So far it’s been all quiet on the Channelside front as the Tampa Bay Lightning haven’t made a major move to improve their roster just yet. There have been some minor moves (Anthony Angello for Jesse Ylonen and Reece Newkirk for Kale Kessy that have helped the Crunch), but outside of placing Cameron Atkinson and Logan Brown on waivers yesterday, they’ve been rolling with the roster Julien BriseBois built in over the summer.
With Friday’s trade deadline rapidly approaching other teams have finalized some deals over the last 48 hours. The latest deal (as we’re writing this anyway) is that the Florida Panthers have acquired goaltender Vitek Vanecek from the San Jose Sharks. The back-up netminder will be sporting a new baseball cap on the bench as he fills the void left by Spencer Knight’s trade to Chicago. Forward Patrick Giles heads out to California.
San Jose wasn’t looking to land a huge asset for Vanecek, who was a pending unrestricted free agent carrying a $3.4 million cap hit. Giles is a 25-year-old tweener with size (6’5″, 216 lb.) but not spot on the roster when Tomas Nosek came back from injury. The former Boston College forward will report to the AHL. More importantly for the Sharks is that it clears up a spot in the NHL for Yaroslav Askarov once the prospect returns from a lower-body injury.
Florida gets a reliable back-up for Sergei Bobrovsky and can eat the entire cap hit thanks to Matthew Tkachuk’s current location on long-term injured reserve. Chris Dreidger had been in the role, but will likely return to Charlotte after the deal.
A bigger, at least in terms of teams involved, went down on Tuesday. Trent Frederic went from Boston to Edmonton by way of New Jersey. A depth forward who gives the Oilers the coveted “grittiness” that general managers love, Frederic has 8 goals and 7 assists on the season after posting 35 goals over the previous two seasons. He also has 155 hits, and is more than willing to drop the gloves.
So, how did this trade go down?
Boston traded Frederic to New Jersey for unsigned prospect Petr Hauser while retaining 50% of Frederic’s contract.
New Jersey then trades the big forward to Edmonton for unsigned prospect Shane Lachance while retaining 50% of the 50% left on Frederic’s contract.
Boston then trades Hauser’s rights along with Max Jones to Edmonton for Max Wanner, a 2025 second-round pick (originally St. Louis’), and a fourth-round pick in 2026.
So, in the end it costs Edmonton the rights to Shane Lachance, Max Wanner, a second-round pick, and a fourth-round pick to bolster their forward depth at a really good price ($575,000). Where Frederic will line up will be determined once he returns from his injury.
Seems a bit of a steep price for Edmonton to pay, but they are win now mode so the fact that they don’t have a first, second, fourth, or fifth round pick in this summer’s draft isn’t a big concern. It is also possible that they flip Evander Kane for some picks either before the deadline or before the draft.
Boston gets a couple of decent picks along with a 21-year-old defensive defenseman with size and a bit of a physical presence. New Jersey picks up Boston University’s captain in Lachance in exchange for one of their retention spots (they have two remaining).
While the deals are always nice, there were a couple of moves made that actually took players (including one that had reportedly drawn interest from the Lightning) off of the market.
Following his double-minor, ten-minute misconduct performance against the Lightning last night, Mathieu Olivier signed a six-year extension to stay in Columbus. The physical forward signed an $18 million deal that will keep him with the Blue Jackets through 2031. He does have a modified ten-team no-trade clause. The deal is also front-loaded with $7.9 million coming over the first two seasons, and there are no bonuses.
Prior to the rumors of that deal happening, Montreal took Jake Evans off of the trade market by signing the center to a four-year extension. There had been some internet chatter that the Lightning might have had the 28-year-old on their radar to help out with their bottom-six depth. His extension will pay him $2.85 per season. It’s a good bit of business for a third-line center who also kills penalties.
The question will be if this year is an offensive outlier for him. He’s at 12 goals and 16 assists through 61 games and seems to be a lock to set career-highs in all categories.
And as we wrap this up…it appears the Lightning are finalizing a deal!
