The Canadian didn’t wait for Friday’s scheduled deadline for transactions to make a move. Kent Hughes has accomplished at least one goal by finding a buyer for the enigmatic Evgenii Dadonov.
The Russian forward certainly won’t complain about the move to the Dallas Stars, who were second in the West ahead of yesterday’s games.
He will add depth to an already well-heeled team. The 33-year-old athlete, who has had multiple 20-goal seasons under his belt, may have to settle for playing on the fourth row, but he finds himself with a team chasing big honors.
For his part, Hughes managed to trade Dadonov, not for a distant draft pick as many had predicted, but for an NHL hockey player.
Denis Gurianov is a former first-round pick in 2015. Among the top 12 players selected at this auction, he is the one who underperformed the most. The Russian right winger had around 30 points in his first three seasons with Dallas, but this season has been tougher. The 25-year-old had to settle for nine points in 43 games. Nothing to convince the stars to keep him, they had given him a one-year deal and $2.9 million.
Give up
GM Jim Nill resigned his case. Reminds me of Kirby Dach, another big guy and former first-round pick the Chicago Blackhawks threw in the towel with. At 22, Dach is enjoying the best season of his career in Montreal.
Perhaps, on the orders of Martin St-Louis, Gurianov can hatch.
The Canadian and the Stars are both winners of this transaction. The CH will pay 50% of Dadonov’s salary for the remainder of the campaign, he is in his final year of a three-year contract that accounts for $5 million a year on the payroll.
Getting as far as possible in the playoffs is a short-term business for Dallas, while the Habs have a long-term vision.
Hughes’ work is certainly not over. He will try to find new addresses for Mike Hoffman, Jonathan Drouin, Chris Wideman and Joel Edmundson should the latter appear to have recovered from his injury. He will at least accompany the team to California this week.
But I don’t want him to come back into the game, not with this young and good defence. It’s impressive to see how inexperienced CH full-backs have improved.
Additionally, Edmundson has a -21 differential in just 39 games, the worst on the team. If he played every game where would he be? -40? The argument that he once won the Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues no longer stands.
When the phone rings, Hugues is not allowed to hang up. If a club offers Edmundson a fifth-round selection, they must accept it.
untouchables
I remember in 1990 the Nordiques received terrible offers for Michel Goulet and Peter Stastny, two future Hall of Famers. It’s not always easy to get what you want.
One thing is for sure, we mustn’t touch veterans David Savard, who knows his role well, Mike Matheson, who amazes me enormously, and Josh Anderson. Since playing with Nick Suzuki and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, the tall winger has been skating and finding the back of the net.
-Comments collected by Mylène Richard
Echoes of Bergie
Difficult times for players
When I was a coach, I would take the time before the close to talk to the players who were the focus of the rumors when the situation was stressing them out. Sometimes it bothered the families too. I knew what my GM was working on so I could put people at ease and tell them not to worry. Others needed to be reminded that exchanges are part of business.
“Caps” and “Thinks” in trouble
Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby could miss the playoffs, which would come as quite a surprise. In Pittsburgh, supporters are calling for the departure of GM Ron Hextall. I get it if you think he traded Mike Matheson for Jeff Petry and Ryan Poehling. The Capitals had just three wins in their last 10 games leading up to yesterday’s game and suffered with Ovechkin’s absence to mourn his father. The leaders seem afraid of being left out of the spring dance. They traded defender Dmitri Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway to Boston, which didn’t sit well with the Capitals players.
Nothing will stop the Bruins
Boston has only one goal in mind, and that’s to win the Stanley Cup, especially when you don’t know if Patrice Bergeron will be back next season. And then there’s the excellent David Pastrnak, whose contract is expiring. Rumor has it that number 88 is looking to make an $88 million pact! He currently makes just over $6.6 million per campaign. So the Bruins will go all out. They’re willing to make compromises to improve, even if they’ve only suffered eight losses since the start of the regular season.