Topics in this edition of the PHR Mailbag include some draft-day dealings, Jason Robertson’s future in Dallas, and more. If your question doesn’t appear here, check back in last weekend’s column while we have one more coming next weekend from our latest call for questions.
rayk: Do you know or hear why Chicago traded a fourth-round pick to NJ to move up from #37 to #35 to draft Roobroeck? Did they have intel that Calgary was going to draft Roobreck at #36 rather than the other LW they drafted (Harrington)?
(If NJ wanted Roobroeck, I doubt they make the deal.)
I don’t know this specifically but I think this comes down to Kyle Davidson not wanting to take a chance. While Ryan Roobroeck didn’t have a great year, he was rated as a first-round pick heading into the season.
Chances are that they had him rated in their first round on their board. And if that’s the case, a future fourth-round pick to move up two slots to get the guy you want is a worthwhile price to pay.
It’s possible that they had an inkling that Calgary might want him. While teams are pretty tight-lipped with these things, sometimes, word leaks that a team likes a certain player.
It could be that this was the case here. Meanwhile, New Jersey took someone most publications rated as a later-round pick, so they didn’t mind sliding down and adding an extra asset.
I suspect they were taking Matias Vanhanen (who they got at 37) had they not made the trade.
As a result of their extended rebuild, Chicago has a boatload of prospects. It’s not like they’re a team with a thinned-out system that shouldn’t be trading two picks for one.
They can afford to make these types of moves. Besides, chances are, some of their prospects may ultimately be dealt for picks down the road if there isn’t a spot for them so they’ll be able to recover some of their moved-out selections eventually.
If they’re high on Roobroeck’s ceiling, this was an easy move for them to make.
letsgonats: A similar question. Did UT have intel that the Caps were going to take Ethan Belchetz at #18 so UT traded up to LAK to snag him at #17?
(They traded #19 and #83.)
He seems to be a potential next gen Tom Wilson who was drafted 14 years ago so getting his replacement in the system would seem to be a smart move.
The same answer could apply here in that Utah has a very deep prospect pool and could easily afford to move an extra pick to move up to make sure they get their guy. In this case, Belchetz is the type of player that the Mammoth don’t have a ton of in their system and diversifying their forward group makes sense.
But I should also note that some teams have a type when it comes to prospect profiles and the Capitals are a team that prioritizes size a bit more than others in drafts. Not with every pick, of course, but they will take shots at trying to land power forwards.
It’s possible that Utah had learned that Washington had interest in Belchetz. It’s also possible that they just looked at Washington’s draft history and reasonably inferred that the Capitals were likely targeting him and decided a trade-up was needed to make sure they got their guy.
bottlesup: With Jason Robertson signing a one-year, $12MM deal, do you think Jim Nill will get him on a long-term deal once Tyler’s contract is off the books?
Yes, I expect that will happen. So far, this has played out as I expected it to as the only realistic way that they could afford to keep him without moving anyone else off the roster was to do a one-year pact.
(And even then, there still may very well be some minor roster juggling needed.) Robertson has made it clear that his desire is to stay in Dallas long-term, turning down big money from Seattle in a sign-and-trade proposal. Meanwhile, the Stars have made it clear they want to keep him as well despite their attempt to trade him.
Let’s look at the money. Robertson’s $12MM will be off the books next summer, as will Seguin’s $9.85MM.
Seguin will be 35 when his next deal begins and with how injury-prone he has been, he’s not getting a raise. If anything, it’s possible Dallas tries to get him to go year-to-year with incentives as they’re doing with Jamie Benn.
But even if not, if you broke up that $21.85MM between the two of them, that should be enough. If Robertson moves up into the $14MM to $15MM territory, that will still allow them to pay Seguin a market-rate contract.
Even if Seguin wants more than that, the Upper Limit of the salary cap is projected to jump by another $9.5MM next summer. Add that money to the mix and there has to be enough to make it work.
Both sides surely would have preferred to work out a long-term pact now but that just wasn’t viable. It will be soon enough and it should get done, potentially as early as January when he’s eligible for an extension.
Bart ctg2: Seems Sabres and Flyers could make a deal to benefit both of them. Flyers need a center.
Sabres have three prospects that fill that need. Helenius, Kulich, and Ostlund.
What kind of trade, in your opinion, would there be if Michkov was part of it?
There’s a big difference in the centers you listed. Jiri Kulich and Noah Ostlund are NHL-caliber youngsters but are either of them impact top-line pieces?
I don’t think they will be. They could be middle-six options and Philadelphia already has some of those in the mix.
They’re not going to trade Matvei Michkov to fill the center spot with secondary options.
Konsta Helenius is in a different tier. A little less proven than the other two thus far, he showed signs last season that he could be an impactful middleman down the road.
Philadelphia could certainly use someone with his ceiling down the middle. But so could Buffalo.
Tage Thompson is more of a winger at this point of his career. Josh Norris has too long of an injury history to be trusted as a top center.
That leaves Ryan McLeod, Peyton Krebs, Kulich, and Ostlund down the middle. That’s not good enough for a team with an eye on contending, unless Kulich surprises me and becomes a top liner.
Basically, if given the choice between Helenius or Michkov, I think Buffalo takes Helenius which takes the idea of a trade here off the table.
I don’t think the Flyers are ready to give up on the idea of Michkov being a key part of their core group. If he lives up to his potential, he can be a play-driving winger that doesn’t necessarily a need a true top center with him.
And even if GM Daniel Briere is willing to trade him, Michkov is coming off a down year. Wouldn’t it make more sense to wait until his value rebounds somewhat?
Moving Michkov could happen but it doesn’t feel like the right time and Buffalo doesn’t feel like the right fit.
Duke II: Lightning Round:
Which three have the best long-term scoring future (goals more important than assists)?
Group 1 – Stenberg, Perreault, Ritchie, Brink, and Frondell?
Group 2 – Rossi, Chinakhov, Howard, Martone, and Yurov
Group 1 – In no particular order, give me Otto Stenberg, Gabriel Perreault, and Anton Frondell. Calum Ritchie is more of a pure playmaker and I’m not sure he’s in a great environment to showcase his offensive talents.
I’m leery that Bobby Brink will be much more than what he has been in recent years which is a better third-liner than a second-liner. Perreault looked solid last season, Frondell impressed down the stretch, and Stenberg was a top-two pick for a reason and heading into an offensive environment with San Jose.
Group 2 – I’m not overly bullish that Isaac Howard is going to get a lot of offensive minutes in Edmonton so I can rule him out. The other is a little trickier.
I’m skeptical that Egor Chinakhov is going to maintain his half-season in Pittsburgh but I expect Marco Rossi’s ceiling is going to be more of a playmaker. If you’re bullish on Chinakov, add him to the other two (Porter Martone and Danila Yurov) but if you’re more leery, Rossi would be the third option.
Jolly Roger: When the two-line pass offside was eliminated, the game only benefited from that. Do you think that the same could happen if the blue lines were removed from the ice?
The offside rule is supposed to prevent breakaways. However, if a forward is waiting for a breakaway pass close to the opposite net and there is a D guarding him there, that would free up space in the attacking zone, resulting in more scoring.
And the attacking zone would become bigger (unlimited if fact), freeing up yet more space.
There would also be fewer stoppages, improving the flow of the game.
And at least one linesman would become unnecessary.
I think there’s a big difference between removing the two-line pass and eliminating offside. The former allowed for some stretch plays to open up and eliminated some unnecessary stoppages.
That was a nice tweak.
But getting rid of the bluelines is a complete overhaul. It means teams could freely place an attacker in the offensive zone at all times, hoping for the home-run pass.
Generally speaking, these ‘cherry-pickers’ are not thought too highly of when it happens now; imagine teams basing a strategy around that. I don’t think it would be pretty.
Reducing whistles isn’t a bad thing, although television executives who like some form of reliable stoppage patterns for commercials would disagree with me. And their opinion matters an awful lot, given how much TV deals fund the league.
I imagine the NHL Officials Association would put up a stink about it being implemented as well for obvious reasons.
I say try it in an All-Star Game. Most players are only skating at half-speed anyway and defense is largely non-existent anyway.
If you want to make it a one-off spectacle, that’s probably something enough people could get behind.
Jolly Roger: Has playing a game on the North Pole even been discussed as a publicity stunt?
The NHL doesn’t tend to announce where they’re considering putting outdoor games or ones they have considered but have chosen not to go to. With that in mind, I can’t say with certainty that it has never been discussed but it would shock me if it was.
For starters, there isn’t an existing stadium that could hold a game. That means on top of building the ice surface as they do for outdoor games and Stadium Series contests, they’d have to haul out and set up bleachers as well.
Or play with no fans, something that wouldn’t appeal to the league with events like these designed to make some money. Yes, there was the Lake Placid game during COVID but that was a one-off with a lot less travel.
There’s also one other element to consider and that’s the temperature. Some of the outdoor games in Canada have gotten a bit iffy in terms of it being perhaps a bit too cold to try to play in, though they’ve soldiered through it.
Go that much further north and it’ll only be colder. I can’t see teams volunteering to put their players through it, nor do I think the NHLPA would approve even if some did.
It’d be a fun one-off stunt for sure but I’d be stunned if it was even being considered let alone ever happening.
Photo courtesy of Nick Wosika-Imagn Images. </em