Toronto Maple Leafs Lose Out on Laine + The Oilers Perfect Summer Continues
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs had a chance to add a potential superstar to their lineup at a very cheap cost, but the Montreal Canadiens capitalized instead.
I thought that the availability of Patrik Laine gave the Toronto Maple Leafs a chance to address the lack of scoring depth that is continually their Achille's Heel, but they chose not to.
I can understand the reluctance: Laine's cap-hit is nearly $9 million and it would be expensive to get the Blue Jackets to retain his salary.
I correctly predicted that the entirely of Laine's value would come from the retaining of salary, and it turns out that the Canadiens actualy recieved a second-round pick, in addition to Laine, to facillitate this deal.
The player the Canadiens sent back, Jordan Harris, is a left-handed version (i,e a less valuable version) of Timothy Liljegren. This move essentially cost Montreal nothing, as Harris for a second rounder itself would be a good deal for them. The Leafs missed out, but obviously they couldn't afford the cap-hit, and would have to get crazy, potentially paying for double-retention, to make it happen
This, however, wasn't the only NHL News of the day.
The Oilers continue their near-perfect summer
The only thing the Oilers did wrong this summer was sign Stan Bowman to be their GM. Not only is Bowman a bad executive, he should not be allowed to work in the NHL and should never have been re-instated.
That awful and self-destructive move aside, their summer has been fantastic. They shipped out Codi Ceci and even got a useful player from the Sharks. They signed Victor Ardvidsson, Jeff Skinner and Corey Perry, all smart moves.
But their smartest move was not matching the offer sheets the Blues proffered to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway.
Now, a lot of ink will be spilled today to praise the Blues, but that is only because ex 1st round picks are incredibly overvalued. In reality, neither Holloway or Broberg is above a replacement player and thus the Blues have overpaid both of them drastically.
The number-one rule of NHL roster building is to never, ever, pay non-star players above the league minimum. Unless the players are on deals long enough to eventually turn team-friendly (which neither of these deals is) then this is a mistake 100% of the time.
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The Montreal Canadiens get an A+ for buying a distressed asset who they can probably retain and flip later this year. The Oilers get an A+ for dumping Ceci and Brogerg at the same time. The Blues get an F- for being silly and not understanding basic salary cap information. Brad Treliving gets his usual C+ for just sitting on the sidelines overthinking things.