If I had a nickel for every conversation with an NHL front office executive or agent this summer that included the phrase, “The Rangers need to trade Nash,” I would have a nickel from essentially every conversation I have had this summer, and my cap hit would approach Rick Nash’s $7.8 million.
But I’m here to tell you that a trade is not happening. Nash has a no-move clause in his contract in force through the end of this season that management has no intention of asking him to waive and No. 61 has no intention of volunteering to forfeit.
The Rangers are not asking Nash to leave town after two seasons on Broadway in which he led the team in goal-scoring both times, and No. 61 is not asking for an exit from New York after recording a sum of four goals in 37 playoff games.
The concept is not on the table for either party.
The NHLPA is about to formalize its policy relating to the $300 million in “make-whole” payments the union is owed — and will begin to receive in installments — under the CBA in the aftermath of Owners’ Lockout III.
Sources have indicated the PA will distribute the funds exclusively to players who were under contract for the 2012-13 season for which their pay was pro-rated at 58.54 percent of the face value of their respective salaries when the schedule was reduced to 48 games.
That is because 2020-21 is set to become the next lockout season.
The only reason the Blackhawks are able to accommodate Toews’ and Kane’s cap hits without decimating their team for 2015-16 is the marquee team has both Duncan Keith and Marian Hossa under contract on a pair of those long-term, front-loaded deals that allegedly are bad for the game and are outlawed under current work conditions.
Keith, the reigning Norris Trophy winner who has been voted the NHL’s best defenseman twice in the last five years, is entering the fifth season of a 13-year, $72 million deal under which his cap hit is just $5.538 million — probably $2.5 million per under market value.
And Hossa, a sure first ballot Hall of Famer when the time comes, is entering the sixth season of a 12-year, $63.3 million contract under which his cap hit is just $5.275 million — probably $2 million below what he would receive under the current rules.
The Kings, meanwhile, benefit from having Jeff Carter on an 11-year, $58 million deal, under which his cap hit is limited to $5.273 million per, at least $2 million less than he would command on the open market, while also having won twice in four years, with Mike Richards working on a 12-year, $69 million contract at $5.75 million per that has been a double-edged sword.
When Nash scored three goals while leading the playoffs with 83 shots, his 3.6-percent shooting percentage was the third-worst on record for players with at least 70 shots in a postseason tournament, according to the playoff finder tool on hockey-reference.com.
The worst is Tyler Seguin’s 1.4-percent (one goal on 70 shots) for the 2013 Bruins that prompted his trade to Dallas last summer. The second worst is Hossa’s 2.7 percent this year, when the Chicago winger scored on just two of 75 shots, including 0-for-28 in the western finals against the Kings.
Seven years at $42 million might seem excessive for a 28-year goaltender who has never started more than 43 games in a season, but not so for Cory Schneider, for far too long a No. 1 in waiting whose wait has ended with the Devils.
If the transition from Martin Brodeur wasn’t quite as seamless as the Devils would have preferred, there is not a player in the NHL who could have handled the challenge of sitting behind the Living Legend after having sat behind Roberto Luongo in Vancouver with more class than Schneider.
It has to be some sort of a typographical error, doesn’t it, for Zdeno Chara to be listed as the Norris Trophy winner only once in his career?
Do you know how many players under the age of 24 as of last Feb. 1 recorded at least 101 points over the last two seasons?
Six, and one of them is Derek Stepan.
Which is why, if Stepan has any kind of a season this year (and why wouldn’t he?), the Rangers’ No. 1 center will be in line to nearly double his cap hit from its current $3.075 million when he becomes an arbitration-eligible Group II free agent next summer.
The Islanders, in need of a defenseman, should be mighty interested if the Maple Leafs are still dangling Jake Gardiner, whose possession numbers were pretty darn good on the league’s worst possession team.
If victory has 1,000 fathers and defeat is an orphan, then what was Vancouver’s decision last year to hire John Tortorella behind the bench, an epoch the ownership is attempting to scrub from franchise history the way Khrushchev’s reign was expunged from Soviet Union annals?