OTG: Vinny/Heatley Rumors

With both Heatley and Lecavalier on the trade block, you can’t help but look for rumors, or even generate some scenarios yourself. The guys over at Outside the Garden have noted some interesting trade rumors involving Dany Heatley and Vinny Lecavalier. I am very cautious when posting rumors, because there are some places that generate rumors left and right that I just don’t trust. I tend to only post rumors or ideas from established writers, or established rumor websites (Spectors, TFP). OTG, not known for irresponsible rumormonging, has these rumors that aren’t the fan generated rumors.

With the news that Heatley would accept a trade to the Rangers , it makes it even tougher to not believe the rumors you hear. OTG is citing sources that say the following:

The players involved are Heatley(contract plus $4 mil bonus) to the Rangers for possibly Dubinsky, Stepan(on top line at Univ. of Wisconsin as a freshman),Voros(they like the “Neil Type”),and Rozsival.

I’m guessing there would be some draft picks exchanging hands here as well, as there’s no way that’s enough to get Heatley, but that’s an interesting trade rumor. Heatley is 28, is a repeat-50 goal guy, and is signed through the 2013/2014 season at a $7.5 million cap hit. The numbers, with the Naslund retirement, work out for this year and give the Rangers enough money to resign Cally. What I am unsure of is if this gives the Rangers enough cap room to resign Staal and Girardi in the following offseason, especially with more rumors of the cap going down again that year. It depends on the cap number.

The other, and much better, rumor involved Vinny:

Another rumor is for Vinny L.(who gets paid cash $10 mil each year for the next 7 years). Tampa needs defencemen and are leaning to take Redden off our hands(to then but him out). Other players going to Tampa are rumored to be Girardi, Grachev,Zherdev, and Potter.

This one is just incredible because it involves getting rid of Redden. Lecavalier is currently 29, signed through 2019-2020 at a $7.72 million cap hit. The good part about his contract is that it is incredibly front-loaded, like the Zetterberg deal, and Vinny only makes $4 million in 2017-2018, $1.5 million in 2018-2019, and $1 million in 2019-2020. The numbers in this deal work too because of Redden heading to Tampa. This is a very steep price, as there would almost definitely be draft picks exchanging hands here as well, but to get rid of Redden and add a top flight scorer, it almost seems like a no-lose scenario.

The sick thing about both these rumors, is that the numbers work for both deals on their own, AND if they manage to pull off both trades. Essentially, by combining both trades, you are looking at bringing in Heatley and Lecavalier in exchange for Redden, Girardi, Grachev, Zherdev, Potter, Dubinsky, Stepan, Voros, Rozsival. I’m not sure I’m sold on trading three of our top six defensemen, plus our seventh defenseman, but doing one of the deals (preferably the Vinny deal) would definitely be doable.

Thoughts?

Odds and Ends

• The Islanders just can’t get lucky.  Mike Sillinger is now out for the year. They lost another tradeable asset to help rebuild. It’s unknown what Sillinger could have gone for, considering he played an entire 7 games all year, but something is better than nothing. This just creates more time for us to laugh at the Islanders for their ridiculous team right now. They remind me of the Kansas City Royals.

• Henrik Zetterberg re-upped with the Wings, which shouldn’t really shock anyone. His deal is 12 years, $72 million, which is just a $6 million cap hit (still less than Wade Redden). That deal is great for the Wings. With Michael Cammalleri poised to make Jarome Iginla money ($7 million/year), Zetterberg would surely have received more money from any other team. This does pose an issue for the Wings though, bringing their cap number to roughly $48 million for next year, with Marian Hossa and Johan Franzen set to become UFAs. My guess is that Hossa goes for greener pastures and Franzen stays in Detroit. If Franzen winds up as a free agent, how much will Sather be kicking himself for signing Markus Naslund to two years (or Redden to 6, but I digress)?

• The Vinny Lecavalier to Montreal rumors have all but died for this season. That’s pretty good news for all Ranger fans. The Blueshirts can’t even beat the Habs now, without Lecavalier, can you imagine what it would be like with Vinny in Montreal?

• As for Dan Fritsche, he has cleared waivers. I’m guessing he will go to Hartford, and Potter will be called up for the game in Boston on Saturday.

Looking for that power forward

Scott Burnside of ESPN ran a piece yesterday discussing what he terms “this year’s most tradable players,” a fan friendly list of a players likely to be moved in the weeks leading up to the deadline. There’s sexy names up and down the list, but for the most part the players either don’t fit any of the Blueshirts’ needs (Manny Fernandez, Vesa Toskala, The Bulinwall) or are just flat out unattainable because of talent/cap reasons (Jay Bouwmeester, Ilya Kovalchuk, Vinny Lecavalier, Marian Gaborik, Jason Spezza), except for one guy: Keith Tkachuk.

It seems like there’s a Tkachuk-to-the-Rangers rumor every year, and just like every other year the soon to be 37 year old would fill two needs: a top six forward and a guy that’ll park himself in front of the net with a man advantage. Tkachuk’s not Nik Antropov huge, but he does offer some size (listed at 6’2″, 231 lbs) and there’s a darn good chance he’ll be re-energized by joining a playoff team after making the postseason just once in the past four seasons (’06-’07 with Atlanta). He’s still got a nose for the net, potting fifteen goals this year (including the first goal in Sunday’s All Star Game) despite minimal help from his Blues teammates, and his ten power play goals (sixth most in the league) would far and away lead the club.

Now, how does the money work? Tkachuk’s making $4.5M this year and has a $4M cap number according to NHL Numbers, and is due to hit the free agent market following the season. That $4M cap hit is a bit of an eyesore but it’s certainly doable. Perhaps the deal could be expanded to included a physical (and cap friendly) defensman like Jeff Woywitka or Roman Polak, both of whom will be restricted free agents after the season. Adding that extra player would make giving up multiple young players/picks for Tkachuk much easier to swallow.

Bill Guerin’s name has been connected to the Rangers in the past few weeks, but Tkachuk is almost the exact same player production wise (15 G, 16 A vs 14 G, 18 A) except sixteen months younger and with a more favorable contract. Hopefully we hear some more about this in the coming weeks.