Trade deadline

[Roman Yoshi]

For this hypothetical waiving of RyJo:

The Wild have the cap space, have some suspects down the middle (Freddy G. is their #2C), and love nabbing Preds off the waiver wire. They don't seem to be tanking for Bedard either. Picking up RyJo for nothing but some cap space for a run through the playoffs would be a nice move for the Wild. I'd think they'd be very interested.

After the Boldy extension there is no way they could do this.

Realistically, there are only a few teams with cap space who could pick him up easily and most I don't think would.

The only situation I think would make sense is for someone like Arizona to pick him up, retain half, and trade him to a contender but that takes a lot of financial commitment

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I suppose it's not impossible another team could take a player with term left, like Joey, "for free" at the Trade Deadline when his $8M pro-rates down to about $2M of Cap space... with their own plan to buy him out in the summer. If they are so rich that they don't care about all that extra money and dead Cap space. But anyway, at just $2M-ish remaining, it's not AS impossible for teams to pick him up at the Deadline. But then they still saddle themselves with a $10.6M payout and 4 years of $2.67M Cap penalty when they buy him out. At that hit, I'd probably just rather give up a couple 1sts for Kane, Horvat, O'Reilly or whoever else is on the rental market even if they aren't "free" in terms of trade assets. But it's not my money.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Unless we can somehow move him for positive value or really need the cap space buying him out would provide I'd keep Johansen at least to start next season. He provides a nice contingency if the young centers falter some. He'll be looking at one year left on his contract at the end of next season so he's a lot more movable at the 2024 deadline and if he we do want to buy him out in the 2024 offseason we save a year of his dead cap hit.

 

[Kat Predator]

I suppose it's not impossible another team could take a player with term left, like Joey, "for free" at the Trade Deadline when his $8M pro-rates down to about $2M of Cap space... with their own plan to buy him out in the summer. If they are so rich that they don't care about all that extra money and dead Cap space. But anyway, at just $2M-ish remaining, it's not AS impossible for teams to pick him up at the Deadline. But then they still saddle themselves with a $10.6M payout and 4 years of $2.67M Cap penalty when they buy him out. At that hit, I'd probably just rather give up a couple 1sts for Kane, Horvat, O'Reilly or whoever else is on the rental market even if they aren't "free" in terms of trade assets. But it's not my money.

Exactly. It's not my money.

The point being that just because someone thinks Johansen gets paid too much doesn't mean that no one could possibly disagree and every team has a boatload of centres at better cost/benefit ratios than Johansen. It's the Tolvanen idea all over: "Hey, this might be a big mistake, but I hope that maybe no one will notice we're waiving someone to save a buck or two."

 

[101st_fan]

I can't wait for Elvis to ride Nessie out of a UFO while Bigfoot announces the Johansen waiver move. The first 3/4 of that sentence is more plausible than the end.

 

[Enoch]

I can't wait for Elvis to ride Nessie out of a UFO while Bigfoot announces the Johansen waiver move. The first 3/4 of that sentence is more plausible than the end.

I agree it is very unlikely.

I also think people forget that long term extensions/Free agent contracts are always over priced. There are no deals. If there is, it is on the agents typically for mistiming the market, or the player has greatly outperformed expectations.

The deals are on the rookie contracts or second contracts for young and developing players.

 

[101st_fan]

I agree it is very unlikely.

Players on 18-20 goal paces simply don't get waived unless they have become a huge problem off ice. Entertaining the concept requires suspending 100 years of NHL history. It would be great if he consistently performed at the level fans expect for $8mil per year but that is the risk with any UFA contract.

 

[Enoch]

And also:

We didn't pay him just for regular season goals. We paid him to compete physically and at a high level in the playoffs. He always has.

 

[Scoresberg]

Why not just trade Granlund? He sucks this year, is much more expendable and easier to trade.

 

[triggrman]

Why not just trade Granlund? He sucks this year, is much more expendable and easier to trade.

That would actually be one I wouldn’t mind, as long as the return was fair.

 

[herzausstein]

Pros for trading granlund:
Decent player on a decent contract should get a decent return
Opens a spot in the top 6 for a young winger

Cons for trading granlund:
Likely replaced with more top 6 sissons
Probably doesnt happen because hynes loves playing him


I dont know what to do with the team but it needs to be done quick if they want to have a chance of making playoffs. Im still a fan of moving the coach. The team looks so lost at times and mid game adjustments appear to consist of trying the exact same thing that wasnt working but with different lines.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Why not just trade Granlund? He sucks this year, is much more expendable and easier to trade.

And why not both.

I mean, I don't actually expect Poile to trade Granlund, nor to buy out Joey. It would save us $10.3M on the Cap, though, and it's entirely possible as of today that we could get more value out of spending that $10.3M on a squeezed UFA market than we could spending it on Granlund and Joey.

But.

That's today. You actually have to see what the market REALLY evolves to. What if Bettman pulls another revenue rabbit out of his hat and declares the Cap will actually go up again. What if Pastrnak, Kane, Larkin, Horvat, etc all sign before hitting free agency and you are left mulling over which of Tarasenko, Pacioretty, Killorn, O'Reilly, etc still have enough in the tank to match Granlund/Joey.

I don't believe it is a question that will be answerable by the Trade Deadline. All it can be meanwhile is just "an option to consider". And Poile will just keep mulling options as the sand runs out of the hourglass on Deadline day. Fair enough, I say.

 

[Kat Predator]

Poile can't be happy. He has to be considering many moves involving many of the players on the roster. It should be at least dawning on him that this team, coaches included, is much less than the sum of its parts.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Poile can't be happy. He has to be considering many moves involving many of the players on the roster. It should be at least dawning on him that this team, coaches included, is much less than the sum of its parts.

It's frustrating, because we can't even really talk sensibly about the looming Trade Deadline, and every armchair GM fan desperately wants to do that, it's the most entertaining part of a drawn out regular season, whether your team is at the top or the bottom. But because our team is stuck in purgatory with Hynes, we can't even really participate in that fun on either side. We NEED to see this team with better coaching. And Poile has to see that.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Why not both?

Let Parsnip, Glass, Sissons and Novak center our lines with call ups in Milwaukee filling a need if need be or moving Duchene back to center.

Johansen and Granlund at this point are only stealing ice time from our developing forwards that need it.

 

[nullednumbed]

Why not just trade Granlund? He sucks this year, is much more expendable and easier to trade.

I would go even further and listen on offers for anyone. The way this team is constructed given the term and salaries of its 'top' players, I honestly don't see how anyone if they look at this team objectively sees them competing and wining the Cup. They are the very definition of average. A lot of guys had career seasons last year and they still got destroyed by Colorado. Their prospect pool is very average. Granlund, Fabbro, Ekholm should be moved if the offer is good. But unpopular this is, move Saros. He will give you a fantastic return in picks/prospects. It is time to start look at some rebuilding options.

 

[herzausstein]

Why not both?

Let Parsnip, Glass, Sissons and Novak center our lines with call ups in Milwaukee filling a need if need be or moving Duchene back to center.

Johansen and Granlund at this point are only stealing ice time from our developing forwards that need it

Duchene hasnt ever been given and extended look at center here. joey is the best proven center we have.... which makes me sad when read out loud. He just hasnt had much offensive pop under Hynes. Maybe thats usage maybe he just completely collapsed as a player. Granlund is the only experienced backup center. Either way trading both could lead to years of bottom feeding if our young centers regress. As much fun as it is to think about, i cant see Poile moving both unless hes getting Horvat in the process. Hes not going to put the team in a spot to possibly spend years in rebuild. Granlund would be the easiest to move due to contract but Hynes loves him so i dont see it happen. Joeys contract looks bad and Poile doesnt retain on contracts so i dont see him moving either.

A buyout is possible if the team is better spending that 5 million gained in capspace elsewhere but he will have to justify that to ownwrship. Last buyout was turris which at the rate he declined was a good decision. Joey still plays decent enough though so itd depend on who was in line to replace him and is the team better. Tough decisions ahead for Poile much easier for me to throw stuff at a wall because theres zero repercussions for my bad ideas (other than getting scolded by other posters).

 

[Predsanddead24]

Duchene hasnt ever been given and extended look at center here. joey is the best proven center we have.... which makes me sad when read out loud. He just hasnt had much offensive pop under Hynes. Maybe thats usage maybe he just completely collapsed as a player. Granlund is the only experienced backup center. Either way trading both could lead to years of bottom feeding if our young centers regress. As much fun as it is to think about, i cant see Poile moving both unless hes getting Horvat in the process. Hes not going to put the team in a spot to possibly spend years in rebuild. Granlund would be the easiest to move due to contract but Hynes loves him so i dont see it happen. Joeys contract looks bad and Poile doesnt retain on contracts so i dont see him moving either.

A buyout is possible if the team is better spending that 5 million gained in capspace elsewhere but he will have to justify that to ownwrship. Last buyout was turris which at the rate he declined was a good decision. Joey still plays decent enough though so itd depend on who was in line to replace him and is the team better. Tough decisions ahead for Poile much easier for me to throw stuff at a wall because theres zero repercussions for my bad ideas (other than getting scolded by other posters).

My memory may be wrong but I thought we started Duchene at center pretty extensively when we first signed him and he struggled which is why we ultimately moved him to wing? I remember there being a whole thing that Duchene signed under the idea he would play center too, which was also partially what led to Turris going on the outs since he didn't have a top six center slot anymore. In any case I agree that I'm not sure moving Duchene to center is a realistic strategy at this point.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

My memory may be wrong but I thought we started Duchene at center pretty extensively when we first signed him and he struggled which is why we ultimately moved him to wing? I remember there being a whole thing that Duchene signed under the idea he would play center too, which was also partially what led to Turris going on the outs since he didn't have a top six center slot anymore. In any case I'm not sure moving Duchene to center is a realistic strategy at this point.

This is my memory too. He looked so awful at center we ended up using Granlund out of sheer desperation.

I guess it could be argued he hasn't been tried back at center ever since he got good again last year. But... well, it's kind of a part of the reason WHY he got good again, isn't it? He can't play center.

But in terms of moving guys with salary/term I am looking at Carolina now... sounds like Pacioretty ruptured his achilles again, so that is $7M this year back onto LTIR, and then after this season they are potentially shedding a lot of $$$ to unrestricted free agency (only $53M committed for next season, no significant RFA raises coming). So if anybody wants one of our expensive guys, then that's a contending team who can fit players both now and next year. And they have generally stockpiled a fair number of picks and prospects, so there are lots of futures in the cupboard to look at too.

 

[beardawg]

I'm in the boat of moving all of Granlund, Johansen, and Ekholm by draft day. Would prefer Granny and Ekky at deadline and Joey at the draft

 

[Armourboy]

I would go even further and listen on offers for anyone. The way this team is constructed given the term and salaries of its 'top' players, I honestly don't see how anyone if they look at this team objectively sees them competing and wining the Cup. They are the very definition of average. A lot of guys had career seasons last year and they still got destroyed by Colorado. Their prospect pool is very average. Granlund, Fabbro, Ekholm should be moved if the offer is good. But unpopular this is, move Saros. He will give you a fantastic return in picks/prospects. It is time to start look at some rebuilding options.

Poile isn't trading Saros. Poile will never do a full rebuild and trading Saros pretty much means that. Askarov is not ready and you have nothing else in the pipe.

 

[herzausstein]

Poile isn't trading Saros. Poile will never do a full rebuild and trading Saros pretty much means that. Askarov is not ready and you have nothing else in the pipe.

Lankinen has been extremely solid and was a starter in chicago (i think). Not saying it is a good idea but could extend him and use him as a spot holder. Even then thats still really dicey given it isnt a given Askarov actually becomes a nhl starter

 

[NoNecksCurse]

If they buy out Johansson, I highly doubt he remains in the nhl next season.......

why would we buy him out when he has 2 years left and we don’t appear to be whatever cap space you save from his buy out away from contending?

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Lankinen has been extremely solid and was a starter in chicago (i think). Not saying it is a good idea but could extend him and use him as a spot holder. Even then thats still really dicey given it isnt a given Askarov actually becomes a nhl starter

What NHL contender atm needs an all-star starting goalie?

And anyway, if some team did trade for Saros, it's certain we would be getting a bad goalie back to balance the Cap. Like Campbell from Edmonton. In which case we are fully Rebuilding. I don't see that happening. Poile isn't going to authorize spending $5M for multiple years on a terrible goalie when he already has one of the best ones in the league for the same $$$.

I don't actually see him making any trades. But at least Granlund and Johansen are mid-range contributors to the team, such that I think we do have youngsters on hand already who can replace them adequately. While saving $$$. We don't have that in goal or on D. So to me, trading Saros or Ekholm isn't even worth talking about.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

why would we buy him out when he has 2 years left and we don’t appear to be whatever cap space you save from his buy out away from contending?

I think his value (not $8M worth, mind you) in helping to insulate Glass and Parssinen is irreplaceable, frankly. Lose Johansen and those two are on an island and their play/development will suffer heavily for it. He's a steady and reliable asset, even if not as productive as we ever hoped, and can be counted on to eat minutes and take tougher matchups as needed. With his contract also the soonest to be up, he's one of the last veterans I'd consider moving right now.