Quick hits on Strome, Kravtsov and Tarasenko
Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff: Chicago Blackhawks forward Dylan Strome has a year left on his contract at $3 million and will be an RFA after the season. He seems to be the odd man out and the Blackhawks are open to moving him.
The New York Rangers aren’t interested in terminating Vitali Kravtsov‘s contract. Kravtsov has been in the KHL the past two years, and if he were to return, it would have to be on loan from the Rangers.
Although everyone has been playing nice, Vladimir Tarasenko would still like a trade from the St. Louis Blues. Getting off to a good start to the season would definitely help a potential trade.
Stars will have some free agent decisions to make
Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News: The Dallas Stars have a list of pending free agents – John Klingberg, Joe Pavelski, Alexander Radulov, Andrej Sekera, Blake Comeau, Braden Holtby and Michael Raffl, as well as head coach Rick Bowness.
This season will dictate if they stay someone on the course or if they go younger.
Most of the Stars core locked up long-term, except defenseman Klingberg.
“I’m trying not to think about it, but at the same time, you want to have it done, right?” Klingberg said. “I think my agent and Jim are going to talk throughout the season, so we’ll see what happens.”
Forward Pavelski isn’t too worried about his pending status and adds, “When we get there, we’ll figure it out.”
It was about the structure for the Senators and Tkachuk
TSN: Chris Johnson was asked why the structure of the Brady Tkachuk-Ottawa Senators deal worked and that money didn’t seem to be the issue.
“Well structure, especially on the long-term contract, was something that had to be worked through. And I think for Brady Tkachuk, he was able to maximize his take-home pay with the way this contract ultimately got completed. He didn’t get any signing bonus money which is something every player would want if you could, but he did manage to have, strategically, his three highest-earning years fall in the middle portion of this contract.
That is the years the escrow will be capped in the NHL at six per cent. And the reason that’s significant is because if one of those $10.5 million payments had come this season, and usually guys want that money up front, he would have to had pay an extra $1 million this year in escrow compared to what he’ll have to pay a few years down the road and that is something that worked out well for him.”