Pavel Datsyuk returning to Russia, profile of Auston Matthews & more in this morning’s collection of NHL headlines.
Pavel Datsyuk announces he’s returning to Russia next season.
THE DETROIT NEWS: Red Wings center Pavel Datsyuk made it official by announcing he will be returning to Russia next season to finish his playing career. He’s making this move to be closer to his teenage daughter.
MLIVE.COM: Red Wings GM Ken Holland said he’s “not overly optimistic” about moving Datsyuk’s contract, which has a year remaining at a cap hit of $7.5 million, though in actual salary it’s worth $5.5 million. If so, they won’t be able to afford any significant additions via free agency this summer.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It’s not impossible for the Wings to move that contract, but it certainly won’t be easy. Teams will want the Wings to include a top prospect or promising young roster player.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: James Mirtle has an in-depth profile of center Auston Matthews, considered the top prospect in the upcoming NHL Draft.
NBC SPORTS: Prospect Jesse Puljujarvi will miss summer development camp as he’s still recovering from minor knee surgery.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Puljujarvi is expected to be selected with the third overall pick, currently held by the Columbus Blue Jackets. While the surgery isn’t expected to have any significant effect upon his playing ability, it’ll be interesting to see if this has any effect upon where he gets selected in this draft.
NHL.COM: The Tucson Roadrunners revealed as the name of the Arizona Coyotes farm team.
Ottawa took Jared Cowen with the 9th pick overall in the 2009 draft he was coming off a serious knee injury in junior. That may have led to subsequent hip problems and, couple with a training camp hold-out, did nothing to help his [professional development. Now he’s a buy-out looking for a contract. The question here for Columbus is, is Puljujarvi NOTABLY better than those projected to go 4 to 6?
George you may be right on Cowen but I think his issue is & was his brain just couldn’t learn to process the data. A great package of skills & size but his mental game is & was brutal. He seemed to fully gain back his physical skills from before the injury. He will get another NHL shot at about a mil to mil 5 on a short 1 or 2 year deal but may never be more than a border line NHL Dman now. Size & skating ability don’t help if you can’t understand your role, responsibilities & coverage assignements.
The luster on Puljujarvi seemed to be waning even before his injury was announced. I’m not sure why but both Tkachuk & Dubois seem to be gaining momentum. I assume he still goes #3 if Columbus retains the pick but if traded Tkachuk would have more appeal to some other teams. Rarely are these picks moved but with a stagnant cap, Expansion looming & a team like Edmonton seriously wanting a D upgrade 1 may move.
As painful as it might be, I think the Wings would be better off just keeping the Datsyuk contract. It sucks, but it’s only one year, and I don’t think they are exactly trending upwards anyway. I don’t think parting with a good prospect or draft pick is worth it. Now if they think they have a legit shot at Stamkos, that changes things.
I offer three trades that the Red Wings could make which would benefit the other club enough that they would not require the Red Wings to give up assets of value. First, Datsyuk to the Hurricanes straight up for Wisniewski. Second, Datsyuk to the Jets straight up for Enstrom. Third, Datsyuk to the Flames straight up for Engelland. All three cost conscious teams would rid themselves of a bad contract and can absorb the Datsyuk cap hit without having to pay the actual salary to Datsyuk. The Red Wings get some cap relief and a viable player for the roster. A fourth option would be Datsyuk and other assets, let’s say Smith and their first and second round picks this year, to the Jets for Enstrom and Trouba.
Cliff.
You can scratch calgary off that list, they can’t afford to take on Datsyuk’s cap hit. They have to get a #1 goalie & resign Gaudreau, Monahan, Colbourne, Jooris, Shore & Ortio. Never mind the goalie the other 6 players are going to cost 17 to 19 million to sign. That’s going to leave less than 5 million with a cap of 73 to sign or trade for a goalie.
Why are Carolina & Winnipeg just going to give away 2 NHL quality Dman just to take on Datysuk’s cap hit? Wisniewski although carrying a cap hit of 5.5 only makes 3 million in salary & will be fit to play by training camp. Winnipeg does have 1 D to many currently with expansion coming but Enstrom holds an NMC so he has to be willing to move. Enstrom played as a 2nd pairing top 4 Dman last season & has essentially been moved into a shut down role; his PP time has dropped significantl the last 2 seasons, he finished 11th last season for all skaters, from 5th in 2014-15 & 2nd in 2013-14 for PP TOI/GP. I don’t see either of these clubs giving up these 2 Dman for dead cap space, why would they?
Striker, I can concede the debate concerning the Flames, as I am not willing to speculate on who gets how much on future contracts. I failed to look at Wisniewski’s salary vs. cap hit, so I’ll admit that my proposal is less enticing for the Hurricanes than I presumed. But I would not call Wisniewski a quality NHL defenseman at this stage in his career and at his cap hit. He is a second pairing guy at best and a third pairing guy on a good team (I’m not saying either Detroit or Carolina have good teams right now). The bottom line is that getting rid of Wisniewski saves the Hurricanes from paying $3 Mil on an extra and unnecessary piece. But we definitely see things differently when it come to the Jets and Enstrom. If the Jets don’t trade one of Enstrom, Myers or Byfuglien, who all have NMCs, before next year’s assumed expansion draft then they will have to trade Trouba or they will almost certainly lose him to Las Vegas for nothing. I would speculate that not paying 50% of his salary in taxes, moving to a team that has a better chance of winning in the next year and maybe two, and moving to a team that has several other players with whom he has played and is familiar would be sufficient motivation for Enstrom to waive his NMC for Detroit. Maybe Detroit would need to add Smith to replace Enstrom’s spot for the Jets and make room for Enstrom on the Wings in terms of cap and roster spot. Assuming Detroit does not bring Quincey back, his hit and Smith’s combined from last year are more than Enstrom’s, so the shedding of Datsyuk’s cap hit would be nearly all gain for the Red Wings. And I think we can agree that the Jets are not going to be any where near the cap ceiling even with Datsyuk’s hit. So a Datsyuk and Smith for Enstrom trade prevents the Jets from being forced to trade or lose Trouba and it refills Enstrom’s spot on the roster with a more affordable (salary wise) option.
maybe I am missing something but why cant Datsyuk retire from the nhl?
He can but as he signed his contract over the age of 35 his cap stays on the books.
Datsyuk & whoever owns his rights will need to mutually agree to his contract being terminated before he is eligible to play in the KHL next season. The NHL & IIHF have an agreement in place that players from these leagues can’t play in each others leagues if under contract else where. With July 1st & the UFA market 12 days away, Holland had better act quickly or all the best UFA’s will be gone before he has any money to spend.
Florida just paid NJ a 2nd round pick to get Savard’s cap hit off their books & free up a roster spot for when they have to submit their 23 man roster the day before the NHL season begins. Savard’s cap hit is $4,021,429 but he’s only being paid 575K. Detroit will have pay a team more than that to get Datsyuk’s 7.5 Mil off the books, zero actual salary. It will cost a 1st round pick or a 2nd & a B grade prospect like Jurco or Pulikinnen, maybe more.
Detroit isn’t only stuck with Datsyuk’s dead cap space but also Fransen’s until he can be placed on LTIR opening day. That’s 2 dead roster spots on Detroit’s 23 man roster & essentially 11.5 in unusable space this summer; no team can exceed the cap by more than 10% in the summer or in subsequent seasons, that’s called tagging in the CBA. With a cap of 73 million, Detroit has approximately 13.5 million to spend to sign 8; 6 before their 23 man roster is due the day before the season starts again as Datsyuk & Fransen count until then unless traded, players with Dekeyser, Marcheko, Pulkinnen & Mrazek all RFA’s & Quincey, Richards, Miller, Helm all UFA’s that’s an insurmountable problem with out moving out significant salary. Datsyuk, Howard & or Fransen.
That math isn’t going to work & Holland has his work cut out for him. Something significant needs to give & it’s going to be costly for Detroit to wiggle out of this situation.
There are a number of scenarios the wings could look at with the leafs. But none of them would happen until Stamkos signs somewhere because Leafs don’t want to help some other team sign him. First the Leafs owe Wings a third round pick for signing Babcock so that starts the talk. Normally it would cost the wings a first or second and a high end prospect but with the third pick adding Jurco, Pul? Should do it but if the wings would take Hunwick or Bozak Mantha or a first next year would be reasonable. The wings have need at centre and defense so this is not unreasonable.