The Colorado Avalanche have acquired forward Brandon Saad and defenseman Dennis Gilbert from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for defensemen Nikita Zadorov and Anton Lindholm. The Avalanche get: Saad, a potential middle six forward who finishes his second stint with the Blackhawks. After being traded back to the Hawks from Columbus in a deal that [...]
The Boston Bruins have signed right wing Craig Smith to a three-year contract worth $3.1 million per season. The Bruins get: Smith, a 31-year-old winger who was one of what seemed like an unlimited number of middle-six forwards in Nashville. Having said that, he has been consistently at or near the half-point-per-game mark for the [...]
The first day of Free Agent Frenzy Day didn’t disappoint, if you enjoy the volume of signings that happen all at once. You’ll see the breakdowns of all the major signings (and a few of the minor ones) in our Fantasy Take articles, so I won’t rehash them all here. Instead, I’ll use the Ramblings [...]
The New Jersey Devils have signed goalie Corey Crawford to a two-year contract worth $7.8 million. The Devils get: Crawford, a 35-year-old goalie who has spent his entire career with the Blackhawks, including Stanley Cup wins in 2013 and 2015. After a shaky 2018-19 (2.93 GAA, .908 SV%), he managed to rebound to some degree [...]
The St. Louis Blues have signed defenseman Torey Krug to a seven-year contract worth $45.5 million. The Blues get: Krug, an offensive-minded blueliner who finished sixth among defensemen (min 40 GP) with 0.80 points per game in 2019-20. He also led all defensemen with 28 power-play points in 2019-20. Fantasy players impacted: Let’s jump to [...]
The Washington Capitals have signed defenseman Justin Schultz to a two-year contract worth $4 million per season. The Capitals get: Schultz, a right-shot defenseman who will likely slot in on the second pair and second-unit power play. He has the offensive upside to be a fantasy asset, yet he’s a certified Band-Aid Boy who has [...]
The Vancouver Canucks have signed goalie Braden Holtby to a two-year contract with an average annual value of $4.3 million. The Canucks get: Holtby, the 2016 Vezina Trophy winner and a 2018 Stanley Cup champion. After posting stellar numbers between the 2014-15 and 2016-17 seasons (sub-2.25 GAA, .920+ SV%), Holtby has struggled over the past [...]
Even buyouts have fantasy implications, and there have been a few of them in this offseason. Let’s examine what the important ones could mean to the player and the team that decided to part with their contract. Kyle Turris Perhaps surprisingly, the Predators decided that Turris producing at half a point per game or [...]
In yesterday’s Ramblings, I wrote about goalies and their current valuations. Today I’m going to write about… … goalies again! The anticipated goaltending musical chairs began on Saturday morning, with several signings to break down. Robin Lehner, 5 years, $25 million, Vegas This turned out to be the worst-kept secret of the playoffs. Originally reported [...]
It’s going to be weird not seeing Henrik Lundqvist between the pipes for the Rangers next season. Yet in spite of his struggles last season (3.16 GAA, .905 SV%), I’d expect him to land somewhere as a backup or a 1A. Lundqvist posted a strong high-danger save percentage (10th among 61 goalies that played at [...]
