Morning Notes: Jakob Chychrun has finally been traded, David Pastrnak gets a big payday, and more

After more than one year on the trade block, Jakob Chcyhrun finally has a new home.

The Ottawa Senators sent their first-round pick in 2023, the Washington Capitals’ second-round pick in 2024, and their second-round pick in 2026 to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for the 24-year-old defender.

If the first-round pick this year winds up in the top five of the draft, Arizona will instead get Ottawa’s first-round pick in 2024. Also, if the Sens reach the Eastern Conference Final this year, Arizona will receive Ottawa’s first-round pick in 2024 rather than their second-round pick.

At a glance, this seems like a fairly underwhelming return for Arizona, especially given the rumoured asking price had been as much as two first-round picks or equivalent along with a prospect. The Coyotes held onto Chychrun for quite some time seemingly trying to create a bidding war but the teams who needed to add to their blueline went out and acquired other players.

The Edmonton Oilers added Mattias Ekholm, the Boston Bruins traded for Dmitry Orlov, the Washington Capitals, who moved Orlov, acquired Rasmus Sandin, and the Los Angeles Kings, who apparently had a deal in place for Chychrun, went out and got Vladislav Gavrikov.

But while Arizona didn’t get the huge package of draft picks and prospects many were expecting, they did net themselves a pick that’ll likely be much higher in the first round than the ones they would have received from a contending team.

 

 

 

 

The Sens sit 20th in the league in terms of points percentage but they’ve won 11 of their last 14 games and are only five points outside of the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Ottawa going on a late-season run and making the playoffs, especially now with Chcyhrun in the fold, certainly isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

Speaking of the Eastern Conference playoff race, it seems the Detroit Red Wings have thrown in the towel as they’ve sold off two players from their roster over the past couple of days.

A couple of weeks ago, Elliotte Friedman noted that the Wings wanted to keep Bertuzzi so long as they were in the playoff race, but back-to-back losses to the Sens at the end of February ultimately changed general manager Steve Yzerman’s plans. The Bruins placed Taylor Hall on the Long-Term Injured Reserve and had some extra salary cap room to add a forward so they pulled the trigger on Bertuzzi.

The Bruins also announced on Thursday that David Pastrnak has signed a contract extension worth $90 million over eight years…

Pastrnak is currently in the final season of the hilariously team-friendly six-year, $40 million deal that he signed with the Bruins back in 2017 following the conclusion of his entry-level contract and he would have been eligible to hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent this summer.

When Pastrnak’s deal kicks in next season, he’ll have the sixth-highest cap hit in the league at $11.25 million. Nathan MacKinnon, who inked an extension earlier in the season, will have the highest at $12.6 million annually, just ahead of the $12.5 million average annual salary that Connor McDavid earns.