The trade/signing freeze was lifted earlier today and some teams got right back to work. At 1PM ET today, teams could get back to trading and signing some players after having to go through a freeze because of the expansion draft. Teams could also resume re-signing their players but first let’s focus on the trades.
Carolina and Detroit got to work off the bat with a trade that sent veteran goaltender Jonathan Bernier’s UFA signing rights and a 2021 3rd round pick to Detroit for the signing rights of young goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic. Alex signed a 2 year deal with a $3M AAV according to his agent. Alex was great in Carolina last year, had a 15-5-3 record and a .932 save percentage at the age of 25. He was really great for the team so I don’t know why they’d send him out but this is a great move for the Red Wings. Last season, 32 year old, Bernier had a 9-11-1 record with a .914 save percentage and 2.99 GAA. Bernier hasn’t signed any deal with Carolina so let’s see if they get anything done before July 28th.
After that, the Arizona Coyotes and Philadelphia Flyers made a deal. This is another “Future Considerations” deal. The Yotes get defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and two 2022 draft picks (2nd and 7th) while the Flyers receive “Future Considerations”. As for Gostisbehere, the 28 year old had played 41 games with Philly this year and put up 20 points (9G 11A) with a -2 rating, an average of 19:56 on the ice per game, and he ended with a 57.1% Corsi For. I think he’ll do good in Arizona. The Flyers cleared $4.5M in cap space by sending him to the desert and I’m sure they’re not done yet so keep your eyes peeled there.
Then in our final trade of the day, the Calgary Flames picked up Tyler Pitlick from Seattle in exchange for a 2022 4th round pick. Pitlick was just drafted to Seattle yesterday and he’s already being shipped off to Alberta. I love Pitlick as a player. He was in Edmonton, Dallas, then Philly, and finally Arizona before this flip. He’s a 29 year old center who played 38 games last season with 11 points (6G 5A), averaged 16:22 per game, was a solid 40% at the faceoff dot and laid out 81 hits. I’m excited to see him play in Calgary, he should be solid if he finds his footing.
Just 3 trades today but we had a few re-signings as well. Besides Alex Nedeljkovic we had:
- Michael Rasmussen – Detroit – 3-year, $1.46M AAV
- Barclay Goodrow – Rangers – 6-year, $3,641,667 AAV
- Joachim Blichfeld – Sharks – 1-year, $750,000
- Rudolfs Balcers – Sharks – 2-year, $1.55M AAV
- Gemel Smith – Lightning – 2-year, $750,000 AAV
- Kiefer Sherwood – Avalanche – 1-year, $750,000
- Nolan Stevens – Blues – 1-year, $750,000
That’s all the moves for now but the off season is just heating up. There’s rumors swirling, the Entry Draft tomorrow, it’s going to be a long week to free agency day. I forgot how every day of the off season is just constant stress so I’ll be here, sweating that out. The Entry Draft starts tomorrow night at 5PM CT. The only talk I really did about the draft was about the Michigan players that are going to get drafted high so check them out here. For now, rest while you can before Pierre tweets about your favorite player getting snatched.
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