Coyotes hoping to join NHL’s sudden trade frenzy

Theories abounded for the lack of substantial trades at last weekend’s NHL Draft. Maybe the economics of the deals were just too difficult to manage with so many teams cap-strapped and the salary cap remaining largely flat next season ($73 million ceiling).

Maybe the asking prices were too high in trades. Maybe some teams were leery of taking on NHL contracts with an expansion draft set to remove one player from each team’s roster of unprotected players next summer. Maybe GMs just got too focused on a draft that wasn’t considered that deep in the final analysis. Maybe it was just media hype. Maybe the coffee simply wasn’t strong enough on Day 2.

“I thought there would be more activity; more things that would come through,” Coyotes general manager John Chayka said Monday. “There was a bit of a bottleneck there so now everyone is circling back and trying to see where things stand.”

We’re going with the weak coffee theory, because after the NHL’s GMs returned home, rested up and re-caffeinated, the NHL trade market blew wide open on Wednesday — two days ahead of the start of free agency.

Montreal traded star defenseman P.K. Subban to Nashville for possibly waning star defenseman Shea Weber, Edmonton paid out of its nose for defenseman Adam Larsson, sending New Jersey 2010 first overall pick Taylor Hall in order to fill a dire need on the Oilers’ blue line. In that same flurry of activity, Tampa forward Steven Stamkos, the top impending free agent, signed an eight-year deal for an average of $8.5 million to stay with the Lightning.

Chayka said at the draft that he was waiting for things to shake loose after the biggest deals were Chicago sending forward Andrew Shaw to Montreal for two 2016 second-round picks; St. Louis trading goalie Brian Elliott to Calgary for a second-round pick in 2016 and a conditional 2018 third-round pick; Florida trading defenseman Dmitry Kulikov and the 33rd pick to Buffalo for defenseman Mark Pysyk and picks Nos. 38 and 89; and Detroit trading departed star Pavel Datsyuk’s $7.5 million cap hit to Arizona in a swap of picks that allowed the Coyotes to move up and select defenseman Jakob Chychrun at No. 16.

Chayka had a feeling that just because the trades hadn’t happened yet, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t happen. Now he is hoping to get in on the action.

“We’re still in the midst of all those discussions,” he said.

There were a few reasons to believe that more trades would still come before the free agency period begins, or even after it, and they relate directly to the shape of the market.

“There’s a lot of teams that have obvious needs that people know about and some teams have cap issues that they have to solve so I assume certain things are going to take place that way,” Hurricanes assistant GM Rick Olczyk said Wednesday morning. “I think you even saw that when some teams didn’t qualify all of their restricted free agents due to cap constraints, so more could happen here in the near future.”

As Chayka noted, the Coyotes are still engaged in trade discussions while they also talk to unrestricted free agents during the six-day free-agent interviewing period. It’s no secret the Coyotes have interest in St Louis right-handed defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, but the Detroit Free Press gave an inkling of how much the Blues are asking in return when it reported that St. Louis asked for star rookie center Dylan Larkin in exchange from the Red Wings.

When asked if asking price played a role in the lack of draft-day trades, Chayka acknowledged its role.

“It’s fair to say if it wasn’t an issue then some of them would have gotten done,” he said. “When you have a player and other teams are asking about him, you have the right to ask for whatever you think is fair. I don’t know if it’s too high.”

If Shattenkirk doesn’t pan out, the Coyotes could explore other avenues such as Minnesota restricted free agent Matt Dumba, to whom the Wild extended a qualifying offer on Monday.

If the Coyotes don’t have success in the trade routes, they may be forced to explore a lesser name in a shallow pool of free-agent defensemen, or they may choose to stand pat and allow Michael Stone to man the right side on the team’s second pairing with Alex Goligoski.

“It takes two to tango,” Olczyk said. “Sometimes it’s as simple as that when it comes to trades.”

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