Callahan has one year left on his contract and will be placed on LTIR after suffering a career-ending back injury. Callahan had seven goals and 10 assists (17 points) in 52 games with the Lightning last season.
Gusev is a 27-year-old winger who was originally drafted in the seventh-round back in 2012. Gusev has been in the KHL since then and led the league in assists (65) and points (82) a season ago. Gusev joins a Devils team that has added Jack Hughes, P.K. Subban and Wayne Simmonds this offseason.
Marino was picked in the sixth-round in 2015 and remains unsigned. Marino is a 6-foot-2, 181 lbs. right-shot defenseman who had three goals and eight assists (11 points) in 33 games in his Junior Year at Harvard University.
Borgman spent all of 2019 in the AHL, where he racked up four goals and 13 assists (17 points) in 45 games. Borgman will likely start the 2020 season in the AHL but will be one of the first call-ups when the Blues need a defenseman.
Schmaltz is a former first-round pick (No.25 overall in 2012) but has appeared in just 42 career NHL games since. Last season, Schmaltz had nine points (1G / 8A) in 36 AHL games and just two assists in 20 NHL games with the Blues. Schmaltz will likely start the 2020 season with the Toronto Marlies (AHL).
Clarkson has a career-ending injury and will never play again in the NH. Trading Sparks and picking up Clarkson’s contract, which will be moved to LTIR, provides the Maple Leafs with a little more wiggle room in terms of cap-space. Michal Neuvirth has been signed to a PTO and could land the backup job in Toronto with Sparks now in Vegas.
Sparks is expected to go to Vegas to be their third string netminder after going 8-9-1 with a 3.15 GAA and .902 SV5 in 20 games with the Maple Leafs last season. It will likely take an injury to Marc-Andre Fleury and/or Malcolm Subban for Sparks to reach the NHL in 2020.
The Alberta rivals swap bad contracts. Going to Edmonton is James Neal, who has four years left with a $5.75M cap-hit. The Oilers are retaining 12.5 percent ($750K) of Lucic’s AAV which means they are taking on an additional $500K AAV in cap-space in this trade. Neal struggled mightily in his first season with the Flames, posting just 19 points (7G / 12A) in 63 games. With so few talented wingers in Edmonton, Neal should see consistent top-6 minutes—at least to start the year.
Lucic waived his no-movement clause to get dealt to Calgary and brings a contract that has four years left on it with a $6.0M cap-hit—however the Oilers retained 12.5 percent of that contract ($750K) to make his cap-hit with the Flames $5.25M AAV. . Lucic had a solid first year with the Oilers but has combined for just 54 points (16G / 38A) in 161 games over the past two seasons. Lucic will likely be tasked with playing a physical, bottom-6 role in Calgary—replacing what they lost with Garnet Hathaway going to Washington this summer.
Smith had a career-year in 2016, scoring 25 goals with 11 assists (36 points) but has just 14 goals and 33 assists (47 points) in the last two seasons combined. With RFA Brendan Perlini still in need of a contract, the Blackhawks clear $1.3M by swapping Anisimov for Smith. The 31-year-old probably doesn’t have the same offensive upside as Anisimov, but should settle in as a quality bottom-6 option for Chicago, who has completely re-tooled that part of their roster this offseason.
This trade was all about the Blackhawks clearing cap-space and Anisimov is a middle-6 upgrade over Smith. Anisimov is coming off of a 15-goal, 22-assist season in 2019 and had three straight 20-plus goal seasons but won’t have the same surrounding cast with the Senators.
Harpur is a huge defenseman (6-foot-6, 222 lbs) who plays a physical brand of hockey. Harpur averaged 1.7 hits and 1.4 blocked shots per game in 2018-19 but contributes very little offensively—1G, 4A in 51 games. Harpur could potentially be a third-pairing defenseman for Toronto in 2020 but they have a number of young defensemen in the pipelines who will be looking to push Harpur out.
NHL trades are decided between two or more team general managers. The front office’s job is building a winning team. Building a winning team means discussing trades with other general managers across the league.
During the NHL regular season, players can be traded up until the trade deadline. The deadline is the official cutoff point for when teams can no longer make moves between each other. Players can also be traded throughout the offseason.
Teams trade players in hockey for a variety of reasons, but generally, it is done to find success, whether that is in the short term or long term. Teams may trade their top players in search of draft picks if they are undergoing a rebuild, whereas contending teams may look to acquire talent to boost their playoff chances.
Trades are a common occurrence throughout the NHL and happen often. Some years feature less trades than others, it all depends on each teams needs and the availability of attractive talent.
