LT
Global Moderator
- Jul 23, 2010
- 41,777
- 13,319
Any discussion about hockey and the NHL that isn't Stars' related belongs here.
Sekera to LA for a Cond. 1st (2015 if LA makes the playoffs, 2016 if they don't) and Roland McKeown.
That's a hefty price to pay for Sekera, but it seems likely that he re-signs with LA. Gaborik last year, Sekera this. If they can secure a playoff spot, they'll definitely be a favorite to win it all again.
WOW, CBJ trades Horton to TOR for Clarkson straight up.
Explanation - Horton's contract was uninsured, so CBJ was having to pay him no matter what. They moved him for Clarkson so that they're at least paying someone to play, and who knows, maybe he can turn it around there.
Toronto opens up just under $6.000M in cap space with this move, and for them, paying Horton is nothing.
I suppose that makes sense, but holy cow, that's a lot of term left on Clarkson (2020) and he's scored 26 points in 118 games. But sure, they are indeed getting a hockey player who can play some hockey.
Doubt they were gonna get anything better than Clarkson for Horton's contract.
Perhaps the Kings are not as much of a big budget team as I had assumed.
LA may not be able to basically throw away $30 million like Toronto can, that would be my guess as well.
Well, we've found another rich team loophole in the cap system. I hate seeing Toronto be able to buy their way out of a mistake and a small market team forced into taking their mistake on the chin.
On the topic of creative accounting, with Kane on LTIR the Blackhawks are free to replace his cap hit (6.5 million) in any way they want. They could theoretically acquire Vermette and still have an extra couple million to add something else. Then once the playoffs start, they could activate Kane as the playoffs are not subject to the salary cap. I wonder if Chicago will try to take advantage of this. Kane's injury should run into the second round of the playoffs, so its hardly an advantage, but I wonder if a team would try something in the future, perhaps in a more duplicitous manner. It would almost be enough to give Gary Bettman an aneurysm.