvin, who is doing the leg work on the roster, to get his big deals done early, rather than late.
Rutherford told Postmedia about his approach to the trade deadline earlier on Wednesday.
In other words, for all this noise, there’s a good chance the Canucks have already made their big move and there are no more to come.
Hunting for more
There’s also little doubt that given president Jim Rutherford’s past tendencies, the Canucks would surely like to add one more defenceman.
And you know Rick Tocchet is likely pushing for another bruising forward to add to the mix; the fourth line has been underwhelming of late.
Edmonton misses on Tarasenko but lands Henrique
The Oilers are red-hot. It’s no real surprise, even with their bad start to the season. Plenty saw Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and said “this team is a cup contender.”
They’ve been in the hunt for Jake Guentzel — along with the Canucks, the Colorado Avalanche and apparently the Carolina Hurricanes — but the Oilers have also been looking at the alternatives.
It’s clear they were in the mix for Vladimir Tarasenko, but the now-former Senator ultimately chose the Florida Panthers, who play near his off-season home and where his wife and young children are currently living.
But the Tarasenko rejection didn’t deter Oilers GM Kenny Holland: he went added centre Adam Henrique from the Anaheim Ducks, adding the leading two-way centre known to be available on the market.
In a bit of a surprise, Ducks GM Pat Verbeek extracted the Oilers’ first-round pick in this draft; don’t forget that this pick will be in the high 20s at best. Players at that point in the first round will definitely be solid NHLers, but are very unlikely to be a star.
Colorado loads up its D corps
When you think “defensive depth” you think about the Colorado Avalanche.
Turns out GM Chris McFarland didn’t see enough: he’s added the very handy Sean Walker in a trade from the Philadelphia Flyers.
McFarland then apparently flipped former Vancouver Giant Bowen Byram to the Buffalo Sabres.
Vegas making moves
If there’s one team that’s mastered the trade deadline it’s been the Vegas Golden Knights. From year one, now-president George McPhee and general manager Kelly McCrimmon have been aces at preserving cap space.
VGK came into Tuesday with more than $7 million in cap space to work with. Then they traded for winger Anthony Mantha.
Wednesday, they also added to their blueline, finally solving the Noah Hanifin question. They added the defenceman from Calgary; as of this writing the trade details hadn’t been finalized yet.
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