The Florida Panthers have traded prospect Lawson Crouse and Dave Bolland to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a 2017 third-round pick and a 2018 second-round pick, reports Elliotte Friedman and Chris Johnston of Sportsnet.ca. Craig Custance of ESPN.com reports the second-round pick is conditional and will become a third-round pick if Crouse doesn’t suit up with Arizona in 2016-17.
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The deal continues an offseason trend of packaging young talent with deadweight contracts in exchange for draft picks. The Carolina Hurricanes acquired Teuvo Teravainen and Bryan Bickell’s $4 million cap hit for a second and third-round pick. Arizona general manager John Chayka traded a second and third-round pick for Pavel Datsyuk’s $7.5 million cap and the 16th overall pick used to draft talented Sarnia defensemen Jakob Chychrun.
The latest move works for both teams for entirely different reasons.
Florida is in a win-now mode and needed to shed cap space. Bolland, who was signed to a five-year, $27.5 million deal in 2014 by the Panthers’ previous Dave Tallon-led regime, appeared in just 25 NHL games in 2015-16. Bolland’s subpar performance and injury issues made the contract among the worst in hockey. The Panthers wanted out and used prospect Lawson Crouse, also drafted by Tallon, to shed the deal.
Panthers management did well to trade Bolland’s deal and get draft picks in return. Crouse is a fine prospect, but low-scoring Kingston Frontenacs power forward skill set doesn’t fit in well with Florida’s current team build. The 11th overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft wasn’t in the new regime plans and the club reportedly looked to deal him at the draft. Getting rid of Bolland’s remaining $16.5 million cap hit (three years) and getting two high(ish) draft picks at the price of Crouse is an impressive coup. Florida’s moved Bolland and Marc Savard’s contract off the books opening up cap space for future moves.
Arizona’s incentive to do the deal is purely based on the chance to acquire a once highly-regarded prospect. Crouse joins Chychrun, Max Domi, Anthony Duclair, Anthony D’Angelo, Christian Dvorak, Clayton Keller, Dylan Strome and Henrik Samuelsson among an impressive core in the desert. New general manager John Chayka has made a series of quality moves to build an impressive foundation going forward.
With Bolland, Datsyuk and Chris Pronger all on the team’s cap, the Coyotes are paying more than $17 million for just no-play contracts. The latest trade pushes Arizona near the cap with just over $2 million in project cap space. That might seem silly, but with a plethora of youngsters on entry level deals, now’s the time to take on salary for additional assets. Datsyuk and Pronger are both off the books by next season’s end when Anthony Duclair and Michael Stone will need new contracts. It may seem crazy, but adding so much wasted money to the cap doesn’t hurt Arizona. Trading two draft picks along with three years of Bolland is a bit steep, but Crouse is another high-drafted player to develop around others with complimentary skillsets. The Coyotes may place Bolland on the LTIR for additional cap savings.
Both analytics-focused management teams made the exchange for different reasons. The Panthers shed cap space and get future assets, while Arizona acquires a talented prospect with decent potential. Florida has the edge in the trade, but the rationale behind the deal for both the Panthers and Coyotes is clear.
