Our second installment of the Trade Deadline Cheat Sheets looks at the Northeast Division. We’ll take a common sense approach in reviewing each team in the division. Are they going to be a buyer or seller? Do they have cap space? What holes do they need to fill? Is management working with a lower budget mandated by ownership? Do they have assets in their pipeline?
All of these things go into any potential trades at the deadline. To make a trade, you have to have the necessary assets, salary cap space and NEED at the position where a player is available. These cheat sheets are not so serve as fuel for the rumor mongers. No, these are just here to give you some idea of the position of every team in the NHL before the trade deadline and going forward.
Each day this week, we’ll take a look at another division in preparation for the NHL Trade Deadline on March 3. Remember, if you hear something—don’t believe it until you hear it from a reputable source! Here are some things to think about when you hear about a breaking NHL trade.
This week, here’s what you can expect:
Monday: Atlantic Division
Wednesday: Southeast Division
Thursday: Pacific Division
Friday: Central Division
Saturday: Northwest Division
Ottawa Senators
- Pretend that this is a Sens jersey…
Oh what a difference a few weeks can make. Look back to mid-December and they were in the middle of the mediocre pack of teams that were hoping to squeeze into the playoffs. After an 11 game winning streak that vaulted them to the top of the Northeast Division and a trade for winger Matt Cullen, the Senators are making concerted effort to win the division.
The biggest problem the Senators could run into at the deadline is that they really don’t have much quality in the prospect pool to offer other teams. If they want to add a big named good, solid defenseman to their team, other teams might be asking for draft picks instead of prospects. They traded Alexandre Picard and a 2nd rounder for Cullen—meaning they’ve already used up a couple of their few assets before the deadline. Last year’s 1st round pick Jared Cowen has regressed this season, but he’s still one of the organization’s best prospects. Aside from him, trading partners would be looking at mid-level prospects at best. Like I said—draft picks baby.
After the Cullen trade, the Sens still can acquire about $6.5 million in annual salary. If they WANT to go out and get someone, the cap shouldn’t be a problem. A healthy Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson, combined with the newly acquired Cullen should have the forwards set. Defensively, they could still use another body. Erik Karlsson has made the transition to the NHL very well—but they still could use another. There has been speculation that defenseman Anton Volchenkov could be traded, but that was dismissed by GM Bryan Murray. If they want to be successful this year, trading their most dependable blueliner might be counter-productive.
Buffalo Sabres
The Sabres are an interesting team because they have decent depth all over their lineup, have a healthy prospect pool and have a fair amount of cap space to play with. Until their struggles leading into the Olympic break (and the Senators hot January), they were running away with the Northeast Division.
In a division that has teams pressed firmly against the cap, the Sabres are sitting pretty on the financial side of things. Their $1.8 cap space roughly translates to about $8.7 million in annual salaries they could pick up for the rest of the season. That is—if their ownership was spending all the way to the cap. Their projected budget at the beginning of the season was projected to be around $50 million and they’re already $5 million past point. While they have a good amount of room under the NHL’s cap, they might not have that much room under ownership’s cap.
It would be a real hard sell to convince the Buffalo fan base that they were selling at the deadline. With the boost in confidence (and press) from Ryan Miller’s Olympic run combined with their hot start this season, perception will be that they just need a piece or two to reach the promised land. While that’s probably not true, the team certainly could benefit from the addition of a scorer (or two).
Looking at their team as a whole, they’re solid. Their top 9 forwards are all good players that can help any team. Their top 4 defensemen are all guys that bona fide top 4 NHLers. Ryan Miller—well, you know about him. But for everything the team has up front, it lacks a certain spark that makes them dangerous. There is no ONE guy that strikes fear into an opponent. Sure, scoring by committee will get the job done over the course of an 82 game season. But I bet GM Darcy Regier would sleep a little better if he had someone that gave opposing GMs nightmares.
The beauty of the Sabres foundation is the depth they have all over the organization. They have good depth players on their current NHL roster that other teams would love to have. Guys like Tyler Ennis, Zack Kassian, Nathan Gerbe and Luke Adam would certainly help bring NHL talent to Buffalo on March 3rd if that was the direction they wanted to go. They should be a fun team to keep an eye on because they have the flexibility to do whatever they want.
Whether they do anything with that flexibility—well, that’s another question.
Boston Bruins
One of the most interesting things to look at in the entire NHL at the trade deadline will be Boston’s use of their two 1st round picks. Phil Kessel brought them Toronto’s 1st rounder this year as well as 2011. GM Peter Chiarelli has already openly stated that he will not be trading Toronto’s 1st round pick—but desperate GMs do interesting things on deadline day. Just the fact that he was poking around Kovalchuk shows that the Bruins could be interested in making a splash.
This guy will effect both the Leafs AND the Bruins at the deadline...
No matter what position the player(s) they acquire play, they damn well better know how to put the puck in the net. Offensive defensemen, 1 dimensional forwards, whatever. Injuries and Kessel’s departure have transformed last seasons potent offense into one that is—well, impotent. That sounds harsh? That’s what happens when a team is worse than the Oilers, Islanders and everyone else in scoring.
By dangling Joe Colborne, Zach Hamill, Jordan Caron or another player from their solid system could be an option towards acquiring immediate help. So could ANY of the four 1st round picks they have over the next two season. And so could defending Vezina Trophy winner and US Olympian Tim Thomas.
“Tuukka Rask is proving he can be their #1 guy, so erratic reigning Vezina winner Tim Thomas can probably be had.” –Daryl Reaugh
Anyone that says that they KNOW what is going to happen on deadline day is either named Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger, Kevin Allen or he’s lying. But there are a few things working against Thomas right now. First and foremost, the man is making $5 million per season until the end of the 2013 season. That’s a LONG time for a 35 year old goaltender; and a lot of money for a team that doesn’t have much flexibility under the cap. Secondly, the goaltender of the future, Tuukka Rask, is playing like he wants to be the goaltender of the now. By trading him, they’d be able to legitimately hand the reins to Rask, free up cap space and would lose very little on the ice. It’s certainly something to keep an eye on.
Montreal Canadiens
Ah, the joys of turnover. Look at this team and compare it to last season’s version of the Montreal Canadiens. There are a ton of guys that didn’t start the 2008-09 season with the Habs—including a General Manager who is getting comfortable in his new office as well.
The center of Montreal’s deadline moves are going to revolve around their new GM Pierre Gauthier and his vision will dictate the short-term direction of the team. It’s hard to believe that a team that is currently in the last playoff spot in such a hornet’s nest media market like Montreal would consider selling at the deadline. On that note, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Canadiens acquire a forward to provide depth and improve on their #25 ranking in goals per game. They have a little bit of room under the cap (could bring in someone that makes $3.1 million this season), but the bigger story will be the possible players leaving Quebec.
If Pierre Gauthier is at the center of the Habs deadline day, then Jaroslav Halak and Carey Price are holding his hand there. Since both of the talented young netminders are restricted free agents at the end of the season, fans have been waiting since July to see what would happen. Conventional wisdom says that Carey Price has been labeled the savior for a few years and it would be hard to deal with the scrutiny that trading him would entail. But on the other hand, Halak as been the BETTER of the two goaltenders this season. Regardless, one of these guys will be moved before the resign a contract. Whether it’s at the deadline or in the offseason though, that’s a different matter.
The cold hard truth is that the Habs are currently holding down the last playoff spot in the East—but 3 teams are only a single victory from catching (or passing) them in the standings. P.K. Subban, Yannick Weber and Mathieu Carle have all seen time on the blueline this season so the future might be a little closer than people imagined. But behind those three, there’s little in the pipeline on defense (Fischer and that’s about it). Acquiring a prospect or two would be a good idea—but with the pressure to make the playoffs (and succeed this season), it’s doubtful they’ll actually be adding anything to their prospect pool. If anything, prospects like the 4 defenseman, Danny Kristo or even Ben Maxwell might be dangled to augment this seasons very average team. But with minimal cap space, it’ll be interesting to see which direction Gauthier takes the team.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Train wreck. Dumpster fire. Clusterfuck . Grease fire. These are NOT words to describe Sidney Crosby’s -3 (minus 3) against Team USA in the Olympics. No, those are all accurate descriptions of the Toronto Maple Leafs and their salary cap situation. It’s one thing when the team is competing for the Stanley Cup. But when the team is at the bottom of their division, near the bottom of their conference and resides in the center of the hockey universe—that’s NOT acceptable. A clusterfuck, if you will.
Is Poni the next guy on Brian Burke's hit list?
Going into the trade deadline, the Leafs are about $1.3 million over the cap. As much as those casual fans in Ontario are going to want their team to go after the best free agents available, it’s going to take some serious salary going the other way to make any kind of blockbuster deal happen. But all you have to do is look back to the Phaneuf/Giguere trades earlier this month to see that it IS possible.
Judging by their position in the standings and their salary cap situation, the Leafs should be attacking Deadline Day with an eye to the future. They were already able to acquire Dion Phaneuf to patrol the blueline for a foreseeable future—but they were also able to add defensive prospect Keith Aulie in the same trade. The Giguere trade helped get rid of Jason Blake’s contract as soon as possible—and by all indications, they’re not done. At this point, you have to think they’d like to have a 1st round draft pick in the next two seasons. That’s where trade could come into play.
Alexei Ponikarovsky, Lee Stempniak, Wayne Primeau, Rickard Wallin, Mike Van Ryn and Garnet Exelby all are unrestricted free agents at the end of the season. There have already been reports that GM Brian Burke has been shopping Ponikarovsky in hopes of receiving a 2nd round pick in return. Both Stempniak and Ponikarovksy could prove to be decent rentals for a contender—and with then future in Toronto up in the air, draft picks and prospects might be a decent return guys that are walking out the door anyway.
The biggest storyline out of Toronto on March 3rd will probably revolve around Tomas Kaberle. It’s well documented that the Leafs had sent the defensemen off to Boston for Phil Kessel over the offseason before the trade feel through. His $4.25 million contract and preserved value around the league makes him an asset that Burke could get a good return for (while providing the much needed salary cap relief). He has a limited no-trade clause during the season so Toronto’s GM will see his hands tied in that sense. The latest rumor from the rumor mongers has Kaberle giving blueline help to the Canucks in exchange for blue-chip prospect Cody Hodgson. Who knows what trade will happen (if a trade happens at all), but as the old saying goes: Where there’s this much smoke, there’s usually fire.
Matt Reitz
Matt Reitz is an NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports and the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com. When he's not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he's usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It's a never-ending job.
