OK Let's move to the next teams. As if I have any control.
To make it wider I have upped the next round from New Jersey to any New York area team. You can do one, two or all three. Your choice.
What's your Gaudreau trade with;
New Jersey
FACTS:
Approximately 200 km from family home
New GM who hasn’t been an NHL GM before. Seems to have a good reputation though
Lindy Ruff as head coach. He hasn’t been one since 2016-17 (Dallas) but he has been a Rangers assistant since then
Only 13 NHL players signed for 2020-21. Only two players signed past 2021-22 (Hirschier and Severson) but that could change soon.
With Cammalleri buyout and Kovalchuk contract penalty that comes to $55 254 999 so they are not even at the floor yet.
Significant UFAs- None? CapFriendly lists Kevein Rooney, Frederick Claussen and Dakota Mermis
Significant RFAs - Mackenzie Blackwood, Jesper Bratt, Mirco Mueller, John Hayden, Nick Merkley
$5.0 million+ contracts - Hischier $7.2, C Schneider $6.0, PK Subban $9.0, Zajac $5.75
ISSUES/OPINION
Not in their cup or playoff window. In fact it is very unclear what direction they are going
A few decent prospects, two former #1 overall picks and a young goalie who may be something but not much else. I don’t think this team knows how it will proceed until the end of the 2020-21 season at the earliest.
I have a hard time making any case for why they want Johnny this summer
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NY Rangers
FACTS
Approximately 200 km from Gaudreau family home
Lafrenière, Panarin and Kreider all LWs (with some flexibility)
15 NHLers signed next year at a cap hit of $67,108,133
Significant UFAs - Jesper Fast
Significant RFAs - Alex Georgiev, Ryan Strome, Brendan Lemieux, Anthony DeAngelo
$5.0 million+ contracts - Lundqvist (8.5), M Staal (5.7) Trouba (8.0), Zibanejad (5.3), Kreider (6.5) and Panarin (11.643)
Are spending almost $7.5 million of cap space on buyouts (mostly Shattenkirk) plus whatever they are still paying Brad Richards for 6 more years! That will hurt if revenues are way way down.
ISSUES/OPINION:
Window just re-opening for Rangers
They have to keep in mind future Kakko, Fox and Lafrenière contracts
Decent assets (picks and prospects)
Cap space good this year (20-21) and next, especially if they settle something with Lundqvist this year
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NY ISLANDERS
FACTS:
Approximately 230 km from Gaudreau family home (assuming Nassau County not Brooklyn)
Spent $8 million on Ladd and Hickey to play in the AHL
Capfriendly says they have $72,594,167 committed to 20 players in 2020-21. This includes Ladd, Hickey and Dobson
Significant UFAs - T Greiss, A Greene, M Martin, D Brassard
Significant RFAs - M Barzal, R Pulock, D Toews,
ISSUES/OPINION:
Do not have any generally recognized offensive game breakers outside of Barzal. Lots of good secondary scorers (Nelson, Lee, Eberle, Bailey, Beauvillier, Pageau) though.
Cap situation is not great as Barzal and Pulock contracts will take all available space and more
Greiss is probably gone with no cap space and hotshot prospect Sorokin perhaps ready
While there are some prominent names (Ho-Sang, Bellows, Wahlström, Dobson) their prospect pool has underwhelmed in the past couple of years outside of Sorokin
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