Written by Marvin A. Azrak
AUTHORS NOTE: Excited to announce BH, I’ve agreed to a deal with Fansided.com and will become a key contributor to the “Blue Line station,” which is the New York Rangers portion of their site containing all major sports teams. I want to thank Thejewishvoice for letting me keep my multi-sport job( Which is everything except for hockey now come September) and approving me pursuing this next venture. I want to extend gratitude to “Dailyhockeyfaceoff.com” because even though our talks fell through, they kept my spirits up and directed me towards inquiring about a Fansided vacancy, and BH, the NYR(My favorite NHL team), was one of the options. Thank you to my fans, friends, family, and parents for the outpouring of support you’ve given me on this journey, and I hope this is just the beginning. Now let’s get “Fansided,” shall we?
The NHL offseason following the Colorado Avalanche dethroning the Tampa Bay Lightning in game six of the Stanley Cup final has featured a plethora of league-changing moves, with superstars either getting traded or signing elsewhere, boosting potential playoff stock for next season. The following is the finale of a three-part series at TJV encapsulating the summer.
We’ll examine these teams’ notable moves and explain how they improved or weakened their respective rosters as they prepare for the upcoming season, which begins on October 7th between the Predators and Sharks in the Czech Republic, with the North American portion starting on October 11th between the Los Angeles Kings and Vegas Golden Knights, as well as the Rangers, hosting the Lightning. The rest of the league will begin to play on October 12th, featuring the Avalanche raising their Stanley cup banner and getting the rings.
WINNER: CALGARY FLAMES
In my last edition, the Flames were offseason “losers” in part because although they acquired Jonathan Huberdeau, signing him to an 8-year $84 million extension, and defenseman McKenzie Weager in exchange for Mathew Tkachuk, they had yet to fill the hole created by Johnny Gaudreau’s egress to Columbus, yet that changed last week when reigning Stanley-cup champion and
the league’s most improved player Nazeem Kadri spurned suitors, including his
Avalanche, and upped with Calgary on a 7-year $49 million deal. The 31-year-old had 28 goals, 59 assists for 87 points(32 in 2021) in 71 regular season games in 2022 and 15 points in 16 playoff games, including a game-four overtime winner in the Stanley Cup final. According to clutchpointsports.com, “Kadri became the ninth player in league history to score an overtime goal in his Stanley Cup Final debut. However, he’s the first player to score that overtime goal in a game that wasn’t Game 1”. Calgary will now sport a revamped offense with a vigorous defense in front of Vezina-candidate Jacob Markstrom. Brad Treeliving saved his job by making the best of two situations.
LOSER: NEW YORK ISLANDERS:
You would think following a disappointing campaign after two straight final four appearances; GM Lou Lamoriello would incorporate significant changes to his roster, promulgating an enriching free-agency crop. Yet when you peek at their transaction page, only the draft night acquisition of young defenseman Alexander Romanov from Montreal to pair him with Oliver Wahlstrom serves as the lone cogent hockey move as of this writing. New York will sport diverse looks in 2023, as a protege of ex-coach Barry Trotz Lane Lambert will man the bench, and their retro reverse jersey reconciles their “Fishsticks” logo, previously outdated in 1998 after a four-year stint.
WINNER: OTTOWA SENATORS
Sens GM Louis Dorion is ready to coil with the big boys again after a brawny offseason transcended the franchise’s trajectory.
Dorion’s renouncement occurred on July 7, as he dealt three draft picks (including NO 7 overall in the 2022 draft) to the Chicago Blackhawks for a winger and 2022 40-goal-scorer Alex DeBrincat in a much-needed move for the league’s seventh-ranked offense from last season. Four days later, he improved his goaltending by convincing the two teams to take on the contract of an injury-prone and contract-bloated goaltender in Matt Murray. Ultimately, Murray would waive his no trade-clause and accept his next destination as the Toronto Maple Leafs over the dreadful Buffalo Sabres. Succeeding the net in Ottawa will be Cam Talbot, who was acquired from the Wild after requesting a trade due to his role of being backup in his tandem with Marc-Andre Fleury.
Louis signed ambidextrous Claude Giroux to a three-year, $19.5 million contract. Having completed his cup of coffee with the Panthers, the anterior captain of the Philadelphia Flyers will provide leadership and two-way leadership to their young forward lines. Tim Stützle, DeBrincat, and Giroux have created a formidable foe in the Atlantic, and they’re just getting started.
LOSER: VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS
The Vegas Golden Knights quickly went from the NHL’s heroes to most players’ villains. They captivated all sports fans when they accumulated success equaling a Stanley Cup finals berth in their inaugural 2018 season. Vegas remained competitive in the subsequent seasons before taking a prodigious declension in 2021, missing the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
Over the last few seasons, they’ve acquired exorbitant stars such as Max Pacioretty ($7 million AAV), Mark Stone ($9.5 million AAV), Alex Pietrangelo ($8.8 million), and Jack Eichel ($10 million. AAV). But they’ve also made a myriad of head-scratchers, such as the dismissal of Gerard Gallant notwithstanding his 118-75-20 record as a Knight and the shipping of diffuse free agency grabs Paul Stastny and Nate Schmidt. However, their obtuse 2021 offseason accord represented a first in hockey history, as Vegas traded reigning Vezina trophy winner Marc-Andre-Fleury to the Blackhawks for essentially nothing ( No disrespect to prospect Mikael Hakkaraeinin, who was obtained in the deal. ) in what they called a. “cap dump” move of his $7 million AAV deal.
Their mystifying altruism forced their hand, and down the cap-crunch shoot, they went.
The antecedent semaphore was calling winger Evgeni Dadonov and his $5 million. AAV to the Montreal Canadiens. The chopping block saw Pacioretty’s rights commerced to the Carolina Hurricanes for future considerations. The 33-year-old injury-prone winger will miss the first few months of the season due to injury.
Both moves were necessary to ensure the Golden Knights were under the salary cap for the coming season. Nevertheless, they traded away two productive veteran wingers for nothing in return, and those dimwitted moves could severely diminish their pursuit of qualifying for the playoff party in 2023. The team also refitted their coaching staff; amnestying Peter Debor and his 83-45-10 record for Bruins coach Dan Sweeny and declining veteran Phil Kessel to a one-year $1.5 pact, with him eight games away from setting the “Ironman” record for most NHL games played in a row.
WINNER: NEW YORK RANGERS
The fortuitous run to the Eastern Conference finals as a youthful bunch this past season augments the Blueshirt’s future as their transition metastasis progresses. Entering Free agency, the desideratum was a center, and New York lured in Vincent Trocheck on a 7-year deal; the deal is worth $38.2 million for one of the top centers on the market, and he knows the Metro division well, having played for the Carolina Hurricanes the last three seasons. Vinny, at a 54.6% faceoff win %, is considered an upgrade over Ryan Strome and Andrew Copp, who left for the Ducks and Red Wings, respectively.
Cap-strapped, the organization will look internally for success from
youngbloods such as forward Vital Kravstov and defenseman Zac Jones to fill the voids left by Frank Vatrano, who chose Anaheim in free agency, and Patrick Nemeth dealt to Arizona after an underwhelming 2022 campaign in New York. Replacing Kevin Rooney bolting for Calgary is Ryan Carpenter, an enforcer from the Flames who the Blueshirts took a one-year league-minimum flier on. Belatedly, reigning Vezina winner Igor Shesterkin now has two serviceable backup goaltenders; veteran journeyman Jaraslov Halak who signed a one-year $1.5 million deal with the Rangers, and Pittsburg playoff hero Louie Dominique for the league minimum, although he will begin the year in the AHL. Spearheaded by a plethora of oozing talent, 2023 will be titillating to recount at the “Blue Line station” on Fansided.com this upcoming season.
