Monday Mailbag – Who are the NHL offseason winners and losers so far?

Can you believe it’s been already been a whole week since the last mailbag? I guess time flies when you’re riding the wave that is being an Edmonton Oilers fan, amirite? As always, you’ve submitted your free agency-related questions and I’ve sent them off to our panel of mental warlords for their thoughts and ideas. If you have a question for the Mailbag, you can always hit me up through email or on Twitter. Until then, enjoy the free learning opportunity.

I don’t like the Sergei Bobrovsky contract. I like the player, but he’s 31 and I wouldn’t want to be on the hook for seven years at $10 million a season like the Panthers are now.

The only answer to this question is Kevin Hayes. It happened before July 1st, but it’s ugly. Philly will be feeling some major regrets in a few years. I have no problems with Kevin Hayes as a player, but he simply is not a $7 million player. Brandon Tanev getting six years AND over $3.5 million from Pittsburgh is almost as bad.

Sergei Bobrovsky’s seven-year contract, Brandon Tanev’s six-year deal, and Ben Chiarot’s three-year contract are all contenders. Bobrovsky is obviously good, but not worth $10m a year. Tanev somehow got six years and Chiarot is a replacement-level defender.

I think the Bobrovsky deal is going to look bad in a few years. I don’t understand why Pittsburgh thought Brandon Tanev needed a six-year contract when the guy has never hit 30 points in his career, but I suppose free agency is the time for weird choices, right?

I think Ken Holland’s next move is a trade. Outside of maybe Derick Brassard, I don’t see any remaining UFA’s who are worth overpaying for.

If Ryan Dzingel can be had for $3.5 million, they should be all over that. But I doubt that he’ll come that cheap. It will likely take $4.5 to get him done, which is unfortunate because he’s a great fit. I wouldn’t mind one of Derick Brassard if he’s cheap or Riley Sheahan. Both would be good third line centres on short term deals.

I wrote about this last week. I’d go after Ryan Dzingel, Derick Brassard, and Josh Archibald, but if Michael Ferland, Thomas Vanek, or Oscar Lindberg want to come here for a reasonable price for one or two years, I’m all ears.

I’d love to see the Oilers find a way to make a Dzingel contract work but I doubt they have enough space to do it unless Old Dutch has a sneaky good trade up his sleeve.

He said he’d like to acquire somebody capable of scoring 20 goals and that’s different than a 20-goal scorer, which implies a player who has done it already. Dzingel isn’t going to get the $5M a season he’s looking for. No chance. Like I said above, if Holland gets this potential 20-goal guy he’ll do it via trade.

If he’s going to get a player of that calibre, we’ll have to see a trade. Either a deal that brings in a high-end winger, a deal that sheds cap space, or both. The only issue is that after buying out Andrej Sekera, you really can’t deal Kris Russell without an NHL defenseman coming back and the Sam Gagner contract is going to be hard to move without attaching an asset to it. Going to be an interesting month of July waiting to see what Ken Holland has up his sleeve.

Has to be through trade but I’m not sure who he means. Maybe Mike Hoffman in Florida?

I’m thinking we’re going to see a Puljujarvi + defensive prospect + pick type of trade that will land a guy to play in the top six. Why do I think that? I have no idea, but that’s my guess and I’m sticking with it.

Too much hope involved in this tandem. Can Koskinen be more consistent? Sure. Can Smith bounce back at his age after a tough regular season last year? Maybe. If the answer is no on either one of them, where does that leave the Oilers?

They certainly could be good enough. Each goaltender had really strong, nearly elite stretches during last season but they also had long stretches where they hardly looked like competent NHL goaltenders. If the Oilers get lucky, the two will just alternate hot streaks all season and goaltending won’t be a problem. But what are the odds of that?

Not even close. Smith is a curious bet given his age. Koskinen is probably a backup goaltender on the wrong side of 30 making too much money. What a tandem.

I’ll readily admit that I’m very nervous about how this duo performs, but these are the cards we’ve been dealt so we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Buckle up, Nation, things could get weird… or be awesome. Who knows, at this point?

NY Rangers drafted Kaapo Kakko and added Panarin and Trouba. Colorado drafted Bowen Byram and acquired Nazim Kadri and Andre Burakovsky. They’re my winners.

Winnipeg lost Jacob Trouba and Tyler Myers. Columbus loaded up on free agents for a playoff push and they’re all gone now. They’d be my losers.

The big winners are the New York Rangers (adding Panarin, Trouba, Kakko, and Fox) and the New Jersey Devils (stealing away PK Subban, drafting Hughes, signing Wayne Simmonds). That Metro division just got a lot more entertaining. The big losers are the Pittsburgh Penguins (awful Tanev deal) and the Columbus Blue Jackets (obvious reasons).

Winner has to include Toronto. Dubas has shown some serious salary-cap wizardry. I like what Chicago’s done. Same with Colorado. Losers to me: Vancouver, Edmonton, Islanders, and Pittsburgh.

I hate that Toronto has done a bunch of work that’ll make them better next year. I also like what NJ got done with the first overall pick and trading a case of Gatorade for PK Subban. But, to me, one of the big winners of the off-season so far has to be the New York Rangers. They landed Panarin, traded for Trouba, and got Kaapo Kakko at the draft — that’s a fine haul.

As for the losers, Winnipeg is the first team that comes to mind based on the fact that they haven’t done anything other than lose players and Patrik Laine remains unsigned.

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