[Trade] NJD acquires Gusev from Vegas for a 2nd and 3rd. NJ signs Gusev (2yrs, $4.5mil AAV)

[sureLoss]

Jesse Granger
@JesseGranger_
Sources tell The Athletic the Golden Knights gave Nikita Gusev's camp permission to meet with the New Jersey Devils this weekend, to see if a deal on a contract could be reached.

No trade has officially been reached but I'm told a deal could be coming soon.

Ryan Kennedy @THNRyanKennedy
Hearing Nikita Gusev to the Devils is very close to being done

https://www.nj.com/devils/2019/07/nh...n-knights.html

The Devils are close to acquiring Russian forward Nikita Gusev from the Vegas Golden Knights, where New Jersey would send a 2021 second-round pick and a 2020 third-round pick to Vegas, a person with knowledge of the talks told NJ Advance Media.

News Update

New Jersey Devils
@NJDevils
Additionally, the club has agreed to terms with the restricted free agent to a two-year contract with an average annual value of $4,500,000.

[btimbit]

Source on Reddit saying 2020 3rd round pick and 2021 2nd round pick going to Vegas.

No idea how reliable the source is but people are acting like it's legit

[Toonage]

This likely takes Frolik out of the Devils conversation for good.

This Devils team is going to be super interesting this season.

[tkflames]

Damnit Vegas...stop trolling Tre...

[bubbsy]

Ugh, was hoping nj was a destination for frolik.

[mrdonkey]

Another round of musical chairs comes to an end in the quest for cap space.

Buying out Stone might be the only reasonable course of action here.

[AC]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1155900020572512259

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Seems cheap. NJD's roster looking considerably better than a year ago. Once they won the lottery it was go time. Only major question mark is in net.

[TheScorpion]

Hall - Hischier - Palmieri
Gusev - Hughes - Coleman
Bratt - Zajac - Simmonds
Wood - Zacha - Hayden

Vatanen - Subban
Butcher - Severson
Greene - Carrick

Blackwood
Schneider

That ain't bad.

[bax]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Seems cheap. NJD's roster looking considerably better than a year ago. Once they won the lottery it was go time. Only major question mark is in net.

Two lottery wins, some Chiarelli magic and things can turn around quickly.

[TheScorpion]

official

devils sign Gusev too, 2x4.5

https://twitter.com/user/status/1155911098253611015

[Toonage]

^ 100% takes Frolik out of that conversation

[Macho0978]

The problem with most peoples opinion on who is tradeable for the Flames is not enough stock put into who has cap space and who needs to move guys.

Why would teams pay for Frolik or Stone when teams like the Devils see how many teams need to move guys. We say trade Brodie, then trade Frolik and use the picks to make a run at Johnson from Tampa. Devils were mentioned as interested in Frolik, maybe the Devils would rather cut the Flames out and go for a younger player with more term. Looks like they did this with Gusev.

I got torched for saying this before but if the Flames want to move Frolik their best bet getting it done is some retained salary. Good luck trading him no retained salary when the list of who could be had is long vs who actually can absorb a $4.3 million cap hit.

IMO Flames would be ok to retain $1 mil salary on Frolik. If they did this, they could move Brodie for a player like Toffoli and gain the cap space needed and gain a big right shot forward which is also needed.

IMO this makes more sense than buying out Stone as he would be ok in a depth role. I think he could sub out Kylington as I don't see him as a lock to play 82 games. Also decent injury depth.

[topfiverecords]

That’s a lot of cash for a guy that’s never played in the NHL. The Oilers at least wait until a guy has proven he’s not good enough to be an NHLer before handing out $4.5M AAVs.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

That’s a lot of cash for a guy that’s never played in the NHL. The Oilers at least wait until a guy has proven he’s not good enough to be an NHLer before handing out $4.5M AAVs.

Better to go all in early and hope for the best than realize you have a crappy hand, go all in, and fail miserably.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

That’s a lot of cash for a guy that’s never played in the NHL. The Oilers at least wait until a guy has proven he’s not good enough to be an NHLer before handing out $4.5M AAVs.

While you never know, Gusev's most logical comparable is Panarin, and that worked out just fine for Chicago et al.

In fact, IIRC, Gusev's stats were better than Panarin's.

NJ has the cap room, this is a reasonable gamble on their part.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Gusev, Hughes, Simmonds could be an entirely new second line they didn't have last year. Subban is a number 1 defender they were missing. And with Hall missing the majority of the season, this team is pretty much entirely different.

At least for the Devils fans it should have been a fun off-season.

[sureLoss]

Gusev will have made $4.3925 million in signing bonuses before ever playing in the NHL

PuckPedia @PuckPedia
Gusev's 2 year Contract:

-19-20: $700K Base Salary ($4.3M Signing Bonus)
-20-21: $4M Base Salary (Modified No Trade)

[SportsJunky]

Huh. This one is a let down. I saw NJ as a trading partner for Frolik.

I don’t know, maybe we should keep him. He does check a couple of boxes, namely he’s a RW. I was so sure he’d be gone this summer. Not that the summer is over but the landing spots are drying up.

[The Yen Man]

Guess we'll see if he's more Panarin or more Roman Cervanka. That's a lot of cash to pay for someone yet to play in the NHL, but if the gamble pays off, could be a good signing.