Will July 1st become trade day instead of signing day?
Fourth Period’s Dave Pagnotta joined Sirius XM NHL Network Radio with Steve Kouleas and Carter Hutton on Wednesday and was asked about July 1st, and with a few pending unrestricted free agents, could that be another trade deadline?
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Steve Kouleas: “So if we’re in this, not many, if there’s a UFA available. Is this going to be a deadlock, and it’s going to turn July 1 into a second four-month trade deadline, because if you can’t sign people, you’ve just had the draft and they’re 18 years old, the last year before that 20-year-old, too. KHL guys, NCAA guys you’ve seen, then trade, buddy my, is that the most sensible way now to celebrate Canada Day?
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Dave Pagnotta: “I think, really, I think it will be a leader from the Draft to July 1, 2nd, or 3rd. Because some teams, I know there is no time to talk with UFAs, but some teams have a very good indication of what they will be or not they will be running on some guys around the draft after the draft that goes to July 1, and that may be trade negotiations.
There’s still decent, it’s not a deep free agent by any stretch, but there’s some quality, there’s some kind of intangibles. Some guys in the background. Some in the middle six, the kind of guys who will fill the holes in some of these clubs.
But for anyone looking to make that kind of big impact, it’s likely to come in the form of a trade. And that’s what other teams are starting to lay the groundwork and groundwork for before the trade deadline. By examining what the market is right now and what it might look like in the free agent era.
And it’s possible that other teams, like Columbus, have a few more impactful UFAs. Seattle, a couple of impactful UFAs. They might decide that okay, we’ll sign one of these guys, but two or three will have to go on the open market, and we’ll take our chances. And some teams want to bank on it, but others will be looking at the draft, and in that week, to July 1, as the main options to make a move, and that is through trade.
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The way the salary is going up now that we’re able to do things, it allows teams to spend that money differently and keep more of their guys, as we’ve seen so far. And that trend will continue, and it will force teams to almost make trades to fill certain holes they have.
It makes us very happy. And I hope so, because remember going into last summer’s boys, there was going to be a lot of talk, there was all this commotion going on, and it ended up being a big sad trombone. I don’t think that will be the case this summer, but we will see how much happens, because the teams do not have and will not have much choice.
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