Each team's big off season moves and why they suck Part 4
Welcome to Part 3 of each team's big off-season moves and how they already stink. Today we'll look at the Atlantic Division where there was a lot of goalie movement and GMs reaching for players hoping they'll turn into something they clearly are not.
Florida Panthers � Signed Brandon Montour to 3 years $3.5 Million per seasonThat's a lot of money to spend on a third pairing defenseman. The Panthers are a team in a good spot trying to tweak their team and add pieces that will help them compete for a Stanley Cup, but this seems like a lot of money to spend when you really need to figure out your goaltending. This team is now right to the cap and would have to make a lot of savvy moves to acquire anyone decent at the trade deadline.
Tampa Bay Lightning � Losing their third line and replacing them with old guysThe Tampa Bay Lightning lost Yanni Gourde, Blake Coleman, and Barclay Goodrow and replaced them with Corey Perry (36 years old), Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (36 years old) and Taylor Raddysh (0 NHL GP coming into this season). That is a huge drop off in the Lightning's bottom six and an increase to the average age of the team. This team still has a strong core but come playoff time this team will be exposed due to their lack of depth and speed in the bottom 6.
Toronto Maple Leafs � Signed Petr Mrazek to 3 years $3.8 Million per seasonAfter being bounced from the first round of the playoffs, again, the Toronto Maple Leafs let Frederik Andersen walk and decided to go with Jack Campbell as their starting goalie. This move saved Toronto quite a bit of cap space, but then they squandered it away by signing Petr Mrazek for $3.8 million per season to be a backup. The Toronto Maple Leafsbiggest issue the last decade has been lack of confidence in the playoffs and signing a goalie who 3 out of the last 4 postseasons had a sub 0.900 save percentage probably wasn't the smartest move.
Boston Bruins � Signing Linus Ullmark 4-years $5 million per seasonWith the retirement of Tuukka Rask the Boston Bruins were going to have to enter in a new era of goaltending. The last place a team should go looking for a goaltender is Buffalo, but Boston felt confident and gave Ullmark a 4-year $20 million contract to be their new starter. The Bruins are trying to be competitive for the next couple years before their core ages and signing a goaltender with 0 games in the NHL playoffs and only played 3 AHL playoff games where he had a 5.50 GAA and 0.800 SV% doesn't scream playoff contender to me.
Detroit Red Wings� Trading for Nick LeddyThe New York Islanders needed to decide this summer which defenseman to expose in the expansion draft. It looked like it was going to be 30-year-old, $5.5 million per season, Nick Leddy but for some reason Steve Yzerman gave the Islanders a second-round pick and solved one of the Islanders cap issues. Leddy immediately became the highest paid defenseman and the second-highest paid player on the team, behind only Dylan Larkin. At this stage in his career I would not build my defense core around Nick Leddy.
Buffalo Sabres � Trading Away Jack Eichel to the Vegas Golden KnightsWhen Jack Eichel started looking into different surgery options for his neck, that ultimately ended his time in Buffalo. Buffalo had to get rid of him as their relationship was broken and it was no longer going to work. I am not opposed to the Sabres trading away Jack Eichel, they had to do it, but couldn't they have gotten more for one of the elite centers in the NHL? A first round pick from the Golden Knights is basically a second with how late it will most likely be. Peyton Krebs is a young prospect but so far has not been able to make it full time as an NHL player, and Alex Tuch is a good winger. The Sabres did this to themselves though, waiting too long to figure out what to do with Eichel, ultimately handcuffing themselves and limiting their trade partners. If they would have traded him earlier or last season like he had reportedly asked, the market would have been a lot bigger.
Ottawa Senators � Trading for Nick HoldenThere isn't much to say about Ottawa and Eugene Melnyk other than they never spend any money in the offseason. If Nick Holden is your big acquisition when you say you want to start competing and you have over $10 million in cap space, I don't know what you're doing. Please let the Ottawa Senators be sold already.
Montreal Canadiens � Trading for Christian DvorakI've covered this trade before in depth, but it still boggles my mind. The Montreal Canadiens have been desperate for a number one center for a decade now and they traded a 1st and 2nd round pick to acquire Christian Dvorak from the Arizona Coyotes. Christian Dvorak has never had a 40-point season in his 6-year NHL career. Last year was the closest he got when he had 31 points in the shortened 56 game season, so prorated to an 82-game season that would have been a career high 45 points. That's 3rd line center numbers during a career year, so even if the Canadiens believed he could develop into a productive first line center he would have to almost double his career high in points and Dvorak is already supposed to be in his prime playing years.
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