Obviously once an Erik Karlsson trade goes down that’ll shoot up to #1 or #2 here. But in the meantime while we wait for that to happen, let’s talk about the wild offseason the NHL has already been having so far. We’ve seen a few trades so far and a bunch of big time free agency moves. Hockey fans love to get their hopes up every trade deadline and free agency period to see a bunch of moves be made. Most of the times, we all leave a little disappointed after very few things end up actually happening. But I guess the stars aligned this summer and it’s been chaos and this offseason has lived up to every expectation. So let’s talk about the 5 biggest moves so far.

Ilya Kovalchuk Returns To The NHL

Nobody is really sure what type of Ilya Kovalchuk we’re going to see in his return to the NHL. He’s 35 years old, has spent the last 5 years in Russia, and has played a ton of hockey over the last year. So it’s not like the Kings are bringing in Kovy in his prime. But on 3 years worth $6.25M AAV, it’s very clear what the Kings are saying. And that is that they are making one last push for another Cup before this current window closes. Now for guys like Kopitar and Drew Doughty, they’re not really close to the end of their careers or anything. Kopitar is 30 and Doughty is only 28. But in 3 years, Kopitar will be 33 and Doughty will be 31. While you may be taken aback by how great my math skills are, the biggest thing to focus on there is that the Kings need to be all in right now because they don’t have the time to waste on a rebuild. And I think that making sure they already got Doughty extended this summer is proof of that. They don’t want a Doughty contract weighing over top of them all season long this year wondering if they are at risk of losing him or not. Kopitar is locked up long term. Doughty is locked up long term. Quick is locked up for 5 more years. Dustin Brown and Jeff Carter both have a few more years. And now you add Ilya Kovalchuk for these next 3. That’s an old as fuck core, absolutely. But for a 3-year window? They could still make it happen.

Dougie Hamilton For Noah Hanifin

This was a really big move that I think a lot of people might end up forgetting about until the season starts and they see Dougie Hamilton playing for the Carolina Hurricanes. But Dougie Hamilton, Michael Ferland and prospect Adam Fox were shipped out of Calgary to Carolina in exchange for Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm. Now let me start off by saying this real quick–I am very much down on Dougie Hamilton. I’ve never been a huge fan and the fact that he’s already on his 3rd team in a rather short career is pretty telling to me. He’s got plenty of talent, sure, but I don’t know if he’s necessarily a guy who a team NEEDS to go out and make a trade for. With that being said… there is still a chance that Carolina could end up winning this trade and it all comes down to how Adam Fox pans out and if he decides to sign in Carolina. Adam Fox is a top tier prospect and he’s about to head into his 3rd season at Harvard. Now the reason why Carolina traded Hanifin and Lindholm in the first place was because they thought they’d have difficulty re-signing those guys. And there’s a chance that Adam Fox could pull a Jimmy Vesey, wait to become a free agent and bail on the Hurricanes entirely. But if he stays and becomes the type of player who people are expecting him to be? Then Carolina comes out of this one feeling pretty good about themselves.

But in the current? I think Calgary is a huge winner here. They get Noah Hanifin who I’d say is just as good as Dougie Hamilton, plus he’s a few years younger and has plenty of room to continue to develop. Elias Lindholm is going to fit nicely there in their top 6 and could potentially play on a line with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan. On top of that, the Flames ended up signing the Real Deal James Neal in free agency this week. So now that top 6 in Calgary is Gaudreau, Monahan, Neal, Tkachuk, Lindholm and Backlund. So the Flames added some really nice pieces to round out their top 6 forwards as well as swapping out Dougie Hamilton for Noah Hanifin. I really like what Calgary has been doing this summer.

Arizona Keeps OEL In The Desert Through 2027

Obviously this isn’t quite as ~*sexy*~ as the others so far but make no mistake about it, this was a major move this summer. Oliver Ekman-Larsson signed an 8-year/$8.25M AAV extension with the Arizona Coyotes which kicks in after this next season. The 2019 free agency class of defensemen next year was supposed to be Drew Doughty, OEL and Erik Karlsson. As of right now, Doughty and OEL have both signed for 8 more years. And I’m assuming once Erik Karlsson gets traded, a new contract for him will be in place as well. So July 1, 2019 was probably the biggest loser of the offseason so far. But the Coyotes? You have to count this as a massive win for them.

Keeping the face of the franchise and locking him in until 2027 shows the direction that this organization is heading in. And then you take a look at what else John Chayka has been able to do this summer. He traded Max Domi in exchange for Alex Galchenyuk. I know Galchenyuk has had an up and down career so far with Montreal, but the kid scored 30 in 2016. 30-goal scorers in the NHL don’t just grow on trees. So he locks up Ekman-Larsson, brings in Galchenyuk, gets Nik Hjalmarsson to sign for 2 more years, brings in Michael Grabner on a 3-year deal. And then they’ve got the kids with Clayton Keller, Dylan Strome, Jakob Chychrun and Christian Dvorak as the young core. Not only does the Ekman-Larsson extension help out the Coyotes now considering they’d be lost without him on the backend. But it also helps them in the future because of they can get OEL to stay, then they’ll have a better chance of making sure the kids like Keller and Strome stay as well. The Coyotes are coming. It might not be this coming year. But they’re definitely coming.

Ryan O’Reilly To The Blues

I didn’t really get a chance to talk about this one yet but the St. Louis Blues are making sure that they never have another season like last year again for a while. Last year was a massive disappointment for the Blues. They were in the Conference Finals in 2016. They lost to the eventual Conference Champions in the 2nd round of the playoffs in 2017. And then last year they end up 5th in the division. Not great!

So what do they do? They decide that they need to start winning now and they went all in on Ryan O’Reilly. Going back to Buffalo was Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka, Tage Thompson, a 1st round pick in 2019 and a 2nd round pick in 2021. That is 5 pieces for Ryan O’Reilly. Now let me real quick touch on this trade from a Buffalo standpoint. The Sabres got a HAUL in return for ROR. And now Buffalo will head into the 2019 draft with THREE (3) picks in the 1st round. I don’t think Berglund and Sobotka are anything to be excited about but neither of them are making ridiculous money so it’s not like they really hurt your team at all. They’ll be decent pieces for that bottom 6. I think Tage Thompson has the ability to become a stud in the NHL. He didn’t really impress anybody too much in his rookie year but he’s got size, he’s got speed, and he’s only 20 years old. Plus he’s another American to go along with Jack Eichel, Casey Mittelstadt and Zach Bogosian. ROR didn’t want to stay in Buffalo and I think the Sabres ended up getting more than enough in return for him.

As for the St. Louis Blues? Well they bring in a guy who is going to get you an automatic 50-60 points. And he was putting up 60 on a bad Buffalo team so that might even be his floor if he can play on a line with Vladimir Tarasenko. Regardless, he can play anywhere in the top 6 whether it’s at center or on the wing. I think it would probably make the most sense to keep him at center and then down the middle St. Louis can go with Brayden Schenn, Ryan O’Reilly and Tyler Bozak after the Blues also acquired Bozak in free agency this week. But between Schenn and O’Reilly? That’s a couple of big, mean dudes who are going to be a bitch to play against regardless of whatever matchup either of them get. The top 2 lines on every other Central team right now has to be fucking furious that they’re going to have to go up against one of those guys every shift this year. So the Blues get instantly better by bringing in O’Reilly and Bozak. The Buffalo Sabres get better in the long term, especially considering they could use that 2019 1st rounder in a package for a trade later. Huge move for both teams and I’m just glad O’Reilly ended up in the West.

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John Tavares Uses His Brain, Goes To The Toronto Maple Leafs

I mean this one was pretty obvious. It was the biggest move of the 2018 NHL offseason and one of the bigger moves in recent history. John Tavares leaves the New York Islanders and goes home to play for the Leafs. I’ve already written about this move plenty. Frankie Borrelli has written about it as well as the Chiclets guys have Chris Johnston on this week’s episode to discuss the move. So I’m not going to spend too much time talking about it right now. All I’ll say is that this is a move that John Tavares has earned. JT deserved to make this decision. He spent 9 years with the New York Islanders. Since the moment he was drafted, they knew he was going to be the face and backbone of that organization. Then he ended up signing for 6 years at only $5.5M AAV after his ELC expired. He was an elite level talent only making $5.5 million per year. Yet somehow the Islanders still couldn’t bring in enough legitimate talent around him to do anything with that. I mean they were practically handed a gift from the hockey gods themselves. Tavares only making $5.5 million is somehow even crazier than Crosby only making $8.7M. So while I’m seeing a lot of Islanders fans saying they hate John Tavares and seeing a lot of Islanders fans saying they should retire Butch Goring’s #91, I think all of the blame needs to be placed on the organization. They fucked this one up from start to finish. They couldn’t have done a worse job at making a pitch to keep Tavares on the Island, and John Tavares earned the right to realize that.

So now the Leafs clearly have one of the best offensive lineups in the league. There are very few 1-2 punches better than having Auston Matthews and John Tavares as your top 2 centers. The teams who have that kind of depth are the ones who are winning Stanley Cups soooooo yeah, pretty decent spot for Toronto to be in. Obviously they still have some moves they need to make like re-signing Nylander, finding some help on defense and praying that they can ride Freddy Andersen enough to make a legitimate run to the Cup. But regardless, this move instantly makes the Toronto Maple Leafs a serious contender for every single one of the next 7 years. And it’s all thanks to Lou Lamoriello being an undercover agent.

Honourable Mention: (besides ones already mentioned above like the Doughty extension) 

• James van Riemsdyk to the Philadelphia Flyers
• Logan Couture + Tomas Hertl + Joe Thornton re-signing with San Jose
• Calvin de Haan to Carolina
• Brandon Manning to Chicago… Lol just kidding.

@BarstoolJordie