Notable NHL Trades – March 2, 2023
Twas the day before the March 3 trade deadline, and all through the league, general managers were still busy making moves.
I’ve already covered the Boston Bruins’ acquisition of Tyler Bertuzzi. The following are the other noteworthy moves that happened today.
Jonathan Quick wasn’t with the Columbus Blue Jackets for long. A day after being acquired from the Los Angeles Kings, the Jackets flipped him to the Vegas Golden Knights for third-string goalie Michael Hutchinson and a seventh-round pick in 2025. The Jackets also retain 50 percent of Quick’s $5.8 million cap hit
The Golden Knights made this move because their current tandem of Logan Thompson and Laurent Brossoit are sidelined by lower-body injuries. Starter Robin Lehner has been sidelined for the season since last summer. Quick, 37, has struggled this season but he does bring experience between the pipes and should help them hold the fort until Thompson and Brossoit return to action.
That wasn’t the only move by the Blues Jackets as they shipped Jakub Voracek and a 2023 sixth-round pick to the Arizona Coyotes for minor-league goalie Jon Gillies.
This was a straightforward salary dump by the Blue Jackets. Voracek’s been sidelined for months by concussion symptoms and his career is likely over. He had a year remaining on his contract with an average annual value of $8.25 million.
The Coyotes now have five players (Voracek, Shea Weber, Andrew Ladd, Bryan Little and Joshua Brown) on injured reserve totaling $28.2 million. None of them are expected to play again. They’ll just keep them on injured reserve in order to reach the cap floor next season.
Arizonas navigation of the time between negotiations with a new arena and the COVID cap has been masterful.
Lyle, where Ladd is concerned, doesn’t his $5.5 mil cap hit come off the books at season’s end when he becomes a UFA?
earlier this week Bettman warned teams against acquiring injured players (to stash them on LTIR for cap space), but isn’t he hypocritical in allowed not only the Gustav Nyqvist trade to MIN but also this Voracek trade? NHLPA needs to step in and force a rule that long-term injuries are non-transferable (if a player is on LTIR and traded, he can’t be placed on LTIR by the new team for the same injury). Arizona is really making a mockery of the NHL and cap system with their college hockey arena and getting to the cap floor due to all of these injured players. PA should make this an escrow issue