2019-2020 NHL season thread

So now we move to offseason talk, which is fine by me, because my team has the #1 pick and just cleared a bit of cap room for its RFAs by getting Detroit to take Marc Staal's contract.

FWIW, I thought that was a good trade for both teams. Detroit isn't winning anything anytime soon and Staal is actually somehow an upgrade to their defense, and they got a second round pick to continue the rebuild. The Rangers got the cap space and they had stockpiled so many picks and have so many already drafted players on the doorstep that they can afford to start using draft picks as chips.

All reports are that they are going to buy out Hank's last year, which will leave some dead cap space but make it so they don't have the circus going on in the crease anymore.

There have been reports over the last 24 hours (started by Bob McKenzie) that the Rangers tried to trade for Jack Eichel, supposedly because he wanted out of Buffalo and with a new GM there, the phones started ringing. Supposedly they went nowhere.

I actually don't want Eichel, at least for what it would take to have him. He eats up way too much of the salary cap and you are not getting him without giving up decent assets. I have never been a huge fan of his. He's a good player, but I don't see him as a difference maker. Not $10 million a year worth of difference, at least. The Rangers have a lot of talent and some of the young guys on the doorstep could be really good. Panarin was that move for them, and it was the right guy to do it with. No more attempted shortcuts, I hope.

 

Staal is what he is at this point. He's slow and the league has gotten a lot faster since he came in, but he is a really smart player and he has size and for the times that forwards blow past him, he drops and blocks a lot of shots and can hold his own in a scrum. He always does the right thing with the puck. He also is supposedly the guy the young players were leaning on for help a lot last season. Just a good guy, good sense of humor and has been a really solid hockey player for a long time. I am sad to see him go.

Larry Brooks wrote something yesterday in the NY Post about the hit Staal's brother laid on him in 2011 that caused the concussion and really screwed Staal up for a long time. It's still hard to think about. In any case, for all the criticism Staal was getting from the fans the last few years for being slow and a bit of a liability sometimes, you could never complain about his effort or his toughness. If he is down with playing for a team that is as defensively challenged as Detroit, I think he's a perfect guy for that situation. He can still be a solid player for a team like that.

 

If Hank gets bought out. ... he's not quite who he used to be, but he can still play if a team wants to go with a stop gap instead.

 

That was Marc. Different incident, a year or two later. Really scary. It was against the Flyers. Slap shot from the point, deflected puck , Staal was in front of the net and it honed in right on his face.

 

They are not getting a pick for Marc Staal. His salary is $5.7 million. He will be a Red Wing this season. The contract has one year left on it and Detroit is not going to be trying to compete this year. If they make a few strides and a guy like Staal can supply a bit of stability, Yzerman will be very happy. Detroit has 20 draft picks now over the next two drafts, including 6 in the first 65 selections this year. You're going to have to be patient, but Yzerman is thinking in terms a few years from now, not immediately.