10 Best NHL Offseason Moves

Nathan Mackinnon and Seth Jones might end up being the two best players to come out of the 2013 NHL Draft, but neither draft choice lands as the #1 offseason move.

Today marks the 49th day of the excruciatingly long 98 days separating the Chicago Blackhawks hoisting the Stanley Cup from Opening Night of the 2013-2014 season; welcome to the official halfway mark of the 2013 NHL offseason. “Hey wait a minute, you yell angrily, I’m a Columbus Blue Jackets fan! Our offseason technically started in April!” Well, that’s your fault for picking a team that never makes the playoffs. You should be used to it by now, anyway. In real life, where teams make the playoffs, the offseason begins as soon as the old season ended, which in this case was July 24th.

Now, because the second half of the off-season is mostly roster tweaks, cap manoeuvres and preseason games (which is still fun), the bulk of the “real” offseason action has already taken place. Did I hear you say that this would be a perfect opportunity to look at the 10 best moves this offseason? I think I did. And if I didn’t, I’m pretending I did.

Let’s establish, first and foremost, that for these rankings I mainly looked at trades, signings, and extensions. It’s not that I forgot about the draft. The draft is its own beast, and we’ll really only be able to establish winners and losers in about 5 years from now (at the earliest). This list is focused on “pro” moves (not in the sense of quality, but of genre), ones that’ll help out the teams for next year and the years to follow. That being said, some big things happened at the draft that can’t be ignored. In fact, the top-3 spots on the list are Draft-day moves. But we’ll get to that in due time.

Let’s keep in mind that transactions aren’t made in a vacuum. Every move has a context attached with it that influences the quality of said move. Teams that are closer to the salary cap need to be smart with their remaining cap space. So even if Vinny Lecavalier is still a solid #2 centre in the NHL, it can’t be considered one of the best moves of the offseason for the cap-strung Philadelphia Flyers to sign the aging centre for 5 years, $22.5 million.

On the same wavelength, even though the Toronto Maple Leafs were able to land Jonathan Bernier (a potential elite goalie) for a few role players and a draft pick, it doesn’t crack the list; the Leafs already have a very serviceable goalie named James Reimer who seemed to have affirmed himself as an undisputed starting NHL goalie (or so we had thought).

With that in mind, here are my top 10 NHL offseason moves:

10. Pittsburgh Penguins sign Pascal Dupuis to a 4-year, $15 million contract.

9. Pittsburgh Penguins sign Chris Kunitz to a 3-year, $11.55 million extension.

On June 26th, the Pens extended Kunitz for 3 more years, and then on July 2nd (during that “interview” phase when teams weren’t technically allowed to sign contracts but did anyway) they signed upcoming free agent Pascal Dupuis for 4 years. Within a week, they re-upped two-thirds of what was probably the best line in hockey last year through 2017, for under $4 million a year each. Granted, the third member of that top line, some guy named Sidney Crosby, probably helps them play at such a high level. Still, both players are trending upwards.

In 2013, Pascal Dupuis scored 20 goals for just the third time in his career (20 with Minnesota in ’02, 25 with Pittburgh in 2012). Keep in mind that 2013 was a lockout year. In a pro-rated 82-game season, Dupuis would’ve been on pace for 34 goals, which would’ve placed him in the top-20 in 2012. Now, he probably doesn’t keep that pace, but even if he scores 25 goals he more than justifies his $3.75 million salary, especially when you add in his good two-way play (+31 in a 48 game lockout year last season) and good chemistry with Crosby. Much of his success is probably due to Crosby, but it doesn’t matter, because he will be playing with him for the foreseeable future.

As for Kunitz, in the past 4 years he has scored 13 goals (in 50 games), 23 goals (in 66 games), 26 goals (in 82 games) and 22 goals (in the lockout-shortened 48 games). On a pro-rated 82 game scale, that’s 21, 29, 26 and 38 goals. Kunitz, even more than Dupuis, is a dependable, even elite goal scorer.

Don’t believe me? Only 13 players have scored at least 20 goals in each of the past three seasons (because last year’s 48 game season eliminated a lot of candidates), and Chris Kunitz is one of them. The other 12? Alexander Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos, John Tavares, Jeff Carter, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Rick Nash, Logan Couture, James Neal, Phil Kessel and Thomas Vanek. That might not be complete list of the best scorers in the NHL, but it’s a good number of ’em, and Chris Kunitz is right there. Again, that’s probably in part thanks to Sid, but again I don’t care because he’ll still being playing with the Kid. So for $3.85 million the Pens are getting a solid scorer and a guy who has great chemistry with the best player in the world. Deal.

Two solid signings that should keep Sid happy and the Pens competitive.

8. Philadelphia Flyers sign Ray Emery to a 1 year, $1.65 million contract.

The Flyers aren’t necessarily known for their goalies. I could write a whole column just on 13 years of horrible Flyers goaltending moments (and I just might someday), but suffice to say that netminding hasn’t been their strong point since Ron Hextall retired in 1999. It’s usually not a good sign when Roman Cechmanek is (statistically) your best goalie in the past 13 years, especially when one of the defining moments of his career could have been avoided had he just kept his glove on his hand in the first place (go to 0:11 of this video if you don’t know what I’m talking about).

Anyway, Ray Emery might not put a halt to the Flyers goalie carousel, but at $1.65 million it’s worth the gamble. He seems to have calmed down since his Ottawa days and quietly had a fantastic season last year with the Blackhawks, finishing with a 17-1 record and ranking 3rd in GAA (1.65) and 10th in Sv% (.922) among goalies who played in at least 20 games. Not bad for a guy who’s career was in doubt not too long ago because of a hip injury. Sure, he posted those numbers with the Stanley Cup winning Hawks (who opened the season on that record-breaking 24-game point streak), but let’s give him some credit. Hopefully it works out for him. And if it doesn’t, it’s a super-cheap bust, as opposed to the Flyers last bust in goal: you know, the guy who was bought out because his 9-year, $51 million contract was just as humongous-big as the universe that fascinated him.

7. Pittsburgh Penguins sign Rob Scuderi to a 4-year, $13.5 million contract.

Another smart move by Pittsburgh GM Ray Shero. Scuderi isn’t flashy, but he’s a solid defenseman and a good veteran presence in the locker room. He was a key member of the Pens team that won the Cup in 2009 before leaving for Los Angeles where he won a Cup with the Kings in 2012. Scuderi is durable too; he has logged 18 minutes or more per game since 2006 while only missing 22 games during that span. He won’t win the Cup by himself, but he can be an important role player to support all that skill in Pittsburgh.

6. Edmonton Oilers sign Andrew Ference to a 4-year, $13 million contract.

5. Edmonton Oilers acquire David Perron for Magnus Paajarvi and a 2nd round pick.

Now that the Toronto Maple Leafs ended their 9-year playoff drought last season, the Edmonton Oilers are the undisputed Next-Year-We’re-Making-The-Playoffs-For-Sure team. The Oilers followed the rebuild model to a tee: they were really bad for a long time, which allowed them to draft high and stockpile a bunch of young assets. But they haven’t taken that “next step” yet like Pittsburgh and Chicago did after following the same formula (and we’ve been promised that next step for a few years now).

Well, it’s time for me to hop on this bandwagon before it gets too crowded. The Oilers will take the next step next year and make the playoffs, in part thanks to the moves they made this offseason. Ference, like Scuderi, is a dependable defenseman that brings much-needed veteran presence and Cup pedigree to the Oilers (at about the same cap hit). He’s +40 in the regular season since the start of 2010 and should help out the developing (and future star) Justin Schultz. As for the other move, the Oil gave up a guy that never really fit with the team along with a 2nd round pick to get back Perron, a solid top-6 forward with two 20-goal seasons already. For some reason, and this is not really backed up by anything other than gut feeling, I think Perron will fit really well in Edmonton. At 25, he’s actually considered somewhat of a veteran in that young Oiler locker room, but he should still be able to develop alongside the likes of Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov.

4. Boston Bruins sign Tuuka Rask to a 8-year, $56 million contract.

This is by far the move with the most money involved on this list, as the Bruins were able to lock up their goalie at a $7 million per year average salary, making Rask the highest paid goaltender in the NHL along with Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators. It’s a lot of money, sure, but at 26 years old Rask is only entering his prime now and has many great years ahead of him. Statistically, he’s probably worth that kind of money.

His career numbers so far are outstanding; he’s only played 138 games, but his career 2.15 GAA and .927 sv% are best among active goalies who have played at least 100 games. To take that one step further, according to hockey-reference.com, Rask is the only goalie in NHL history to have posted at least a 2.20 GAA and .920 sv% through his first 6 NHL seasons while having played at least 100 games. (Another goalie who is very close to achieving that landmark just got traded this offseason, but we’ll get to that a bit later on).

The only real knock against Rask is that he hasn’t played more than 45 games in a season; that being said, he’s already shown he can handle the pressure of being a starter, posting a 21-14 in 35 playoff games with a 2.14 GAA and .930 sv% (including a Cup Final run this past season). He’s going to be good for a long time; the Bruins just solidified the most important position in the game for 8 years.

(If you’re wondering why Bergeron isn’t on this list, it’s not because I don’t like the guy; I think he’s a fantastic 2-way forward and a lock to make Team Canada. I just don’t see it as great value in giving an 8 year, $52 million dollar extension to a guy who’ll be 37 when the contract ends, especially when he has concussion issues. It’s a pretty good signing, just not top-10 worthy).

3. Nashville Predators select Seth Jones with the 4th overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft.

2. Colorado Avalanche select Nathan Mackinnon with the 1st overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft.

There are no fancy stats to justify these being on my list; this is eye-test stuff. In both cases, the team chose the best player available in my opinion. The Preds got what should be the best defenseman in the draft and, possibly, in the league in a few years: a puck-moving blueliner with great speed and good defensive awareness. Stud D-men don’t grow on trees, and if all goes well, Jones should join Weber in a few years to make Nashville one of the very few teams with two of the them.

The Preds probably got more value with Jones at #4 than Colorado did with Mackinnon at #1, but I’ll go out on a limb here and say that Nathan will be a future “best player in the league”, which makes their selection even better than Nashville’s. (I guess that’s not really fair to the Preds because they never had the chance to draft Mackinnon, but life isn’t fair, and this is my list, so that’s that).

It sounds easy to compare Nate with Sidney Crosby given that they both hail from Cole Harbour, NS (there must be something in the water in “Goal Harbour”). They both have incredible work ethic. They’re both relentless puck-hounds. But don’t get hung up on Mackinnon-Crosby comparisons, not because Nate won’t necessarily be as good Sid, just because he’s a different player (and because he doesn’t really like it).  Mackinnon is grittier, likes to play the body more and is more of a natural born goal-scorer (whereas Sid has unparalleled vision and playmaking abilities). But just like Sid, he seems to thrive on the big moment, scoring two hat tricks in the Memorial Cup (both against Seth Jones and the Portland Winterhawks), including one in the championship game. I’m a big fan of his, and I think Colorado nailed that draft selection.

(I’m sure some of you are wondering about Barkov and Drouin. This may just be an opinion, but I believe Florida and Tampa Bay both missed out on Jones. They might be great players, but I think Nate and Seth should have gone 1-2).

1. New Jersey Devils acquire Cory Schneider for the 9th overall selection in the 2013 NHL Draft.

I’m kind of sad that we won’t be seeing anymore hilariously awkward Luongo-Schneider videos, but I guess that’s a small sacrifice to pay to finally rid ourselves of the 2-year soap opera that was the Vancouver Canucks goaltending situation. That’s finally over now as the Devils were able to get Schneider, and what a move it was. They gave up their 9th overall pick to the Canucks (which was turned into Bo Horvat) for the young American goalie.

Given how ridiculously incompetent the Canucks were throughout the whole Luongo-Schneider fiasco, it’s only fitting that they be ridiculously incompetent in the trade that ended it. Considering that Vancouver reportedly could’ve gotten some pretty good draft picks and/or a blue-chip prospect like Joe Colbourne for Roberto Luongo (yes, that Luongo, he of the self-proclaimed sucky contract), it seems they got shortchanged in only getting a first round pick for this future star goalie.

From the Devils perspective, this is a great move. Cory Schneider is young, and like Rask, has his best years ahead of him (with a much more reasonable contract than Luongo). Remember earlier when I said that there was someone after Rask who was close to becoming only the second goalie ever to post a .920 sv% and 2.20 GAA or better with at least 100 games played through his first 6 years? Well you guessed it, that guy is Cory Schneider. After 98 games in his first 5 seasons, Schneider has a 2.20 GAA and a save percentage identical to Rask’s (.927). In other words, he’s good. He’s likely a top-10 goalie in the league , with the potential to be top-5. That should solidify the Devils netminding situation for years to come with Martin Brodeur set to retire sooner rather than later.

Speaking of Brodeur, the best part of this trade is that Marty isn’t retiring just yet and is still backed by his GM as the #1 goalie for the Devils next year. Yup, you read that correctly. We could end up right back to another “Cory Schneider vs. veteran” goalie controversy. But that’s another column for another day.

Big thanks to capgeek.com and hockey-reference.com for making me look smarter than I am. Both great sites that any hockey fan should check out.