Business chatter is starting to pick up as we near the end of the Stanley Cup Finals, and with the NHL draft and free agency looming as well.
On Saturday night’s broadcast of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Sportsnet’s Elliott Friedman had some information to share with viewers during the second half, some of which may include the Toronto Maple Leafs with Brad Treliving as their new general manager.
The first bit of news from Friedman was about Daniel Breyer and the Philadelphia Flyers.
“Okay, he is [Briere] She made the big deal this week and people started calling him a bit more and i heard in [NHL] All together, one of the names that was probably mentioned the most was Scott Lawton. He signed for another three years at three million a season. He is really a good player. Teams are always looking for positions. I think the Flyers believe this… look… they turn their team around, they’re going to have a lot of young players, you need veterans around them… in a perfect world I think they’d like to keep a laugh, but, that is, but If they get the right price they will consider it.”
As Friedman said in that quote, Luton have three more seasons left in their deal for only $3 million a season and for someone who plays the game hard and had a career high last season (18 goals – 25 assists – 43 points), I know for a fact that if he was ever made available, there would be a plethora of teams contacting Briere about his services.
Laughter is not as recognizable as a showy person with a puck. He is a difficult player to play against and will make your life miserable if you are on the ice while he is too.
Like I said above he’s come off a career high scoring 18 goals and 43 points in 78 games with a very bad Flyers team I know I said he’s not known for being flashy with the puck but just imagine what his numbers could look like if he’s on a team competitor. Maybe he has the ability to score 20+ goals and go over 50 points.
With a cap of just $3 million for the next three seasons and with the salary cap expected to increase, this is a bargain at Luton’s price, in my opinion.
He’d be a good quarterback option on several teams, including the Toronto Maple Leafs, and if GM Brad Treliving doesn’t re-sign Michael Bunting, I feel like Laughton could be a fairly good replacement and might be. Right cheaper given the uncertainty of Bunting’s off-season pricing, whether it’s with Toronto or someone else.
The main question is, what might the payout for a potential laugh trade look like?
Briere was able to get a first-round pick, two second-round picks, a B-level prospect, a 6 MVP, and a goaltender with a bad contract The Kings wanted/need to offload Ivan Provorov so who knows what Briere and the Flyers could get It makes a difference to a good player with an attractive cap and duration in his deal. It will be fun.
The second piece of news Friedman reported on Sportsnet was the Defenders Market and Noah Hanifen.
“I think one of the names you’re going to hear a little bit about here is Calgary’s Noah Hanifen. It’s been another year like a lot of Calgary players do and I think teams are starting to ask the Flames what exactly are you thinking about here? What’s the future? I think … you know, A lot of us are talking about Winnipeg right now, and for good reason, but on a low level, I think Calgary could be an interesting team like Winnipeg over the next few weeks depending on how all of these players feel about their futures.”
About two weeks ago, I wrote an article about some potential trade targets from the Calgary Flames and Carolina Hurricanes that could be involved in a potential trade for Mitch Marner or William Nylander if new GM Brad Treliving goes that route to trade a Toronto star. players.
I mentioned in the article that Noah Hanifen would be one name I would want in return on a package deal for any of the star wingers in Toronto.
He’s a two-way defenseman at 26 who signed a very good cap for just one more season, so he’ll need an extension if he gets a deal in Toronto.
With the defense market starting to weaken like Friedman was talking about after deals that saw the landings of Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson in Columbus and Los Angeles to re-sign Vladislav Gavrikov, some options are starting to fall off the table not just for Toronto if they want to tackle their blue line this summer, but for the teams. others throughout the league as well.
It will be interesting to see what Calgary claims in the Hanniven trade if they trade him. As we just saw, Provorov went for a first-round pick, two second-round picks, a prospect and two roster players in a three-team deal that included a payroll offload from the Kings (Cal Petersen).
Provorov has two more seasons in his deal, so perhaps with Hanifin only one season remaining, returns wouldn’t be as high if he was the only player coming from Calgary.
However, if, and I mean if, Toronto were to land him in any hypothetical trade for Marner or Nylander, I would say with confidence that he wouldn’t be the only piece to return to Toronto.
With Treliving in Toronto now, it stands to reason that there could be a real possibility he could make a deal with his former team, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was to bolster Toronto’s blue line even more or even add more spots into the top nine.
(All stats from Hockey-Reference.com)
(All contract details from PuckPedia.com)