Not every trade, signing, hiring or firing an NHL team makes will be a no-brainer in the public’s eyes.
Just about every NHL team has made at least a couple of moves – free-agent signings, trades, staff changes or all of the above during the off-season. Some of those moves have us scratching our heads – and then trying to envision how they will ultimately look like great decisions.
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Here are three confusing off-season decisions and why they can turn out well. (For transparency, we had the Toronto Maple Leafs keeping Ryan Reaves on the list before they traded him to the San Jose Sharks Thursday night.)
Seattle Kraken Firing Dan Bylsma
Why It’s Confusing: You give Bylsma one year – one year, for a Stanley Cup-winning coach – before cashing in his chips on him?
Granted, he didn’t steer the Kraken into a playoff position. Seattle finished seventh in the relatively weak Pacific Division. That said, we don’t know of a coach who could’ve succeeded with the Kraken’s subpar lineup. Bylsma’s resume should’ve given him at least another year on the job, but that didn’t happen.
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Why It Can Turn Out Well: Maybe dismissing Bylsma was the right move, especially considering Jason Botterill has moved in as Seattle’s GM. Every GM usually sticks with his coach, so Botterill choosing Lane Lambert over Bylsma could spark the Kraken. They need to be better defensively, which was Lambert’s specialty as associate coach of the Maple Leafs. In other words, he could be exactly the coach Seattle needs right now.
Marco Rossi (Sergei Belski-Imagn Images)
The Minnesota Wild’s Contractual Saga With Rossi
Why It’s Confusing: The Wild’s buyout costs for former stars Zach Parise and Ryan Suter are a combined $1,666,666 now instead of nearly $15 million. You’d think Minnesota GM Bill Guerin would happily throw money at center Marco Rossi, who scored 24 goals and 60 points in his second full NHL season.
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The Wild have nearly $10.2 million in cap space to play with, so it should be easy for Guerin to re-sign Rossi, even if he isn’t completely enthralled with his game. Judging by Rossi’s usage in the playoffs – averaging 11:08 of ice time – Wild coach John Hynes isn’t crazy about Rossi’s game, either. He still got three points in six post-season games, though.
Why It Can Turn Out Well: By waiting this long into the off-season, Guerin is essentially telling Rossi and his representative, “Find me a team that will pay you big money, and I’ll think about matching the deal.” The truth is, if Rossi can’t find greener pastures, he’ll have to eventually accept what the Wild are offering him. At that point, Minnesota’s payroll flexibility situation will be better for it. So daring Rossi to sign an offer sheet is the savvy move by Guerin.
Christian Dvorak’s New Contract With Flyers
Why It’s Confusing: Seemingly out of nowhere, the Flyers swooped in and signed Dvorak to a one-year, $5.4 million contract. We understand that the market for centers is thin, but what teams out there were offering the 29-year-old Dvorak – who hasn’t scored more than 12 goals and 33 points in a season since 2019-20 – a big-bucks, short-term deal?
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And why was that team the Flyers? The newly acquired Trevor Zegras can play center, and they also have Sean Couturier and Noah Cates as options down the middle.
Why It Can Turn Out Well: Dvorak has had trouble staying healthy in his nine-year NHL career, but when healthy, he’s able to be a contributor on an up-and-coming team like Philadelphia.
At his healthiest, he’s a 15-goal, 35-point player, and it could be that the Flyers need some veteran know-how to push them into a fight for a wild-card playoff berth, or at the very least, make life easier for their younger players.
Dvorak also doesn’t have any no-trade or no-move protection, so if he does play well and Philly is out of the playoff picture, they can deal Dvorak on retained salary for younger players or draft picks.
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