NHL Rumor Mill – October 11, 2023
Conor Garland receives permission from the Canucks to talk trade with other clubs, the Blue Jackets are shopping a defenseman, and the latest on Elias Lindholm and Shane Pinto in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
CANUCKS GIVE GARLAND PERMISSION TO SEEK A TRADE
SPORTSNET: Elliotte Friedman reports the Vancouver Canucks have given winger Conor Garland permission to speak with other clubs about a potential trade.
Vancouver Canucks winger Conor Garland (NHL Images).
Friedman’s colleague Iain MacIntyre reported Garland, 27, recently changed agents. Neither the winger nor Canucks management denied the report. Garland declined to get into specifics when speaking to reporters yesterday, claiming it was the focus of his new agent.
THE PROVINCE: Patrick Johnston indicates a source informed him that Garland has been open to a trade for at least a year. He also cited Friedman claiming that Judd Moldaver, the winger’s new agent, is “aggressively calling around” to find teams that would be a good fit for his new client.
Johnston also noted that Garland frequently surfaced in trade rumors last season. He added that Canucks GM Patrik Allvin and president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford have explored moving the winger since 2021-22.
TSN: Chris Johnston pointed out that Garland still has three years left on his contract with an average annual value of just under $5 million ($4.95 million). He said the Canucks know they’ll have to retain some salary to get a deal done.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Friedman also noted in his weekly “32 Thoughts” column that a recent injury to defenseman Carson Soucy has the Canucks “peeking at defense options.” Perhaps they can find a suitable blueliner (preferably an experienced right-shot rearguard) using Garland as trade bait.
Given their cap constraints and those of most teams this season, the Canucks would have to retain part of Garland’s annual cap hit to make this work. They could attempt to get a third team involved to broker a deal and spread the cap hit around. Perhaps a “dollar-in, dollar-out” deal is possible.
Garland’s aggressive two-way style of play will draw some interest around the league. Nevertheless, finding a suitable trade partner this early in the season could be difficult, given the salary-cap issues around the league. It might take a few weeks for something to shake out. It could also drag on toward the March 8 trade deadline when some clubs will have accrued enough cap space to make this happen.
BLUE JACKETS INTERESTED IN TRADING A DEFENSEMAN
DAILY FACEOFF: Frank Seravalli reports the Columbus Blue Jackets have spoken to teams in recent days about trading a defenseman off their roster. He said that they’re telling teams they want more flexibility at that position.
Seravalli indicated the Blue Jackets are “open to different possibilities as they weigh value.” He speculated the candidates could be Adam Boqvist, Jake Bean or (to a lesser extent) Andrew Peeke.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Blue Jackets want to move a defenseman. The Canuck have given permission for Conor Garland’s agent to talk trade with other teams. Could there be a fit?
Maybe for right-shot blueliners like Boqvist or Peeke. The Jackets only have just over $3 million in cap space but Boqvist has a $2.6 million cap hit and Peeke’s is $2.75 million. Nevertheless, they could want the Canucks to retain a bit of Garland’s salary in the deal.
It probably won’t happen since the Jackets have a fair bit of depth on their wings while Boqvist or Peeke might not adequately suit the Canucks’ blue-line needs. Still, it doesn’t hurt to speculate a little.
UPDATES ON ELIAS LINDHOLM AND SHANE PINTO
SPORTNET: In his latest “32 Thoughts” column, Elliotte Friedman speculated that the Calgary Flames could use Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele’s new contract as a comparable in their negotiations with Elias Lindholm. Scheifele will earn an average annual value of $8.5 million on a seven-year contract starting next season.
However, it’s believed Lindholm is in the $9 million range. The Flames have also reopened talks with pending UFA defensemen Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Lindholm is nearly two years younger than Scheifele and plays a two-way game. I doubt the Flames can sign him to a similar deal.
Friedman also pointed out that Shane Pinto’s salary-cap hit will increase this season for each day that he’s not signed by the Ottawa Senators. He cited William Nylander’s situation in 2018 where his AAV for 2018-19 was $10.277 million while the AAV for the remaining seasons was $6.96 million.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: I bring this up because “Pengy” recently asked if that was still a thing (well-remembered, Pengy!). The longer Pinto goes unsigned between now and the Dec. 1 deadline for signing restricted free agents, the more his AAV will be for this season.
Chiarot can play RD. Please take him!
Chiarot ($.75 M retained) for Garland
Calgary in need of forward depth, especially on the wing. The have 3 centers – Lindholm, Kadri and Backlund. But there are only Huberdeau and Mangapiane who are top six wingers. They have 3 ufas in Zadorov, Tanev and Hanifin by the seasons end. The latter is the youngest of them and is a true top four defenceman for years to come. So offer Zadorov or Tanev for Garland, provided Canucks pick at least one million of his contract. It all depends who flames want to keep and who want to stay and for what kind of money. I mean Nikita and Chris.
Johnny Z —- Yzerman doesn’t trade good apples like Chiarot. And Chiarot signed with the Wings when the stable was almost empty, doubt he will get sent anywhere (not to mention M-NTC) And the other side of that equation…. where does Garland fit into the Wings lineup… who will get bumped from the top 2 lines? Conor Garland is a really good player, but not sure he is part of the Yzer-plan.
Probably a good trade for both teams.
Chiarot is not a particularly good defender so Yzerman would be happy to get rid of that mistake.
Canucks have too many forwards and not enough NHL caliber defensemen even if he isn’t particularly good.
Wings have a lot of RW’s and not many LW’s but I believe Garland can play either side. He
Lyle, I agree the speculation about VAN-CBJ makes sense. As you aptly point out, unclear if Garland would be a fit with the CBJ depth on W. Still think a C would be the preferred return (Who though? Not likely VAN as a partner there) also think its plausible that a futures package could be quite attractive to CBJ. It will be interesting to see who ultimately gets moved from the RD.
I don’t see it happening. The reason the Jackets are looking to trade a defenseman is to start making room for Jiricek, Blankenburg and, eventually, Mateychuck. But they also have real depth on the wings and, actually, all forward positions. I think it’s more likely that they’re looking for futures and/or goalie depth.
Goalie depth?
Vladar for hometown boy Bean?
I’m not familiar with Bean at all. So I have no idea if this is fair or not. I just noticed this morning looking at Bean on Cap Friendly that he was born in Calgary.
phl – Ristolainen to van for Garland – straight up – would help both sides and make phl use another young defense for their rebuild
Re: Nylander’s increased first year cap hit.
Nylander’s higher cap in year 1 was because Willie signed a multi year contract that included a significant signing bonus of $2 million.
IF Pinto signs a one year deal with no signing bonus, then the cap hit will simply be the contract amount – i.e. no different than signing pre season.
CapFriendly provides a very good explanation that does not require the skills of a math wizard.
Yes but Friedman wasn’t wrong. As per Cap Friendly:
“When a restricted free agent signs a contract after the NHL season has already begun, their cap hit for the first year is greater than the contracts annual average, and similarly the cap hit of the remaining years is less than that of the annual average.”
https://www.capfriendly.com/faq#rfa-caphit
Lyle, I didn’t say Friedman was wrong as I didn’t see what Friedman said. Only read what was in the Rumor Mill article. However, as noted, there is a big difference between single year and multi-year contracts when signed in season, especially if the first season includes a signing bonus.
According to CapFriendly, IF Pinto signs a one year deal with no signing bonus, then Friedman was wrong if he implied that Pinto’s cap hit would automatically be higher because of an in season signing. That is not always the case.
The rules are definitely complex. But as we see with the opening rosters, there is plenty of wiggle room to avoid worst case scenarios.
Pasted the example from Cap Friendly.
Example:
Hampus Lindholm of the Anaheim Ducks signed a $31,500,000 contract on Oct 27, 2016 in the 2016-17 season. There were 164 days remaining in the season on this date. The contract break down was as follows:
2016-17: $3,000,000
2017-18: $6,000,000
2018-19: $6,750,000
2019-20: $5,250,000
2020-21: $3,750,000
2021-22: $6,750,000
Total: $31,500,000
Annual Average: $5,250,000
The cap hit values are calculated as follows:
Cap hit (2017-18 to 2021-2022) = ($3,000,000 × 164 / 180 + $28,500,000) / 6 = $5,205,556
Cap hit (2016-17) = $5,205,556 × 180 / 164 = $5,713,415
The cap hit breakdown is therefore as follows:
2016-17: $5,713,415
2017-18: $5,205,556
2018-19: $5,205,556
2019-20: $5,205,556
2020-21: $5,205,556
2021-22: $5,205,556
Total: $31,741,294
Average: $5,290,216
As you can see, because Lindholm signed his new contract after the season started, the first year of his cap was higher than the rest of the seasons. This contract had zero signing bonuses.
So what Lyle said is correct.
I highly doubt that Pinto will want to sign a one-year contract with zero signing bonuses. The bonus would give him the back pay for the part of the season he has missed.
Garland to Philly for Ellis
Gives Philly youth more AHL time
Gives VAN cap space by then putting Ellis on LTIR
Van can sign veteran UFA to fill gap or use waiver wire to maintain cap space for Peterson’s next contract
Win for both clubs
That is pretty expenive for an LTIR contract when it usually can be had for a 3rd or even a 4th…….
Vancouver doesn’t gain any cap space if they take Ellis. Philly will need to give up something to move it.
A trade with Canucks who need a D/man & Flames..? Who need a Winger like Canucks Connor
Garland at $4.95M
For
A Flames d/man like Nikita Zadorov or Oliver Kyinston
As the flame have to many d/men at 8…..⁉️
Kylington failed his physical at the beginning of training camp and has been put back on LTIR.
Nobody knows what the issue is there. But I think if he misses all of this season his NHL career is pretty much done. It’s a shame though. The last season he played he showed so much promise.
Did not know he failed his physical at flames camp❗️
Still think there is a trade there with these two teams Canucks & Flames
I’m sure in a couple of weeks we will see some trades with money out money in and maybe the bottom six teams with cap space will be eating salary for picks bye November time…❓🤔