See 5 potential NHL acquisition candidates in 2022

It’s the redo season!

On July 1st, the first buyout window will open and run until July 12th, the day before the unlimited free agent (UFA) market opens. Now is the time for GM to throw away the salary cap space and use the options to accommodate any movements or plans that are in the months ahead of the summer.

Of course, buyouts are not free jailbreak cards.

There is a penalty for going down this route. First, the buyout will be paid for the remaining two years of the player’s contract. Therefore, if you buy a person with two years remaining, you will have a maximum benefit for the first two years and a two-year fee thereafter. The price depends on several factors, including whether the contract has a buyout prevention contract, how the transaction is organized, and the age of the player. For players over the age of 26, the payment rate is two-thirds of the remaining salary. If you are 25 or younger, the cost is only one-third.

So there is a little interaction here. It’s a last resort for GM to try to save cap space that would otherwise not be achieved in trade. For more information on how buyouts work, see the Cap Friendly FAQ page.

In the meantime, here are five interesting potential acquisition candidates to monitor over the next 12 days.

Zack Kassian, Edmonton Oilers

The clock is ticking. Leon Draisaitl had three years left and Connor McDavid had four years. The window to do this right has been narrowed, and there are some achievements to build here after the appearances at the Western Conference Finals have been wiped out.

There are many things the Oilers want to do. For example, solidify the bottom 6, secure a solid top 6 scoring winger, solidify the net mind, and perhaps improve the D group. However, with an expected cap space of $ 7.13 million, GM Ken Holland must choose priorities and adapt based on the trade market or the free agent market.

Thursday Mark Specter reports that the Oilers and Winger Jesse Pull Yuyalbi are ready to part., But his value in the trade market is lukewarm. What’s more, moving Puru Yuyarubi doesn’t help Cap’s painting because he’s a restricted free agent this summer. In fact, without returning the body, it increases the need for advancement.

One way to save on salary is to exchange Tyson Barry’s $ 4.5 million from a book, leaving room for young blue liners such as Philip Broberg to be shot. Another could beat Cassian, but winning a $ 3.2 million cap hit with a six-goal fourth liner for another two years wouldn’t be a priority for anyone in the league as a whole. Buyouts can occur here.

The acquisition of Cassian this summer will save the Oilers $ 2,533,000 up to next season. Combined with Barry’s littering, Edmonton suddenly opens up over $ 7 million in free space, doubling the space for doing business.

Edmonton will save another $ 1.33 million in a cap for the 2023-24 season when Duncan Keith is ready to leave the book. Later, a penalty will be imposed when the Oilers win $ 966,667 in deadcap space due to the acquisition of Cassian. If it’s the price to make the necessary tweaks this summer, it’s probably worth paying at this point.

Colin White, Senator Ottawa

This is an interesting situation to monitor. On the one hand, White is a 25-year-old player with the first round of pedigree, having spent a full-year NHL season with 14 goals and 41 points. It’s back in 2018-19. On the other hand, you’re here, a player who has reduced attacks, dealt with shoulder injuries this season, and earned $ 4.75 million against caps that are gradually deviating from plans for the appearance of the Top 6 in Ottawa. There is. To look very promising.

In many situations, you may try to get over the contract. Since Sens isn’t a cap team anyway, we’re not moving to save caps to do the business we need at the moment.

But it makes sense for White’s acquisition to come at only one-third the cost, not two-thirds, and the last year Ottawa can use the math. It’s time to think.

Buy White now and Ottawa will save $ 3.875 million in caps for the next two seasons. Then, with an actual salary increase that surpasses the cap hit of the season, it will save $ 5.375 million in 2024-25. The Senator is probably ready to use some of the cap space to move the core forward at that point.

From 2025-26 to 2027-28, Ottawa had a remaining cap charge of $ 875,000 for this acquisition. The actual money they pay for this move will be $ 5.25 million, so the team will save $ 10.5 million in the long run unless the organization wants to pay players not to play. ..

There’s no other time when it makes sense to get out of this deal, but the possibility of a breakout season from 2021 to 22 may have been delayed by an injury to his shoulder, which we’ll reveal here. There are still things. A tough decision for the senator.

Patrick Hornkvist, Florida Panthers

The Panthers are aggressive in trading deadlines and appear to be as aggressive as this summer to improve their rosters and take the team to the next level after being wiped out in the second round of the playoffs. ..

The problem is: The cap space is about $ 3 million (Anthony Duclair’s injury could be further expanded through LTIR during the season), signed by 9 forwards, 6 defenses and 2 goalkeepers. Breakout Star Mason Marchment is the UFA they want to keep, as well as the deadline pickup Claud Giroud and even the Bench Alot. To keep them all and perhaps add them from there, we need to make some major changes.

One possibility that has emerged in the rumored factory is to trade with Sergei Bobrovsky and hold half of his $ 10 million cap hit. Or, in heaven, you can buy him to save a little and pinch him over four years with a maximum charge of nearly $ 2 million. It’s an extreme option.

Another, perhaps easier acquisition to consider is Hornqvist. And not because he is necessarily responsible. Just this season, a 35-year-old player finished fourth with an average of 12:40 ice time per game, scoring 11 goals and 28 points.He type It’s a pain around the players and the net that the playoff team should want, but his $ 5.3 million cap charge is a terrible amount for a team that needs all the space they can get right now.

The acquisition of Hornkvist will save another $ 3,533,000 for Panthers next season, while Jonathan Yuberdeau, Mackenzie Weeger and Spencer Knight will raise $ 1,766,000 in 2023-24. Will be.

Do you do that now and deal with the consequences later, or do you want to overcome the hornkvist for another year and create caps in other creative and blockbuster ways? As another exciting time Bill Zito is waiting for Armchair Panthers GM with all eyes.

Marque Duar Vlasic, San Jose Sharks

Whoever the next Sharks GM is, their hands will be full. Sharks have already signed a big deal with the player’s core, with only $ 5.66 million in cap space after missing the playoffs for the third consecutive year. You probably want a little more flexibility to step into such a situation.

One way new bosses can make some room is the acquisition of Vlasic, one of the better shutdown defenders of the 2010s, a member of Team Canada, but whose impact has diminished over the last few years. Is to consider. This season, Vlasic’s average ice time was just over 15 minutes and his goal on ice was 35.53, one of the worst on the team. His $ 7 million cap hit lasted another four seasons, ranking 24th among all blue liners in the league. Together with Brent Burns and Eric Carlson, San Jose is spending $ 26.5 million on three older defenses that look like the best years ever.

Questions about the acquisition of Vlasic depend on what the new GM plans to do. Sharks will save millions of books over the next few years, but the benefits aren’t optimal as the contracts will be paid in 2022, 2024 and 2025. And after Vlasic’s contract expires, Sharks will be followed by a $ 1,687,000 cap charge over the next four years.

Therefore, if a new GM wants to have a roster and start promoting the playoffs, it may be essential to remove this contract from the book now. However, if you take a longer approach and are allowed to miss another year or two of playoffs to build the draft, the buyout will start again and the long-term dead cap will not be that long.

Petr Mrazek, Toronto Maple Leafs

This is tricky as the goalkeeper market is always a wild market and there will never be a shortage of teams looking for some sort of goalkeeper, whether it’s a starter or a backup that can fill the stretch. Thing. Heck and Reefs signed Murasek as a tandem option. The first year certainly didn’t work, but if Leafs holds a cap and / or offers a pick, there could still be a team interested in taking on him. there is. This is the route Toronto previously used to throw away the cap.

Mrazek has had a $ 3.8 million cap hit for another two years. This is a high price tag for a goalkeeper with a save rate of .888. Toronto needs every room it can generate to deal with goalkeeping situations and other roster issues when Jack Campbell hits the market.

The acquisition of Mrazek will immediately release $ 2.766,000 in caps for the next season and nearly $ 3 million the following year. The pinch will occur in 2024-25 and 2025-26, and the acquisition of Mrazek will charge back $ 1,433,000 in a dead cap.

Over the last two years, each of Toronto’s Core 4 forwards will be coming for a new deal. And while the cap is expected to rise by then, salaries are starting to change as well, and Reefs will already be short of nearly $ 1.5 million in any boost the cap gets.

It’s not ideal, but it may be better than giving up good assets to break the contract right now.