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Trade Deadline 2020
Get everything you need to know for the NHL's player-swap bonanza with our Trade Deadline Preview. We break down each team's needs and availability and list our Trade Bait Power Rankings. Also in the issue: features on Pastrnak, Pacioretty, Scheifele, Kreider, 50 moments for 50 years of the Canucks and Sabres, Eichel vs. Draisaitl, and much, much more.
CENTRAL DIVISION
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS CAP SPACE: $151K NEEDS: Clinging to wild-card hopes won’t help the Hawks long-term. They should sell aging assets to add picks and prospects in order to continue to rebuild. AVAILABILITY: The rental options are few and far between, but goalies Corey Crawford and Robin Lehner would make perfect crease additions for a team in need of a backup or even a No. 1A. UFAs: R. Lehner (G), C. Crawford (G), E. Gustafsson (D) TRADE BAIT: Last season, ERIK GUSTAFSSON was a revelation, averaging 0.76 points per game. That was the ideal time to send him to a team seeking an offensive defenseman, but the decision to hold on has backfired. The 27-year-old is producing at nowhere near the same rate, and the return on the UFA-to-be will be less than it would have…
THE COUNTDOWN
SALARY-CAP SITUATIONS EVALUATING AN NHL TEAM’S summer salary-cap situation is a qualitative exercise. The same amount of available cheddar can mean more to one team than another. It’s a matter of how each GM has constructed their roster. Some teams have a ton of available money, a ton of players to sign, a ton of work to do, and that’s OK. The Ottawa Senators come to mind. In that situation, you want to blow it the heck up. Having veterans on expiring contracts is a boon, especially because they become flippable trade-deadline assets. For other teams, having a ton of players to re-sign is a nightmare. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets, for instance, have roughly half a defense corps each locked in for 2020-21. Both teams have spent years amassing young…
IN THE CARDS
THIRTY YEARS AGO, the “airbrush era” for hockey cards came to an end. Since the 1960s, Topps and later O-Pee-Chee would repaint photos of players who changed teams in the off-season, sometimes with airbrushes but many times just with regular paintbrushes. The results were usually bad, and the 1989-90 O-Pee-Chee set had 18 such doctored cards. Here are three of the worst: Randy Cunneyworth looks like an impressionist painting, while Larry Robinson’s shiny new Kings’ jersey is just a little too shiny. Meanwhile, the mother ship from Close Encounters appears to be landing on Borje Salming’s head. The next season, card companies retired the practice.…
THE HONEST CONVERSATION
MENTAL TOUGHNESS HAS ALWAYS been revered in sports, but as pro athletes open up about the harder side of life, it will be interesting to see how the hockey world reacts in the long run. Thanks to players such as Robin Lehner, Tyler Motte and Gemel Smith revealing struggles with mental-health issues, we’re finally beginning to have earnest conversations about different afflictions on a mainstream stage. Like most other realms of the world, the hockey community has been supportive of initiatives that put mental well-being on the front burner, and when you hear about someone with the stature of Patrice Bergeron reaching out to Smith, for example, you can’t help but feel encouraged. Having said that, I do wonder what happens when the aspirational meets up with the business side of things.…
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