NHL contracts are ending and deals are being made

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You should check them out at thefourthperiod.com. So, sir, biggest prize on your trade list is gone. My crush, Elias Lindholm. Well, I've been crushing hard on Elias since he was traded in the first place. From Carolina to Calgary five, what, six years ago now.

So, he's gone. Who's the top attraction left? Well, if you're looking at the market overall, you're going back to Calgary to look at some of their defensemen. Both Noah Hannifin and Chris Tannen right at the top of the list in terms of not only the prize possession, but what everybody is basically looking for. Almost every team that is in a playoff spot right now, almost everyone, has been reaching out to the Calgary Flames about both of those guys. If you're looking up front from a center position, you've got two guys right now that are drawing a lot of interest. Adam Henrique in Anaheim and Alex Wenberg in Seattle, both guys on expiring deals. So, there are some options.

There are some other players. The defense market is pretty stacked. There are a lot of pieces available there. Up front is where things get a little dicey, and some teams are starting to explore alternative options in terms of guys with term left on their contract, not just set to become free agents this summer. So, we could see some spice kind of occurring here over these next three weeks and a bit. Dave Bagnotta from thefourthperiod.com is joining us here.

You can follow him on Twitter at thefourthperiod. Alright, so here's my overall question. When we get to this point of the year, there aren't that many teams, especially with the cap being flat over the last several seasons. There aren't that many teams that have a lot of cap space.

There are a few. New Jersey's got plenty of cap room. The Rangers have enough to do something if they want to do something major. Florida, Winnipeg, Carolina's got about $7 million in available cap space. And you could always expand that a little bit through either retention of money or, you know, I always call it money laundering, laundering the contract through another team, which Tampa has done better than any other team in the NHL. But there aren't that many teams who have room. Like I looked at Toronto, they've got zero. So, how do teams, how do teams, how many teams are going to be active at the top of this market?

They're going to be a lot, you know, and everybody that's looking to make additions are also reaching out to third parties to quote, unquote, launder, I guess some of the finances. So you've got, you've got teams that are willing to retain money on certain deals. I'll even tell Calgary in that mix. They're also willing to be a third party broker. You've got Montreal who's willing to do that as well.

San Jose Anaheim. There are, there are teams that are willing to weaponize their cap space and it doesn't necessarily mean strictly on retention. A lot of these teams are also willing to take on a contract, especially an expiring one. So rather than actually retaining on a deal, they are willing to take on a player to offset the cap. So whether it's those teams or a few others, I think Philadelphia has some flexibility. They've made it known if they want to put Ryan Ellis on LTR, that'll give them even more space.

So they have flexibility to do that, to be a broker and to help some of their, some of their counterparts out. So we're going to see a lot of creativity, I would imagine, between now and the deadline with a lot of these teams that are strapped and right up against it. Like you mentioned, Toronto, the Leafs are looking hard at both ends of the ice. They're looking for a defenseman and they're also looking for some depth in their middle six.

And they are probably going to have to pay a little bit extra in order to get a team to eat some salary or take on a player. So we're going to see some interesting moves here, I think, in the next three weeks. Dave Pagnotta joining us here. All right, the elephant in the room is goaltending for Carolina. Now, Piotr Kacekoff on Saturday night was next level against the Devils.

Now, nobody expects that to be the norm. That was fantastic. It was fun to watch.

And it was great. And it got Carolina two points. What Rod Brindamore and I think most fans would take right now is if you told me that over the next three weeks, we wouldn't have any how the heck did that go in type of goals.

They would trade that for the spectacular that we saw since you don't get that every night from anybody. What Carolina wants is just solid. If they can get that, it changes what they need because I still think they need something from the goalie market anyway.

What is available in terms of somebody as an insurance policy in goal? Well, there are certainly, you know, some options. I mean, first and foremost, in terms of expiring deals, you look to San Jose. Both of their guys are available, whether it's Blackwood or totally blank on the other guy.

Yes, thank you. Well, yeah, both and both of those guys are available. There are some, you know, some other goaltenders that are out there as well. Whether it's, you know, a Jake Allen, for example, Montreal still available, but he's got another year left on his contract at a three point four million dollar clip. So there aren't a vast amount of options like James Reimer's name was out there, but now that right in the thick of things in the wildcard race, they're going to hang tight. So you're probably and then there was, you know, Peter, but he signed an extension with Chicago. So you're probably looking more so than anything in the direction of San Jose to see. You know, if you're looking at expiring contracts, if you're looking for short term fixes, you're probably looking in in that regard. So whether it is talking in or, you know, Blackwood out of San Jose, there are a ton of additional options.

I mean, there is Mark Andre Flurry to a certain extent. He has to decide where he wants to go. If he is willing to go.

My understanding is it obviously would be, you know, top tier. If he believes the team can win a cup, then I think he would he would weigh his is no trade clause and go there. But the options are a little bit thin unless you're looking at making an impact type move and more of a hockey type trade like a blockbuster.

Ask whether it's a Jacob March from around the Smurfs, Leekins or John Gibson. So and I don't think they're going to go in that direction. The canes are right now.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So probably, yeah, you're probably looking at one of those other pieces if you are going to make a type of move, but it just comes down to price. And, you know, everybody was talking about the goaltending market for a good chunk of the season. Well, no one's made any significant moves that typically means the prices are going to drop a little bit. You're more of a buyer's market than sellers right now. We thought it was going to be a seller's market in that it's starting to trickle in and switch and sway over to a buyer's market. So that may be beneficial for a team like Carolina looking to shore up the position and give them some more security in that. Dave Clanyona from the fourth period dot com.

That's what I was going to get to next. Is that because there are only so many teams with a lot of cap space and only a handful of teams that would be willing to go all in for a Jacob Marshall, who's having a great year for Calgary. And they're obviously in rebuild mode. It would take something going on the going the other way. And we know the Devils have made a handful of trades with which have sent things the other way over the last couple of years. But if they do that for for more or if they wait because there aren't that many teams, do prices start to fall?

So what what you would have to pay right now for, let's just say Marc Andre Flurry, does that go down over the next two and a half, three weeks? For the ones who work hard to ensure their crew can always go the extra mile and the ones who get in early so everyone can go home on time. There's Grainger offering professional grade supplies backed by product experts so you can quickly and easily find what you need. Plus, you can count on access to a committed team ready to go the extra mile for you.

Call click Grainger dot com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Yes. Yeah.

The short answer is yes. And you know, for certain teams like again, it's situational, right? Like kept Calgary. They don't they don't need to trade Jacob March from right now so they can hold firm on their on their pricing. The Montreal Canadians, while they would prefer not to have to deal with three goalies on the roster for the rest of the season, right? They don't have to trade Jake Allen right now. Teams are going to hold firm on their price tags, but others that have expiring deals that are willing to move them to take on and to add to their cover of draft picks and prospects like San Jose. You've got a situation where, yeah, that price, if you're not willing to pay it now, is probably going to alter a little bit and dip as we get closer to the deadline. You know, as much as especially in this league, everybody loves to deal with deadlines. And last year was a bit of an anomaly because of the cap being so stagnant as it was. We saw a number of moves happen in the weeks leading up to the deadline. I still think we're going to see something similar this year. I do expect, you know, beyond the Lindholm and Monahan deals that we had a couple weeks ago, I do expect to see some other deals kind of trickling in throughout the weeks. But for certain teams and certain positions like the goaltending market, I do believe that that price will start to dip as we get closer. Unless the team just says, you know what?

I don't want to waste any more time. Let's just make this happen now. And that's that's especially in this league, kind of rare. So you look to see how you can quote unquote negotiate by just waiting and hoping that that price drops.

Usually it does. Is Marc Andre Fleury that jonesing for another run at the cup where he would take a chance? Let's just say on Carolina, you win one, you want to win two, you win two, you want to win three and so on and so on. And it's it has to be the right environment, you know, for for him. I think a team like and I'm looking at a team like Colorado, he doesn't just want to go there and be a backup. He wants to go there and have an impact. So if it's a matter of kind of alternating between him and Gorgiev for the rest of the season, as an example, I think that would be something that would be appealing to to him to get the playing time to have an impact, to have to contribute to a team's a team's run. So if he does move, it's going to be a does he feel the team could win a Stanley Cup now and B is he going to have an opportunity to contribute to a run? I think those are the most important things.

And if not, and if those opportunities aren't there, they'll stay in Minnesota. Dave Pagnotta fourth period at fourth at the fourth period on Twitter. I appreciate your time, sir.

Thanks as always, man. For the ones who work hard to ensure their crew can always go the extra mile and the ones who get in early so everyone can go home on time. There's Granger offering professional grade supplies backed by product experts so you can quickly and easily find what you need.

Plus, you can count on access to a committed team ready to go the extra mile for you. Call click Granger dot com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.