Not enough talent to make a serious run as is, but the 'Men had over 40 draft picks, they had a couple high-end players like Crosby & Kuznetsov, and not very much cash with which to work.
After a season of Simon, it's hard to say Corfield really felt like he understood what pieces he needed to be more of a threat. Never one to stand pat, phone calls were made, emails exchanged and on April 29th, Sidney Crosby was sent to the Lakers for a package of prospects, $7,000,000 in cash and the 4th overall pick in the upcoming draft.
"I felt like that was a good return on a guy like Crosby - Of course, we'll miss him, but we didn't have much to put around him," said Corfield.
On April 30, Dayton acquired UFA to be Matt Niskanen and $950K for two prospects and two mid rounders.
A few days later, DAY officially resigned Niskanen and said goodbye to UFA's Del Zotto, Girardi, Steen, Kuhnhakl, and Oduya. DAY was now very short players with little help coming from the farm team.
On May 1st, DAY sent a package of players and prospects to Fonthill for Matt Benning, two prospects, eight picks (mid rounders) and $5,000,000.
Continuing to address the shortage of blueliners, on the 2nd, the Musicmen sent a 3rd rounder in 2020 to the Miners to bring Brendan Guhle back to Southwest, OH.
On the 4th of May, the Champion Minnesota Norsemen decided to send out a trade block with several names on it, including those of Tyler Seguin and Taylor Hall. Two 27-year-old forwards who would certainly fill a need on Dayton's depth chart for the next few years.
After a few emails of negotiations, the blockbuster deal was struck on the 5th with DAY trading veteran netminder Devan Dubnyk, DRT 1st-19, prospects Callen Foote, Scott Perunovich and two 1st rounders in 2020 the Norsemen for both Tyler Seguin, Taylor Hall, and Pekka Rinne...
Corfield wasn't done.
Two minor deals came in after the MIN deal. The first, saw SIB send DAY $4.8M in cash for five 7th rounders. The second one came in around midnight with DAY acquiring veteran dman Roman Polak in exchange for a 4th in 2019 and a 5th in the 2020 CCHL Entry Draft going to Niagara Falls...
Transcript of the Corfield's press statement:
"The off-season has been a successful one for us - so far. We've been able to cut payroll from a season-ending expenditure of over $94.5M down to its current level of $60.1M. Factoring in the $17.8M in cash coming in via the various deals we've announced in the last couple weeks, our net 2019-20 team payroll is just $42.3M."
"That gives us the flexibility to pursue a few players via the UFA bidding process. We'll be looking for a couple bottom pairing dman and a few forwards to round out the roster."
There's still five-plus days until the twenty-two CCHL teams are required to submit their RFA/UFA contract to the league office.
"We're reaching out to teams that may have a surplus of players that could fit our needs and will continue to do so until the contract deadline. If we can acquire a player or two this way, it would be preferable to obtaining a similar player via free agency, for sure..."
Stay tuned...
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