The Avalanche have been largely out of the big talks so far this summer - and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
After a fun spring playoff run (hey, they even won a game!), they went to the 2018 Draft in Dallas and had themselves a weekend.
In addition to some fun, feel-good prospects in the later rounds, they got what may be one of the better mid-round players in Martin Kaut, the Czech-born forward who wants to be Patrice Bergeron-esque when he hits his prime. (And we got more from him on that at the draft, which you can read all about here.)
Now, the team has added Kaut on an entry-level deal, which only reinforces what he said at the draft; after a stellar draft year, he expects to continue his development playing here in North America with the Colorado Eagles. [Mile High Hockey]
In other Avs news, both Matt Nieto and Patrik Nemeth filed for salary arbitration yesterday. The team can still negotiate with the players leading up to their hearings, but this puts a deadline on things.
The real talk in hockey, though, is of course what’s been happening elsewhere.
While the Avalanche have quietly sat back and relaxed after a good draft and a great 2017-18 campaign, the rest of the league seems to have gone a little bonkers.
First, there was the John Tavares thing. [Lighthouse Hockey]
Now, there’s this whole nonsense with Erik Karlsson.
Per source, teams around the league have been engaged as a third party to help facilitate a potential Erik Karlsson/Tampa Bay trade. Have to make salaries work.
— Travis Yost (@travisyost) July 5, 2018
For those who haven’t been paying much attention to either the Eastern Conference or Twitter, the Ottawa Senators are an absolute disaster right now.
First, they dealt away arguably their second-best forward in a series of deals that gave the San Jose Sharks the best return of the entire transaction (which was apparently because general manager Pierre Dorion claimed he doesn’t do trades within the division?).
That, of course, was the result of the peace bond awarded to captain Erik Karlsson’s wife Melinda, which served as Canada’s version of a non-domestic restraining order against Mike Hoffman’s fianceée Monika Caryk. The peace bond was in response to the allegations that Caryk had been harassing the Karlssons all season, including in the wake of their son’s stillbirth late in the season.
Amazingly, though, that wasn’t the only legal trouble the team was in. Assistant general manager Randy Lee is also embroiled in a legal trail stemming from harassment charges of his own, levied by a 19-year-old hotel shuttle driver who claims Lee made uncomfortable advances towards him during a shuttle ride whilst Lee was in Buffalo working at the 2018 NHL Draft Combine. [The Athletic]
(Now, by the way, the team is also at risk of being sued by the shuttle driver.)
Now, the team is also set to lose Erik Karlsson, who has been by and away their most talented player in the last pocket of years:
First, the team offered Karlsson a deal believed to have been set at $10 million per season. [The Globe and Mail]
Not surprisingly, given that it was even less than the deal that Drew Doughty hilariously negotiated himself with LA earlier in the week, Karlsson turned it down.
Side note, Doughty did a marvellous job of showing the world why having your lawyer look over a contract before you sign it is probably a good idea:
Those 4 years at the end of $11,000,000 salary, bought out, would cost the Kings about $29,000,000 vs $44,000,000. If he got that cash in signing bonuses he's still getting paid.
— Josh Lile (@JoshL1220) July 3, 2018
Good job saving that $2,600,000 though pic.twitter.com/Nf841alh3l
Moving on, tho.
Now, the Senators are believed to be deep in trade talks with the Dallas Stars and the Tampa Bay Lightning (who aren’t in their division at all!), and deals keep getting reported only to stall out:
My NHL sources tell me a Karlsson deal to Tampa is done, pending a call with the league office. @TSN1200
— Shawn Simpson (@TSNSimmer) July 6, 2018
No confirmation on the report out of Ottawa that a deal is done pending a trade call and while sense is this might be getting close, it's sounds like it's not to that point yet
— Lightning Insider (@Erik_Erlendsson) July 6, 2018
Sleeping is very much for the weak, anyway.
Erik Karlsson wasn’t the only Atlantic Division defenseman in the news yesterday. The Montreal Canadiens have announced that they will be without Shea Weber until at least mid-December, as the 32-year old underwent arthroscopic knee surgery this week. As P.K. Subban is finally being embraced as one of the faces of the league, this news is another blow to a Montreal franchise that is looking worse and worse the further we get away from that trade. When Marc Bergevin made the one-for-one deal, we knew it was a bad trade, but now it’s looking absolutely catastrophic. Not only is Subban younger, more talented, and cheaper, he’s the exact kind of personality the NHL needs.
Keep living your best life PK.
Finally, I’ll leave you with the fun news that Anthony Duclair is now a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets:
Now that it's confirmed, here's how Anthony Duclair compares to other forwards league-wide. On a /60 basis, he's above average offensively across the board. Looks to be a great value signing for @BlueJacketsNHL pic.twitter.com/RASczo3H7j
— Owen Kewell (@owenkewell) July 5, 2018