Meanwhile, around the NHL
A few major trades went down over the last week or so.
First off, the long rumored move of Jakob Markstrom to New Jersey was completed. This was apparently supposed to have materialized at the deadline, but it collapsed at the last minute. It's been completed now. I will never in my life understand why teams like this guy so much - he's never been actually good outside of maybe two seasons. He's proven himself to be an average, underperforming goaltender. Either way, he's New Jersey's problem now. In exchange the Flames got a fairly decent guy who just became an NHL regular last season with the Devils in Kevin Bahl. The Flames have been forced to completely retool their roster on the fly, as veterans get tired of playing for a team that's obviously going nowhere at this point and with an ownership group that seems oblivious to reality and won't let them go full fledged rebuild. By the way the Flames are now almost $6 million dollars below the cap floor, so they're going to have to make moves of some kind, otherwise they risk repercussions from the league. But hey, good luck convincing anyone to sign with your dumpster fire of a franchise....
Then there was a big problem child trade that went on - Pierre-Luc Dubios went to Washington in exchange for Darcy Kuemper straight up. The feeling here is Dubois will ride shotgun with Alexander Ovechkin and help him try and break Gretzky's all time goal scoring record before he runs out of gas. Guess the caps miss Nicholas Backstrom more than they thought....meanwhile Kuemper is an oft-injured goaltender. The guy's been in the league for 13 seasons but has only played 50+ games in three of them and has only played in 30+ games in five of them. Not a great track record for goalie durability. On paper this is trade that should work out well for both teams.....but there's huge risk on both sides. If Dubois's fresh start doesn't pan out, the Caps will have an $8.5 million boat anchor on their roster for another seven seasons, not a promising prospect. Not to mention they've only got one more season of Backstrom's LTIR cap space, so they'll have to figure out how to pay for Dubois regardless after this coming season. Meanwhile, Kuemper, when healthy, is a very good goaltender, but so far he's basically been the goaltending version of Marion Gaborik - when healthy, very good, but often not healthy. This is technically a re-acquisition for them, as Kuemper played for the Kings in 2017-18.
Then there was Ottawa trading Joonas Korpisalo to Boston in exchange for Linus Ullmark. The nets are now Jeremy Swayman's to lose in Boston, while Korpisalo, with a reduced role and less pressure, at least in theory should rebound. Goaltending held the Sens back last season from what they could be, and on paper at least Ullmark should provide the Sens with what they need. I certainly wouldn't count out the Sens from a playoff spot next year with Ullmark in net.
The Flames also dumped malcontent Andrew Mangiapane to Washington for Colorado's second round pick next season. This makes a ton of talent that has exited the Flames at all three positions - Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau, Mangiapane, Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, Jakob Markstrom, Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindhom - that's a huge chunk of their core from the last season or two. The Flames will look very different next season, and frankly I don't know who in their right mind will sign with them so they can reach the cap floor. Maybe a native Calgarian warm body can sign with them, a hometown boy is the only person I can really think of that might even consider it. GM Craig Conroy certainly has his work cut out for him, and I wouldn't want his job right now.
The Pittsburgh Penguins then picked up Kevin Hayes from the Blues for "future considerations" - aka nothing. I know Hayes has been underperforming the last two seasons, but....nothing? Seriously? Not a mid-low end draft pick? Hayes has 713 games of NHL experience and thus will be a great veteran presence in Pittsburgh. Nothing? Man did the Blues ever gets fleeced on this one.
The Washington Capitals traded for Logan Thompson from Vegas in exchange for two draft picks. So now we know who's going to replace Kuemper in Washington. I wonder who's going to tandem with Hill in Vegas now......is Robin Lehner healthy enough to play out his contract now? I wonder......
The Utah hockey club made two separate deals with Tampa Bay and New Jersey, to bring Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino into their defense corps for next season and beyond. Definitely two good trades that will make that team better. I wouldn't go so far as to say they'll be in the playoffs next season, they were a pretty bad team last year, but they're definitely better than last season. Funny how players actually want to sign with you when a move to another city isn't looming.....fun fact - the Oilers second round pick in 2025 that they traded away to Arizona in the Zack Kassian trade went to New Jersey as part of the Marino trade. The only roster player of any relevance they really gave up was Conor Geekie. Pretty good deal for them, for sure.
And last but not least, the Oilers made a trade with Philly for the 32nd pick in the first round for their first rounder in either 2025 or 2026 for Florida's first rounder this year at the draft table, so they could draft Sam O'Reilly, a player who already cracked the 20 goal and 50 point marks in his first full season of junior hockey for the London Knights of the OHL. He looks like a keeper, we'll see how his development goes.