After a hectic day 2 weeks ago of moving out depth players with expensive contracts to acquire depth players with cheaper contracts (and backup G Peter Budaj) things were a bit quieter in the Miller’s front office this past week. The week’s transactions are summarized below:
GEO trades B. Lovejoy & GEO 10th-18, GEO 11th-18, GEO 12th-18, GEO 10th-19, GEO 11th-19 & GEO 12th-19 to DAY for Yan Pavel Laplante-p…
Lovejoy had lost his starting job with the emergence of Brett Pesce, and his inability to play any position aside from RD made him unsuitable for the 7th Defenseman role. He was packaged along with several late round picks (so Dayton would take on his complete salary) for a long-shot Winger prospect in Yan Pavel Laplante. YPL scored a bit in juniors but not in his first pro season, but his size, skating ability and willingness to mix it up make him a potential bottom 6 NHL forward.
GEO signs M. Barberio to a 1 yr., $700K contract…
Barberio was signed to replace Lovejoy. He will compete with earlier signing Ben Chairot for the 7th Dman slot. A decent showing could see him re-signed as an RFA at season’s end.
DAY trades B. Comeau to GEO for GEO 4th-18 & GEO 9th-18…
Looking for more depth in their bottom 6 forwards and on the penalty-kill, GHC sent a couple more mid to late-round 2018 draft picks to Dayton for Blake Comeau. Although his days of occasionally popping 12 to 20 goals a season are gone, Comeau is still a reliable checking forward and will supplement the club’s penalty kill unit.
The club has taken some flack recently for not bringing in bigger names to keep up with Calgary and other teams. GM Chris Kash spoke to reporters to address the criticism.
“I understand the concerns of our fans but I want to reassure them that we are staying true to our vision of how we want to keep this club competitive in the short and the long term. We are blessed to be breaking in 4 exceptional young talents this season in Teravainen, Faksa, Pesce and Orlov. To properly give these guys a chance to grow and develop we felt it necessary to remove any internal hurdles and just let them play. With Brock Boeser expected to play a role next season, and other young guys like Anders Bjork, Janne Kuokkanen, Samuel Girard and Filip Hronek being ready in 2 to 3 years, we are transitioning to a younger team. We’ve spoken to the veteran players about it and they are on board. We will of course reassess our progress at defined points during this upcoming season and if it improves the team enough we have plenty of payroll room to add more players.”
Recently traded Winger Gustav Nyquist responded to reports that he was dealt partly because he came to camp overweight and out of shape. Nyquist said “ Once the trade to Georgetown was done, I came down to look for a home and get to know the area. No one prepared me for Hot Browns and Burgoo being on every restaurant menu, and a trip to northern Kentucky introduced me to Goetta and Grippo’s potato chips, plus the craft beer scene here is amazing. So yeah I gained a few pounds, and now I’ve got to find a way to get Dad’s Beer Cheese sent to me in Ontario, but I regret nothing.”
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