Several signings and one big trade drastically shifted the balance of power across the NHL in a matter of days.
With John Tavares going home to Toronto, Paul Stastny leaving Winnipeg for Vegas, St. Louis signing three free agents and trading for Ryan O’Reilly, the landscape of the league has changed. The Washington Capitals are bringing back a vast majority of their team, the Western Conference is loaded and yet the Maple Leafs now appear to be Stanley Cup favorites after adding Tavares.
“He’s one of the best players in the league,” Tampa Bay general manager Steve Yzerman said. “And I think it’s obvious to say that Toronto is a better team today with that acquisition.”
Tavares’ decision to leave the New York Islanders knocks them out of contender status and puts a whole lot of pressure on coach Mike Babcock’s Maple Leafs to make a deep playoff run. Losing out on Tavares despite reportedly offering more money than the Maple Leafs’ $77 million over 11 years kept the Sharks from moving into front-runner status in the West — but they may not be done yet.
“We pride ourselves on being able to take a swing on difference makers like this,” San Jose GM Doug Wilson said. “John was the one that we wanted to swing at.”
The Sharks, who extended Logan Couture and re-signed Joe Thornton and Tomas Hertl to keep their core together, have plenty of tradable assets and will keep swinging for a difference-maker. One is off the market following the Blues’ trade for O’Reilly that now gives them a potent 1-2-3 punch down the middle with Brayden Schenn and free agent signing Tyler Bozak.
O’Reilly saw the Blues sign Bozak to a $15 million, three-year contract and wondered if there wasn’t room for him anymore. Now they have centers to match up with just about any opponent in the league.
“You look at all the teams that have success, they definitely have guys down the middle that compete,” O’Reilly said Monday. “And I’m thrilled to be a part of that.”
The Capitals boasted depth with Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom and Lars Eller during their Cup run, and Babcock can now roll out Tavares, Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri. Vegas lost talent on the wing with David Perron going to St. Louis and James Neal signing with Calgary but now has a very competitive center corps led by Stastny, William Karlsson and Erik Haula.
“We do like having centers,” Golden Knights GM George McPhee said. “You can move centers around the lineup, you can have centers on the wing. You can’t get wingers to play center.”