Lightning captain Steven Stamkos responds to trade rumors, Kings center Anze Kopitar talks about his contract status, and speculation over Keith Yandle’s future with the Rangers.
Stamkos unworried over contract negotiations.
Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos claims to be unconcerned by speculation over his contract talks.
THE TAMPA TRIBUNE: Erik Erlendsson reports Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos isn’t concerned over the fact he’s yet to sign a contract extension. He told Erlendsson not to expect any details from his side or that of Lightning management on the matter, claiming he’s focused on preparing for the upcoming season.
ESPN.COM: Scott Burnside reports Stamkos is aware of the buzz his contract status is creating, but says it’s “total speculation because you never know when things can change.”
SPECTOR’S NOTE: As I’ve noted before, the longer Stamkos is unsigned, the greater the conjecture about his future. It’s understandable, as he’ll be the biggest prize in next summer’s UFA market. I’m sure we’ll soon start seeing rumors linking Stamkos with different NHL teams (hello there, Toronto Maple Leafs) if he’s still unsigned when the season begins. “Stammergedon” could dominate the 2015-16 rumor mill.
Kopitar hoping to re-sign before Kings training camp.
ESPN.COM’s Pierre LeBrun reports via Twitter that Los Angeles Kings center Anze Kopitar would ideally prefer to re-sign a new contract before training camp opens next week. However, Kopitar also understands it’s a business.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kopitar will certainly get his share of speculation if he’s still unsigned before the season begins. It’s believed he prefers not to negotiate during the 2015-16 campaign. Expect rumors over his future to ramp up if he hasn’t inked an extension by then.
Could Yandle be dealt by the trade deadline?
NORTHJERSEY.COM: Andrew Gross speculates New York Rangers GM Jeff Gorton “may be compelled to trade puck-mover Keith Yandle by the deadline since it’s unlikely the Rangers can fit the upcoming unrestricted free agent within their cap structure.”
SPECTOR’S NOTE: While that’s possible, it also depends upon where the Rangers are in the standings by Feb. 29, their roster needs and Yandle’s performance. They could retain Yandle in hopes he’ll provide invaluable depth to their defense for another shot at reaching the Stanley Cup Final.
Wouldn’t mind a bit if Yandle got moved now, forget about @the trade deadline. Horrific in his own zone.
Horrific is a bit of a stretch. He’s 1 of the top 5 offensive Dman in the NHL. To be so, he sacrifices defensive positioning constantly yet his plus minus isn’t brutal. Yes his plus minus his last 2 years in Arizona were brutal as was the teams goal differential. I accept plus minus isn’t an ideal stat but it reflects goals against both at even strength & if scored on well on the power play. Yandle finished plus 6 in 21 games in NYR. That’s on par with most of the other Dman in NYR if extrapolated over 82 games. In the playoffs he was plus 8, his partner Boyle minus 3! Stall was minus 8! Yandle got favorable offensive zone starts & so he should, he’s the best offensive Dman they have but to have a swing of 16 goals over Staal in 19 games is significant. That’s almost a goal a game!
The Rangers need to keep Yandle if they are going to make a strong push but calling him one of the top 5 offensive dmen in the league is a major stretch. Just quickly off the top of my head Karlsson, Giordano, Shattenkirk, Doughty, Keith, OEL, Weber, Josi, and Subban that I would rate ahead of Yandle. He would be lucky to Crack the top 15. But yeah, his cap hit greatly raises his value.
. . . For a 3rd pairing offensive damn he is easily #1 rated in the league.
That’s because your only looking at last season. Here are Yandles rankings for points by a Dman over the last 5 years.
Yandle was 9th last season 3 points out of the top 5. 2 years, 5th, 3 years, 3rd, 4 years tied for 4th, 5 years 2nd.
I don’t know about you but I’m fairly certain that says top 5!
Top 5 guys in the league make the Olympic team and don’t play on the 3rd pairing. Going back 5 years does nothing to prove who is the best RIGHT NOW or Chara would be in this conversation and I think we can all agree that he isn’t.
3rd pairing for about 20 games of his career. I don’t think that necessarily counts for much. Outside of Nashville, NY, Chicago, and St. Louis, Yandle isn’t a 3rd pairing guy on most NHL teams. I don’t think Olympics have much to do with anything. Giroux, Bobby Ryan, Seabrook, Byfuglien, Hall, Seth Jones are just a small list of guys snubbed by their Olympic squads in the past.
Last 5 years,
Yandle, 378 games played , 237 points
OEL, 340 games played, 154 points.
Doughty 361 games 211 points,
Giordano 315 games, 180 points,
PK 364 games, 225 points,
Shattenkirk 338 games 198 points,
Weber 362 games, 218 points……
Karlsson I won’t even try to argue his numbers.
Josi (4 years) 253 games , 129 points.
I’d probably prefer most of these guys over Yandle, But speaking JUST offense / numbers, Clearly Yandle is in the top 3-5 over that span of time.
yandle as top 5 OFF. defenseman in the league… That gave me a laugh
I agree with Striker here. And even if EVERYTHING striker points out was off the table…..at least I don’t have to watch J.Moore make bone headed turnovers at the exact wrong time anymore. I’m not exactly ready to watch McIlrath be skated around every time he’s on the ice either. You would be hard pressed to find another d-man, with his numbers (or even close), at that cap hit.
Absolutely NYR4Life, with his low cap hit and the fact the Rags are in win now mode, Yandle should be going nowhere.
I’ve always thought Yandle was one of the better D-men in the league. Give him the season to see if he can gel and find a roll on this team. I am sure by trade deadline the talks of trading Yandle will be forgotten.
I agree Jeff. If & when the cap crunch hits NYR might look at moving 1 of the other Dman possibly. The issue will be money of course. The CBA has a tagging rule about future salary’s & it’s going to be interesting to see how Gorton deals with Yandle’s situation. NYR has several Dman that have similar skills on the defensive side of the puck but none bring what Yandle has to the table. Boyle did in his prime & his cap is coming off the books.
I see Yandle being resigned & someone else potentially being moved if Gorton has cap issue’s. All I know for certain currently is NYR has 6 F, 4 D & 1 G signed for the 2016-17 season not counting prospects at 53.5 mil leaving 17.9 in cap space at a cap of 71.4. Hayes, Kreider, Etem & Miller are RFA’s & Moore & Yandle are the only significant UFA’s. Kreider is due a significant raise the others may have to take bridge deals, Miller again.
Who knows how it’s going to play out. I don’t like to hypotheses either.
I would LOVE to see Yzerman work his magic and somehow convince Stamkos to take a bit of a discount to maybe $8.5-$9 million per so there’s a little more money to be spent on depth there in Tampa, but I certainly couldn’t begrudge Stamkos for wanting to be paid top dollar. The kid has earned it
Why would Stamkos take $8.5-$9 million he’s already making $7.5 million now so one of the elite centerman in the league should accept a small raise yeah that is so not happening. Yezerman would be a genius if he could get Stamkos to accept so little.
Yzerman should pull Stamkos in the office and then hand him a team roster. Yzerman should tell Stamkos, “If I give you $10M, tell me which guys on this roster I’m going to get rid of. I can’t pay you $10M and keep everybody. Which of your teammates am I going to get rid of?”
The problem with that is Stamkos may say “If you don’t give me 10, this guy won’t be on your team”, and point at his name.
Ha-ha! That was awesome. I love that kind of stuff but back to reality for JDBiGC. That conversation wouldn’t happen that’s why players have agents. Stamkos could potentially be present but Stamkos’s agent would say Steve, That’s why your Vice President & General Manger of the Tampa Bay Lighting. You do your job & I’ll do mine.
@jeff noel, that’s exactly right!
Again, I realize it’s a stretch, but it was something Yzerman did back in his playing days….he left a few dollars on the table so the Red Wings could have slightly better depth, so maybe he could convince Stammer to do the same. Again, I wouldn’t be mad at, nor do I blame Stamkos and his agent for wanting as much as they can get, but they have to know that his new contract will come with a greater cost than just the investment made
The single worst thing the Kings could do is open the season with an un-signed Kopitar on the roster. The Kings will almost certainly be in contention for a playoff spot. The last thing the Kings need is to get to the deadline and be forced to either trade him and risk missing the playoffs and pissing of the fans verses keeping him and losing him for nothing.
Koptiar is not worth $10M per season. $8M to $8.5M per season is a reasonable about.
I have to disagree, Kopitar is worth more than $8-8.5 per. He is one of the top three best two-way forwards in the game, leads the Kings in scoring every year, is a monster in the playoffs and is impossible to match up against. But the kicker is LA has NOTHING in the system that can even come close to replacing him.
Personally i’d be happy with Kopitar getting $9-9.5 per but have a feeling he’ll get $10
Sorry but Koptiar is NOT worth $10 mill per. Ovechkin is at $9.5 per and 53 goals to Kopitar’s 16. Johnny Hockey had the same amount of points. I guess if you can score between 60-70 pts per season your worth $10 million, with exceptions of course.
Since there’s no cap circumvention anymore & since the new lucrative TV deal in nov 2013, the top salaries in NHL have risen.
When Ovechkin signed his multi-year deal in 2008-09, his $9.5 mil AAV was 16.8% of the cap. That would be equal to $12 mil AAV today.
Kopitar won’t get anything lesser than $9M-10.5M. That would be dreaming.
Thunder, Kopitar does more than just put up points. He’s also pretty good in his end as well. And if he was playing in the east coast, a lot more people would be talking about him. He’s pretty much like Toews
I realize I’m in the minority on this, but if I had to choose between the two, I would take Kopitar personally. Not a knock against Toews, because he’s a phenomenal hockey player as well. Just my preference.
Jaysin, your not far off with that thought. Kopitar is much bigger and harder to knock off the puck than Toews is. Getzlaf recently praised Kopitar as being the hardest guy in the NHL to knock off the puck, especially down low.The guy is a big dude that uses his size as good as anybody.
Even though I am a Kings fan i can’t quite say he is better than Toews but I think he is right there with him.
Also people bashing kopitar need to remember that Gretzky not too long ago called Kopitar the 3rd best player in the league behind only Crosby and Toews.
Thunder seriously man, comparing Kopitar to Gaudreau??? WOW!
There is more to hockey than points, that’s why LA never has anyone in the top scoring race but won 2 cups in 3 years. Defense wins championships, and Kopitar is one of the few elite two way players in the league.
As for the Ovechkin comparison, that is completely moot. Like Denne said his contract was signed years ago. Yes his offensive numbers are much better than Kopitars but his defensive play is no where near Kopitars.
Kopitars best comparison is Toews, and if you’ve ever actually watched a kings game you’d know Kopitar is not far off Toews at all, and we all know Toews just signed for.
I knew my comment would set the alarms off, I guess I wasn’t comparing talent, just point totals. I’ve seen plenty of Kings games and I really like Kopitar as well as Toews, Ovi etc. I’m a Wild season ticket holder and we have our own overpaid underachievers. Once again, 60-70 points must be enough in todays game to earn the big pay. JMO.
I find it interesting that there is so much talk around players in the last year of their contracts. Yet a team like LA traded for a guy (Lucic) in the last year of his contract and doesn’t sound like there is any talk of a resign. Does LA think Lucic will bring that back to cup contenders? Funny thing about the west is you could miss the playoff all together or be the last team in and make a run for the cup. I think LA falls into that statement.
LA believes they are cup contenders. They should to. They have a solid team with depth in the forwards, depth on D and great goaltending with a tender who is always better in the playoffs than the season.
Yes they just have to get to the playoffs but when they say once you in anything can happen. For L.A. that little saying is more accurate than for others.
Agreed Jeff, LA is in win mode now, and with that core they have the opportunity to win more cups. Why not try and exploit the talent they have now?
With LA it is most definitely make the playoffs and see what happens, I can guarantee the other 29 teams hope they miss the playoffs.
Agreed. It’s the same for NYR & Yandle. NYR is right there, a trip to the cup 2 years ago, conference final last season & a serious cup contender coming out of the east this year & if that means losing Yandle for potentially nothing they’ll roll the dice for the chance at the cup now.
Teams do it with players & picks constantly. Do you think Nashville would like their 1st rounder back after losing to the eventual cup champions in round 1 last season in 6 games. Probably but Poile saw an opportunity & seized it. It rarely works as it’s a 2 month grind to the wholly grail but those windows of opportunity are generally brief so most go for it.
Lombardi likely wants to see what Lucic will do in LA before offering any sort of contract extension. If you look at the trade from the view of the Kings, then you’ll see it wasn’t a bad trade to make at all. Kings got a proven player to play on the top line for only $3.25 mill cap hit, while giving up NOTHING off their roster.
One nice thing of Lucic not being signed long term is if he doesn’t fit with the Kings, he’s not re-signed.
I personally wasn’t wild about the Lucic trade. When you factor in what they gave up to get him, and the return Boston got for Martin Jones, they almost would have been better to just trade Jones (although he ended up going to Boston).
But that said, Lucic definitely makes the Kings more competitive. I suspect he will not re-sign with the Kings, but I suspect Lombardi knew that when he traded for him. Or, maybe Lucic re-signing is contingent on Kopitar re-signing first. Who knows.
I can’t see why NYR and Vigneault should keep Yandle around if they’re not going to use him properly. Yandle shouldn’t play some 3rd D and be off the PP like he was at many times during last year. Yandle provides no real value there. It’s better then to trade him and get value that way if coaching isn’t liking what they have in him.
Personally I think NYR should have tried like hell to get rid of Boyle a lot earlier in their last season. If he was around, AT LEAST not used him as frequently in the playoffs as they did. Boyle logged a lot of minutes that could have been given to better defensemen. Boyle was a liability even on the PP, yet Yandle was on the bench, apparently not trusted. Don’t keep an awesome offensive defenseman like that on the bench. Better trade Yandle then.
Boyle received more ice time in the playoffs due to injuries to Staal, McDonagh, Yandle, and Girardi. And Klein had just returned for round 2 from a broken arm. So I think what you are saying is misuse, was more of necessity.
Look at how the Rangers have used Yandle – makes you wonder why they ever paid such a steep price to qcquire him in the first place.
I’ve been fearing this for a while now. Team cap is low, player demands are getting higher….soon there wont be enough money to go around.
Think that’s already the case. Look at Chicago – they already gave up Saad/Sharp and are still in cap hell. Lotsa other teams are trending in the same direction – St. Louis, Tampa, Rangers etc
The league can simply expand, create 100 million dollars of more fund for the players. If both teams pay 50 million roster salary per season