The Calgary Flames acquired goaltender Brian Elliott from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for their second-round pick (35th overall) and a conditional third in 2018.
Calgary Flames acquire goalie Brian Elliott from the St. Louis Blues.
Having struck out on Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury and Tampa Bay’ Ben Bishop, the Flames finally land their starting goaltender in Elliott.
How long he’ll be with them could depend upon his performance next season. He’s eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer, which explains why the Flames are kicking in a conditional third.
Still, the Flames gave up little to land Elliott, who carried the Blues to their first Western Conference Final since 2001. Consistency seems to be an issue for the 31-year-old. If the Flames opt to play wait-and-see on a new contract, he’ll need a solid performance throughout next season to extend his tenure in Calgary.
Montreal Canadiens trade center Lars Eller to the Washington Capitals in exchange for the Capitals second-round selections in 2017 and 2018.
The Canadiens also acquired center Andrew Shaw from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Montreal’s 2016 second-rounder (39th overall) and the Minnesota Wild’s second rounder (45th overall).
Once again, salary-cap constraints force the Blackhawks to part with a good young restricted free agent they couldn’t afford to re-sign. They’ll miss Shaw’s aggressive style. The 25-year-old won two championships with the Blackhawks as a pesky two-way center.
Re-signing Shaw won’t be a problem for the Canadiens, who could reportedly ink him to a five-year deal. He makes the Canadiens a tougher team to play against, bringing much-needed grit to their checking lines, as well as invaluable playoff experience.
They made room for Shaw by shipping Eller to the Capitals. He will likely slide into the third-line center spot in Washington, allow Jay Beagle to skate on the fourth line.
Eller’s performance seemed to suffer at times playing for Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien. Perhaps he’ll shine playing for Capitals bench boss Barry Trotz.
The Detroit Red Wings trade center Pavel Datsyuk and the 16th overall pick in the 2016 NHL draft to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for center Joe Vitale, the New York Rangers first-round pick in 2016 (20th overall) and a second-round pick in 2016 (53).
Datsyuk is heading to Russia next season for family reasons. As expected, the Wings shipped out the remaining year ($7.5 million cap hit, $5.5 million in actual salary) to a club with the cap space willing to absorb it.
Earlier this month, there was talk the Wings might have to add a good young player like Teemu Pulkkinen or Tomas Jurco in the deal to move Datsyuk’s contract. Ultimately, it only cost them moving down four spots in the first round and taking on Vitale’s $1.116 million contract for next season.
The Coyotes, meanwhile, moved up four spots to select defenseman Jakob Chychrun, who was once considered a possible top-10 pick but slid down in the draft order.
I think the datsyuk contract will be terminated once he “refuses to report” because he’ll be in Russia which means the coyotes won’t have to pay his salary but will give them a big $7.5M of free cap space so that’s why the price for the deal didn’t include any extra incentives such as a good young asset. Nice exploit.
As a fan of an Eastern Conference team – and one that’ll possibly be competing with DET for the 8th spot next year – I’m very annoyed that PHX basically handed DET an extra 10% of cap space for virtually nothing. Thanks a lot. The ‘Stamkos to Toronto’ camp probably should be annoyed/worried as well.
Gaining Jakob Chychrun was worth the cap space. He would not have been there 4 picks later.
That “free cap space” will get the Coyotes closer to the ceiling as their internal budget is set @ ~ $62 mil for this next season. Just like last season with Prongers cap hit. It did not get the Coyotes to the floor. Also Vitale (concussion) was traded to the wings, so that “free space” is lowered by $1,116,667, but will not cost the Red Wings cap space, as he will be put on the IR
Arizona can terminate Datsyuk’s contract but as he was over 35 when signed, it still counts against the cap regardless. The price paid by Arizona to move up 4 spots was higher than what teams paid to move up a few spots regardless of taking Datsyuk’s contract. Detroit slid back 4 spots but got the a mid 2nd round pick; 53rd for doing so. Vitalle at slightly more than a million for 1 year is inconsequential; he can be sent down & full cap relief provided. Holland raped the kid, Chayka. Detroit got out of a terrible situation for free & got a better return for trading down before Datsyuk even factored into the equation than any other team that traded down.
It’s a over 35 contract his cap hit remains regardless.
What an anticlimactic day at the draft.
Benning Looked like he had be beaten with a stick explaining that the league spoke to him about commenting about Lucic & Subban publicly. I assume the NHL will be fining him & the Canucks for tampering.
Then he looked like he was going to throw up when he got to the podium to make his 1st round selection. Perhaps it was watching Washington & Montreal pay 2 2nd round picks each for a couple of 3rd line forwards. He couldn’t get that return for 2 top 4 Dman.
If I hear 1 more person talk about the genius of Holland I’m going to puke. Dumb freakin luck. Let’s not forget Franzen, Erickson, Kindl, Datsyuk 2 mil incentive to stay 3rd year to begin with, Z until he’s 108 yrs old, likely letting Helm walk, Weiss, Cleary, and 8 others I’m omitting. He is not a good cap era GM and his “former Proteges” are doing excellent jobs outside of the D.my hope is he foes away quickly and Nill or Stevie come back.