Nats 2019 Offseason (9 trades)...
* = keeper
Traded away (9 players + 5 picks):
Brandon Saad ($6m)
Ilya Kovalchuk ($6.25m)
*Erik Karlsson ($11.5m)
*Alex Tuch ($4.75m)
*Kyle Connor (expecting ~$7.5m)
*Alex Provorov (expecting ~$7)
Filip Gustavsson (ELC)
Alexander Romanov (ELC)
Alexander Alexeyev (ELC)
Entry Picks: 35th overall (2019), 8th round (2019), 5th round (2020)
Pro Picks: 2nd round (2019), 3rd round (2019)
Total cap moved out: ~$45m
Acquired (3 players + 8 picks):
*Morgan Rielly ($5m)
*Tyson Jost (ELC)
*Oliver Wahlstrom (ELC)
Entry Picks: 12th overall (2019), 18th overall (2019), 27th overall (2019), 1st round (2020), 2nd round (2020), 4th round (2020)
Pro Picks: 1st round (2020), 1st round (2020)
Total cap moved in: ~$7m
Conclusion:
Heading into the WHL's 5th Season as one of the few teams that went for the 'youthful rebuild strategy' right out of the gate via the WHL's Inaugural Draft... the $100m CAP crept up on us fast this off-season with a lot of our youth turning into the stars we expected them to turn into 5 years in. With Marner expected to get an ~$8-$9m raise as well as TT ($2.7m raise) and Kerfoot (~$2-3m raise) we needed to shed salaries (and now have $23.5 million in CAP space to work with).
Trading away Karlsson, Connor, Provorov and Tuch wasn't easy - but we received offers we couldn't refuse at the end of the day and we're now able to keep assets like David Perron, Tanner Pearson, Emil Bemstrom, Martin Kaut and Jacob Bernard-Docker as well as welcoming Morgan Rielly back to the fold, youngsters Tyson Jost and Oliver Wahlstrom and a bunch of quality 1st and 2nd round picks --- all the while shedding ~$45m in CAP space.
These moves were bound to happen and the ball started rolling when we moved Mark Stone ($9.5m) at the trade deadline for Saad (now a 2nd round entry and 1st round pro), Kailer Yamamoto and the 19th overall pick in the 2019 entry draft.
We're happy with the balance we found in this off-season having dealt away a few studs about to earn massive raises in exchange for more affordable assets of equal value, top-end prospects and 1st and 2nd round picks while saving
a lot of cap space and preparing for the 5 extra keepers we will be allowed to keep at the end of the upcoming season. We feel this off-season will help shape our competitive nature over the course of the next 4-5 years.
We wish nothing but the best to the players we traded away and to the GMs who acquired them and are looking forward to the upcoming draft(s) and 2019-2020 season.