(Things will of course change once the playoffs are complete.)
This is not a strong UFA market. The idea here is to have the best D in the NHL, hopefully the best forward line, some strong bottom-six players, and for that to allow the team to give it's young players (Knies, Robertson, Holmberg, and McMann) time to develop at this level.
Not sure how he did in the playoffs, though what I saw of Orlov in Boston during the regular season, he was a revelation. He was clearly a huge part of a Cup winner for a reason. That said, he's in his 30s so there's a risk, which is why the offer is only for 5 years. Can certainly see his agent saying "The cap is going way up in a year" and a team with both cap room and aspirations of winning giving him more than $6Mx5.
Obviously if a Kane or Pacioretty would take a 1-year, $2-2.5M deal, you do it in a heartbeat. Especially since leaving the cap space here would be for a trade deadline deal and Toronto won't be accruing cap space during the year because of Muzzin's injury.
I've loved how Nylander has played in the past couple of playoffs. In the first round this year, he did step up during the 4-1 comeback game, however he hasn't played with the same drive/sense of urgency, or as well defensively, otherwise. Stephenson is a top-6 C (which Toronto needs, especially to protect both Tavares and O'Reilly as this point in their careers) and a gamer, the kind of player you win with in the playoffs (he was also a part of the Cup-winning Washington team and has been great in Vegas). That said, he doesn't bring everything that Nylander brings to the table (always the potential for a 40+ goal, 90+ point breakout, and GMs buy lottery tickets), and both are UFAs in a year.
A one-year membership to the Jelly of the Month club.
All National Lampoons' jokes aside, Murray re-established some value this year. Up until the end of the season when he was hurt, he was solid, with comparable stats that were usually ahead of Samsonov. It's an obvious cap alleviation so that takes away some leverage. On the other side, Chicago is in a long-term rebuild with tons of cap space, and not trying to force a late-round, low value draft pick out of Toronto takes away the idea that this is part of a tanking strategy (you're supposed to at least look like you're not tanking).
No way Vegas can take on Nylander's cap especially at the cost of the very efficient Chandler. So the Leafs can't afford Orlov...and maybe even want to, are relatively easy to find (yea not as good as Orlov)
Murray can't be wished away.
He's okay, a solid 4th liner. Lots of speed, like tons. Not much in the way of hands. Some games he's effective, some games he's invisible. Solid defensively. He'd be an upgrade on Florida's 4th line depth. One of those players who, you see the skillset and you think there's more there than what he delivers.
Hawks don't really care how well Matt Murray has played. It's irrelevant how well or poorly he's played. We have (3) goalie prospects under contract in the NHL/AHL. We need to make sure they get ice time. Matt Murray SHOULD ride the bench most of the season regardless of his play. He's not a long term solution for the Hawks. My guess is he'd get ~10-20 games MAX depending on Mrazek's injury situation. Mrazek gets hurt a lot, so ultimately, I could see the Hawks acquiring another veteran goalie, but it'll be slightly worse than the Mrazek trade because at that point in time the Hawks had zero veteran goalies and their prospects weren't ready to shoulder much of the load either. Today is a totally different situation.
exo2769, Hawksguy81 et Garak a aimé ceci.
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