The CPHL Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[TheScorpion]

Potential crisis averted. Once again, we are keeping our first. But if only we could get that sweet, sweet #11 from a certain team...

[Monahammer]

Rumblings in Detroit that they are looking for a Carter replacement in the forward ranks. Justin Faulk being shopped...

[Monahammer]

Conflicting news has been coming out from Detroit all week. Their new GM seems to enjoy misdirecting the press. Does sound like something is coming through the pipe though...

[TheScorpion]

In a bizarre press release, the office of the long-serving Islanders GM referred to all of his counterparts as "chumps" and "raw pumpkin eaters" who "can't hope to beat me in trades."

He also claimed the Islanders' rebuild would eventually be "the best rebuild in the history of sports" leading to a period of "unprecedented and incredible success."

He finally openly challenged the Lightning GM to try and beat him in a James Neal trade. "It is impossible to threaten my superior intellect and tremendous success," he claimed.

In unrelated news, the Islanders' GM portal was recently accessed by a new IP address located at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The Islanders GM claims to have no knowledge of this new access or this statement and is pledging to address this incident internally.

[Goffie]

Rumblings are coming out of Montreal about the potential of Morgan Reilly finding a new home before the Habs play again on Sunday.

JVR, Boychuk, Copp and Greene are also rumoured to be involved in trade talks.

Time will tell if the Habs will try and right the ship internally or continue to make more moves.

[Cheese]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

In a bizarre press release, the office of the long-serving Islanders GM referred to all of his counterparts as "chumps" and "raw pumpkin eaters" who "can't hope to beat me in trades."

He also claimed the Islanders' rebuild would eventually be "the best rebuild in the history of sports" leading to a period of "unprecedented and incredible success."

He finally openly challenged the Lightning GM to try and beat him in a James Neal trade. "It is impossible to threaten my superior intellect and tremendous success," he claimed.

In unrelated news, the Islanders' GM portal was recently accessed by a new IP address located at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The Islanders GM claims to have no knowledge of this new access or this statement and is pledging to address this incident internally.

yummmm...Pumpkin!

[SportsJunky]

Pumpkin?

[agulati]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

In a bizarre press release, the office of the long-serving Islanders GM referred to all of his counterparts as "chumps" and "raw pumpkin eaters" who "can't hope to beat me in trades."

He also claimed the Islanders' rebuild would eventually be "the best rebuild in the history of sports" leading to a period of "unprecedented and incredible success."

He finally openly challenged the Lightning GM to try and beat him in a James Neal trade. "It is impossible to threaten my superior intellect and tremendous success," he claimed.

In unrelated news, the Islanders' GM portal was recently accessed by a new IP address located at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The Islanders GM claims to have no knowledge of this new access or this statement and is pledging to address this incident internally.

Reports coming out of Tampa Bay suggest that All-star winger James Neal is in line for being given the C.
As per a leaked internal email "The world does not realize the true value James Neal. Everyone is clamouring for more ice time and putting in the effort every single shift to get it so they don't have to share the bench with him. They are training hard at odd hours and long hours just so they don't have to share the ice with him. If that isn't leadership, I don't know what is."

James Neal has been a great addition to the team with 19 points in 34 games. He has got a resurgence of sorts playing along with Voracek and Giroux. Voracek has really benefitted playing with Neal. "I might as well make the best of the situation. He goes hard to the net, and I try to hit him with the puck so I can get him out of the lineup. It just seems to bank off him. I'll get him one day"

[TheScorpion]

Neal is legitimately great in the sim. Contenders should be lining up to acquire him. I'll take a page from Criswell and predict that whomever acquires Neal will win it all.

[TheScorpion]

Sounds like a pretty ridiculous trade could be brewing on Long Island. Stay tuned.

[TheScorpion]

Over the last several months I've spent time formulating a strategy for turning the Islanders into a consistent contender in this league.

In my eyes, this league has two main assets to weaponize:

- Cap space
- Draft capital

With the right combination of these two assets, you can do anything in this league. You can acquire anyone and anything from any team in a desperate situation.

When I first committed to rebuilding the Islanders, my number one goal was to re-acquire my first and increase its value. I gave some thought to using the pick but my main idea was really to rehabilitate the value of the pick — and the Islanders organization.

An already good team can exist without a defined future — it is in its own future. But a mediocre (or worse) team with no defined future, like the pre-rebuild Islanders, will only exist in stasis. Not only were the Islanders a very un-special team, we were also a team in debt (owing two firsts at the season's end) and with no concrete plan to resolve that indebtedness.

We had spent a great deal to acquire older players like Robin Lehner and Erik Karlsson with the mindset that these pieces could be flipped in the future to recoup the acquisition cost — and nothing more. Stasis. We didn't really give any thought to the idea of rehabilitating and increasing the value of assets while also taking advantage of cap space.

Previously, we valued players over cap space. But it's become clear that cap space is the most prized tool of all. It can give you the leverage to acquire free assets. And it should never be wasted on players whose value does not match or exceed the value of the allotted cap, itself.

In a lost year like this for our team, cap space can be leveraged in buyouts, particularly on players with long-term contracts. Contending teams have the incentive to part with toxic contracts to free space for assets of more value, and asset-poor teams can take advantage of this to acquire what is essentially free capital. We recently did this with our trade to acquire Brendan Brisson.

So. Where has this period of turnover led us?

First and foremost: the Islanders still owe two first-round picks in this year's draft. We owe a top-26 pick to Washington and a top-28 pick to Toronto. But we feel that we're in a pretty comfortable position to meet both of those requirements with our new collection of draft picks.

We possess:

- Phoenix's 2021 1st
- Our own 2021 2nd
- Chicago's 2021 2nd
- Calgary's 2021 2nd
- Phoenix's 2022 2nd
- Chicago's 2021 5th
- Washington's 2021 5th

These picks are going to help us to fix our debt and they will also shape our future — a future without owed picks and conditions. They do far more harm than good.

We now also possess a young core of forwards, including:

- Sean Couturier, our new captain.
- Alex Tuch
- Shane Pinto
- Conor Garland
- Brendan Brisson
- Casey Mittelstadt
- Ty Smilanic
- Danil Gushchin
- Alexander Khovanov
- Yegor Sharangovich
- Alex Laferriere
- Jansen Harkins
- Arttu Ruotsalainen

I feel like these forwards, and others, provide the team with a very strong foundation going forward.

On defense, it gets trickier, but I like the upside demonstrated by these players:

- Juuso Riikola
- Dean Kukan
- Nikita Nesterov
- Matt Benning
- William Lagesson
- Ian Moore
- Jacob Middleton
- Alexander Nikishin
- Thimo Nickl
- Jordan Gross
- Noel Hoefenmayer

Defense is our main area of need right now. We're looking to acquire defensive players who can help us in the future.

In net, we will likely move forward beyond this year with a proven veteran, but we have also had success in years' past with UFA signings (most notably Pavel Francouz) and we're hoping that one of these players can become a valuable asset for us:

- Tyler Wall
- Kevin Mandolese
- Dylan Ferguson

We're very excited to see what Wall, specifically, can do in the AHL this year.

Where does that leave the rest of our players?

Here is a comprehensive list of our pending UFAs.

- Derick Brassard, age 32, 67 overall
- Eric Staal, age 35, 70 overall
- Matt Martin, age 31, 60 overall
- Danny DeKeyser, age 30, 65 overall
- Nick Leddy, age 29, 69 overall
- Travis Hamonic (AHL), age 30, 70 overall
- Cam Talbot, age 33, 82 overall

We would like to get future assets for these players if possible but it may prove difficult to trade all of them. Indeed, we also have an incentive to be better — bonus cap calculations are right around the corner.

If you have an offer for any of these pending UFAs, let me know — let's hammer something out.

[BagoPucks]

GM Bagopucks is sad that this above awesome post is buried in this Rumours thread when NYI fans deserve their own thread for the mastery of you have pulled off with your first. Just a thought.

[TheScorpion]

I think that trade will work out for both teams. Our first is gonna be top-3 at the very least.

Since the above post, we have added Morgan Rielly and Adam Pelech to our lineup. Pretty happy with those players being a part of our organization. Still looking to add more young pieces to create a core with long-term viability.

[Goffie]

The Habs are looking to find chemistry and claw there way to the post season.

It’s been a dog fight at the bottom of the Eastern conference playoff race.

It is rumoured that Eichel has been linked to 3 teams in the past couple days and despite GM Goffie’s vow to make him and Mcdavid work could be on the move.

There are a few minor deals that could also happen in Montreal the next day or so.

[Goffie]

Longtime GM favourite Patrick Kane is rumoured to be heavily involved in trade talks. If there are any truths to the rumours he may be on the move before this weekend is over.

[Cambam8]

Big deal going down with Mtl and nashville.....

[TheScorpion]

Oh christ

[agulati]

Originally Posted by Cambam8

Big deal going down with Mtl and nashville.....

Rumors abound of sobriety tests being requested by the league to approve the deal going through.

This is too big to be real said an unnamed NHL source. The source is later revealed to be Eric Francis, who has no idea about anything that goes on in the league

[savardandjokinen]

Originally Posted by Cambam8

Big deal going down with Mtl and nashville.....

Prediction: Parise + 21 1st Isles for Patty Kane

[Goffie]

With Patty Kane engaged in active talks. It is rumoured that if he is shipped out than Eichel may follow suit and find a new home.

Things are about to get interesting in Montreal.