After a flurry of moves across the NHL to start the offseason with a trade frenzy at the draft and shopping spree at the free agent market, there are plenty of new faces in new places. There was a lot to digest but a few deals caught many’s eyes as an overpayment or underpayment to acquire a player’s services and left them scratching their heads. NoVa Caps reviews the top-five most questionable moves across the league from the offseason thus far.
- Honorable Mention: San Jose Sharks claim RW Barclay Goodrow ($3,641,667 cap hit for three more seasons) off of waivers from New York Rangers
While it was surprising to see New York get away with offloading Goodrow’s cap hit without adding an incentive, the 31-year-old is coming off of a great postseason (6-2-8 in 16), has 97 postseason games worth of experience, and has been a part of some long postseason runs (including two Stanley Cup Championships with the Tampa Bay Lightning). With Macklin Celebrini among a few Sharks rookies set to debut this season and the team having nearly $14 million in NHL salary cap space available, the claim makes sense to some degree.
- Buffalo Sabres: traded 43rd overall pick (D Cole Hutson) to Washington Capitals for LW Beck Malenstyn
Teams were lining up for Malenstyn dating back to the trade deadline and Washington was prepared to keep the 26-year-old in the fold until the opportunity to draft Hutson came along.
The 18-year-old posted 36 assists and 51 points in 51 games with the U.S. National Under-18 team. Hutson also led all defenseman at the tournament with nine assists and 13 points in seven games for the U.S. U18 squad at the 2024 World Junior Championships. The left-handed blueliner set USA’s NTDP record for career points by a blueliner (119).
Meanwhile, Malenstyn established himself as a full-time NHL player in 2023-24, posting six goals, 21 points, and a .4091 five-on-five expected goals-for percentage but in a checking-line role, not someone that would come with a price tag of a high second-rounder (especially a player of Hutson’s caliber). In 105 career NHL games, Malenstyn, who led Washington forwards in shorthanded ice time-per-game (2:37) last season and filed for salary arbitration on Friday as a restricted free agent, has posted eight goals and 24 points in just 105 career NHL games.
With Seattle looking to improve their center depth after dealing Alexander Wennberg at the trade deadline, they signed Stephenson to a huge contract despite the fact that his production (16-35-51 in 75 games) dropped off last season after consecutive years with more than 60 points.
Stephenson, who just turned 30 in April, also had a disappointing postseason for the Vegas Golden Knights, tallying just one assist in seven games.
- Ottawa Senators: acquired D Nick Jensen, 2026 third-round pick from Washington for D Jakob Chychrun
Just exactly 16 months after Ottawa sent the 12th overall pick in 2023, 49th overall pick in 2024 (which was ultimately flipped), and a 2026 second-round pick to the Arizona Coyotes to lure Chychrun in, they were able to get only a third-pairing defenseman who has declined the past two seasons and a third for the 26-year-old who comes with a very reasonable $4.6 million cap hit. Though, he can become an unrestricted free agent after this season.
Chychrun posted 14 goals, 41 points, a -30 rating, .5002 five-on-five Corsi-for, .4755 expected goals-for, and .4858 scoring chances-for percentages in 82 games during 2023-24, where he averaged 22:23 per game (third among Senators defensemen), including 2:41 on the power play (second).
Jensen, who will turn 34 on September 21, finished the season with a goal, 14 points, -9 rating, .4467 five-on-five Corsi-for percentage, .4449 five-on-five expected goals-for percentage, and .4632 five-on-five scoring chances-for percentage while averaging 19:48 per game (fourth). It appeared only a matter of time until Jensen’s time in Washington was done after the team signed Ethan Bear in December and needed to clear salary in addition to the way his play has slipped in recent years.
Washington has also done a great job negotiating trades this summer as they are on the better end of two of these deals.
- Buffalo: traded C Matt Savoie to Edmonton Oilers for Cs Ryan McLeod, Ty Tullio
When a team pops up twice on this list, it is a sign that they are not having a good offseason. Buffalo dealt the ninth overall pick from 2022 who tallied 28 goals and 71 points in just 34 WHL games in addition to two goals and five points in six AHL games last season to Edmonton for the Oilers’ third-line center after the 24-year-old set career-highs in goals (12), assists (18), points (30), games played (81), and faceoff-winning percentage (.508).
McLeod has just 32 goals and 74 points in 209 games over the past three seasons and is coming off of a postseason performance where he tallied just four goals and a -7 rating in 24 games on a team that averaged 3.44 goals-per-game.
Savoie also hit both the 35-goal and 90-point marks in 65 and 62 games, respectively, over the previous two seasons.
Tullio, 22, has 22 goals, 47 points, and a +1 rating in 117 career AHL games over the past two campaigns.
- Detroit Red Wings: traded D Jake Walman, 2024 53rd overall pick (D Leo Sahlin Wallenius) to San Jose for future considerations
After the 28-year-old set career-highs with 12 goals and 21 points; recorded .4545 Corsi-, .4249 expected goals-, and .4159 scoring chances-for percentages at five-on-five; and tied career-bests with nine assists and 63 games played, you would not think it would cost a sweetener to offload Walman’s contract, especially since it comes with just a $3.4 million salary cap charge for two more seasons.
There were reportedly teams willing to give up assets to acquire Walman, who averaged 19:46 per game (third among Red Wings defensemen), including 2:27 on the penalty kill (six seconds behind the team lead), and even San Jose GM Mike Grier was even surprised that he did not have to do so to get him.
Even though Walman had a down year defensively, the 28-year-old had a .5232 expected scoring chances-for percentage in 63 contests just two seasons ago.
By Harrison Brown
