Trouba was traded to the Rangers by the Winnipeg Jets in June in exchange for blue-liner Neal Pionk and a 2019 first-round pick, which the Jets used to select defenseman Ville Heinola.
The 6-foot-3 Trouba is coming off a career year. The 25-year-old tallied 50 points in 82 games while averaging nearly 23 minutes per night.
New York is now $906,000 above the cap ceiling with 22 players under contract and four RFAs unsigned, according to CapFriendly. Teams can exceed the cap by 10 percent during the offseason, so general manager Jeff Gorton has time to get his team back under the upper limit.
After Trouba's entry-level contract with the Jets expired, he held out for more than a month of the 2016-17 season before agreeing to a two-year bridge deal. When that expired, he and the Jets required arbitration to settle on a one-year, $5.5-million pact. The two sides were reportedly $3 million apart beforehand.
He didn't want to sign a long-term deal in Winnipeg because his fiancee is about to start her residency in her quest to become a doctor in the United States. "Her career is just as important as my career," he told the Winnipeg Sun's Ken Wiebe after the trade.
Edmonton will retain some of Lucic's salary and include a conditional draft pick, Friedman adds.
Each player has four years remaining on his current deal. Lucic carries an average annual value of $6 million and Neal has a $5.75-million cap hit per season.
The deal offers fresh starts for two veteran talents coming off career-low campaigns. Neal struggled in his first season with the Flames, recording just seven goals and 19 points in 63 games, while Lucic mustered only six goals and 20 points in 79 games with the Oilers.
Ready or not, here's a smoldering, midsummer opinion:
Ron Francis may or may not be the right man for the general manager job in Seattle.
That's not meant to be a sorry attempt at being facetious or a shortcut to nonpartisanship, but simply is the truth about Francis' new gig as the GM of the still-to-be-named NHL expansion franchise. The historic hiring, made official Thursday during a press conference held near the site of the club's future arena, could very well work out wonderfully, or horribly, or just fine.
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It would feel insincere to genuinely hand out an endorsement or file a complaint, as Francis' body of work as an NHL GM has been equal parts solid, unspectacular, and restrictive. His time running the Carolina Hurricanes was, on aggregate, one giant shoulder shrug; Francis didn't do a whole lot of trading and signing, but when he did do something, it turned out well more often than not.
From March 2014 to April 2018, Francis oversaw four drafts and four seasons, during which the Canes never finished better than 10th in the Eastern Conference standings. Terrible goaltending and a lack of offensive firepower spoiled incredible underlying numbers, and with new ownership came a change in direction and Francis' unceremonious exit.
On one hand, he was perhaps too patient and risk-averse, a mentality that ultimately cost him his GM powers a few months after Tom Dundon purchased the team from longtime owner Peter Karmanos. Sometimes, the long game gets tiresome. The team made little progress in the standings over that four-year period and wasn't projected to go deep in the 2019 playoffs. It made some changes in the post-Francis era, received decent goaltending, rode the wave of the Storm Surge, and made it to the Eastern Conference Final.
On the other hand, Francis inherited a non-playoff team in desperate need of a rebuild and he didn't rush anything, adding one brick at a time while operating under a tight budget. And, don't forget, that last part - money - is kind of important in pro sports. Circumstances restricted Francis from flexing financial might. All things considered, the roster, though not overly competitive, was in respectable shape when Francis' successor, Don Waddell, received the keys.
At the draft table, Francis had his home runs (Sebastian Aho 35th overall in 2015) and his miscalculations (Haydn Fleury seventh overall in 2014 when William Nylander and Nikolaj Ehlers were still available), but nothing so extreme that he's the subject of widespread praise or criticism. The 56-year-old Hall of Fame player nailed some, missed the mark on others, and the jury's still out on the rest. Overall, he's probably worthy of a B grade in regard to drafting.
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Scott Darling, who was thought to be the savior in net but didn't pan out, was probably Francis' biggest contractual splash at $16.6 million over four years following a trade with the Blackhawks. Teuvo Teravainen, another former Blackhawk who broke out for 76 points last season, was undoubtedly his finest trade-related score. The most notable name shipped out of town was Eric Staal; it was a deal with the New York Rangers that netted Carolina two second-round picks and some fellow named Andrei Saarela.
In the hockey operations department, Francis is rightly lauded for empowering Eric Tulsky, a former nanotechnologist who's risen to a vice president position with the Canes, and for tapping Mike Vellucci, the veteran coach/manager who this spring led the franchise's AHL affiliate to a championship. Bill Peters, now behind the Flames' bench, didn't find success with the Canes but is widely considered to be a quality coach. Francis, the NHL's all-time assist leader among players not named Wayne Gretzky, apparently has an eye for off-ice talent.
So, how does this all relate to the Seattle NHL team, which is slated to enter the league in the 2021-22 season? For starters, Francis' process-oriented approach is a nice match for a club looking to hire coaches, scouts, and other staffers, and find players through the expansion draft. He's the first real face of the franchise (sorry, Dave Tippett), a well-connected hockey man, and spokesperson. He has 12 years of hockey ops experience to lean on and will, at the very least, be thorough in all of his decisions.
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Things will get interesting, though, when Francis has a roster assembled. He'll have the financial backing this time, as the ownership group, led by billionaire David Bonderman and Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer, have so far shown they have deep pockets and a willingness to invest. It'll be easier to recruit free agents to Seattle since it's the shiny new toy and there's no state income tax.
Francis' contract is reportedly for five years - two seasons of the leadup to the first game in 2021 and then three real seasons of hockey. You could argue he wasn't given a fighting chance in Carolina. On the surface, it seems like his leash in Seattle will be a long one.
It may end up taking nearly a decade between two teams, but we should finally know what Francis, NHL GM, is made of.
Toronto Maple Leafs restricted free-agent forward Mitch Marner danced around contractual questions as he does around opposing players during media appearances at his own charity event Thursday, but he did make one thing clear.
Marner told NHL.com's Dave McCarthy he would likely not attend training camp if he doesn't have a new contract by the time it begins. Marner added he wants to be there for the start of camp, according to Sportsnet's Luke Fox.
The Maple Leafs will have $9.07 million in cap space with 23 players signed once Nathan Horton is placed on LTIR, according to CapFriendly. That number will rise when some players are optioned to the minors.
It's crucial the Leafs get a deal done with Marner before the beginning of the regular season. If Marner signs with the campaign underway, the first year of his contract will be prorated, meaning the cap hit for 2019-20 will be higher than in later seasons. This occurred with William Nylander's contract last season, but the Leafs had sufficient cap flexibility at the time.
Marner is coming off a career-high 94-point season. The 22-year-old is arguably the face of this year's stacked restricted free-agent class and has been involved in more offer-sheet speculation than most of his RFA peers; the Columbus Blue Jackets are just one team that reportedly reached out to his camp to discuss the possibility of an offer sheet.
Joe Thornton hasn't re-signed with the San Jose Sharks yet, but head coach Peter DeBoer has no doubt the 40-year-old center will be back in teal this coming season.
"I'm just looking forward to working with him again," Deboer told Sportsnet's Luke Fox on Thursday, adding he knew Thornton would be back when he saw him working out a few days after the Sharks were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Thornton has been candid about his plans moving forward. He told reporters at the NHL Awards he'll return for the 2019-20 campaign, and probably more. Jumbo Joe also said he'd only play for San Jose shortly after the St. Louis Blues ended the Sharks' season.
The Sharks have $4.68 million in remaining cap space will 21 players signed, according to CapFriendly. General manager Doug Wilson has already managed to lock up Erik Karlsson for eight years and ink RFAs Kevin Labanc and Timo Meier to new deals but lost captain Joe Pavelski in free agency to the Dallas Stars.
With Pavelski gone, it could open the door for Thornton to return as the club's captain. He wore the "C" beginning in the 2010-11 season but had it stripped by former head coach Todd McLellan in August 2014.
DeBoer raved about Thornton's leadership Thursday, specifically during the Sharks' remarkable comeback victory against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 7 of the first round of the playoffs.
Trailing 3-0, San Jose was handed a controversial five-minute power play after Pavelski went down. The Sharks' top power-play unit scored three goals to tie the game but had been on the ice for over three minutes.
Thornton, a member of the second unit, told DeBoer to "keep the No. 1 unit out there," according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman. DeBoer said he still gets emotional thinking about Thornton's leadership in that moment.
The heart and soul of the Sharks, Thorton proved last season he can still get it done on the ice, tallying 51 points in 73 games.
