Retooling. It’s a great move and gives room for their younger and better players to get ice time. Nashville is building for a great future

Some ppl dont understand that half the teams in the league would rather trade every player on their teams for nothing other than to have full cap space.

Johansen isn’t good anymore. Last season was an analytical fluke based on high shooting percentage rather than actual performance. He is below average defensively, doesn’t shot the puck and he isn’t a play driver. He can pass the puck really good though. He might also be a nightmare in playoffs because he draws a lot of unnecessary penalties. Don’t get me wrong though he will probably be alright but just nothing spectacular. An average 3C that can play as a 2C.

I have no doubts Trotz is going to take them down the right path, given everything he’s said thus far. This just seems like a 180 from the potential fire sale they had at last deadline. You don’t listen on Saros if you’re attempting a retool.

Still, I’m excited to see the next domino that falls for Nashville after this. Obviously there’s a reason Trotz felt the need to clear that much cap irregardless of return.

Decent gamble to take on Johansen at half retained for essentially free. If he doesn't work out as a 2C option he's fine as a 3C at that cap hit.

Forget about Galchenyuk. He’s about to become a UFA, so putting his name on this just says that there’s no future considerations here – this really is a trade for nothing.

Considering the number of teams we hear are seeking a #2 center this summer, this trade tells us that nobody thinks Johansen is that guy, except maybe Colorado, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re still looking for #2 and would prefer to slot Johansen at #3. $4M is not unreasonable for a good #3 center who could probably step into the #2 slot in a pinch, but that’s 2x4M that they no longer have available to spend on a stronger #2 center or some other need, so I don’t necessarily think this is the steal a lot of people are saying.

Nashville clearly wanted some cap space, so whether this makes sense depends on what they do with it. They had three other options: Keep him, buy him out, or kick in another asset to get somebody to take him with less retention. We don’t know if anybody was willing to do the last option, so you have to look at the 2x$4M they retained as money already spent. Would it be worth another 2x$4M on top of that to keep him? Again, it depends on what they do with the cap space. A buyout would have cost them more money than the retention - $10.7M versus $8M – but it would have been spread over 4 years instead of 2. Whether that’s better depends on whether they’ll need cap space more in the next two years or the two years after that. I don’t know what their plan is.

This is why I don’t like no-move clauses. If Johansen had one, he could have refused the trade and Nashville’s only options would be to keep him or buy him out. By having the foresight not to give him one, they made this trade a viable option.

Nailed it.

Literally solves Colorado's 2C problem for free

Yeah, but you don't trade the glue guy. It's not about the money in this case, it's about the morale and the leadership. I was 100% fine with keeping Johansen's contract(in fact, would have rathered that they didn't trade him, even for a 3rd).

With all due respect. You're not in the locker room. If Trotz can make this stone cold move. It's about alot more than money.

Definitely an Avs win because they can say they’re paying him 8M to rejuvenate his career while Nashville pays 8M to get rid of him and gets a glorified AHLer back.

Hometown fans act like they are in the locker room lmao With the all the information out there on the internet.. hometown fans are probably the least knowledgable when it comes to their own teams cause of bias. Trotz made the mature and tactically correct maneuver when simply looking at the hard cap and the likely increase that could perhaps happen in 2025. Books are now cleared. Saros is the real domino to fall in Nashville.

For sure. Cap isn't an issue in Nashville. They have drafted really well. I don't think they need a rebuild as much as a quick shuffle. They really need quality time for Eangelista Tomasino Parsinen Afanasyev Askarov etc. Lots of good kids in the pipes.

He is not worth 4M x 2 years, therefore Nashville wins the trade. The original contract is a sunk cost. You can only evaluate retention vs a buyout (assuming he is not injured and qualifies for a buyout).

Colorado takes on all the risk here. The fact that they made this deal is a testament to how bad free agency might be this season.

Exactly. And the "fit" on this roster matters much more than it does on different teams. We had a very specific hole to fill and it wasn't just a "2C"...

Anyone thinking that the Avs are not better off because Ryan Johansen "isn't what he used to be" or "isn't very fast" should consider that the Avs are really just trying to replace as much of Gabe Landeskog as they can. The market is weak and the Avs assets are even scarcer. This was great work on the part of the Avs to address a much needed spot in their top 6.

RyJo
6-3 218lb 30-year old power forward, assistant captain, smart player, win 53% or more on face-offs, 11.8% shooting percentage, scores .66 points per game, controls possession, over 1 hit per game average. $4 million AAV cap hit.

Lando
6-1 215lb 30-year old power forward, captain, smart player, wins 53% or more on face-offs, 12.2% shooting percentage, scores .77 points per game, controls possession, nearly 2 hits per game average. $7 million AAV cap hit.

Replacing Compher as a RH face-off was important because we have Rantanen and Newhook as lefties.

Fair enough. But he has been voted top 5 in NHLPA pools for best guy in the locker room, that's kind of how I gathered that.

NSH should've tried to get at least a 5th rounder minimum and tried to sign Galchenyuk in FA

It is a good move for NSH to unload cap space, I don't understand why they didn't just ask for a late pick or something since they're retaining so much.

I am sure they "asked" & got their hand slapped.

That is a bit of a nit pick to say they should have gotten a 5th rounder. That is negligible value wise and doesn't change the concept of the deal.

Johansen did not have trade protection. They traded him within the same division with the max salary retention for nothing. That is a pretty damning indication that they had zero leverage. People in this thread are years behind on the player. They didn't trade the Johansen of 5 years ago. Colorado took all the risk in this deal.

Here is how you logically evaluate the deal.

If you are Nashville, and Johansen's contract was expiring this off season, would you retain him on a 2 year extension with a 4M AAV? Probably not. Therefore, trading him was the right move.

If your are Colorado, and Johansen was a UFA, would you sign him to a 2 year contract with a 4M AAV?

He is a flawed player at this point, but Colorado may have looked at the UFA market and determined that it was a risk worth taking. There is also the reasonable possibility that this is a win/win deal. Colorado didn't have the same baggage that Nashville does with the player. In Nashville, he was positioned as a core guy and likely a primary leader. In Colorado, he comes into an established room and team structure as a complementary player on a team that already has their leadership core sorted out ahead of him.

There were a bunch of hot quotes about Phil Kessel winning all these cups, despite accusations that he was a poor leader, but there is a difference between being positioned as the star of a team who is expected to be a primary leader, and coming into a team like Pittsburgh that already has those guys, or even going to a team like Vegas as a complimentary veteran who isn't going to play every night. I have no idea if Phil Kessel was bad in Toronto or whatever, but the point is that if he was a cancer in Toronto as a primary leader, winning the cup as a depth veteran in Vegas doesn't invalidate that.

Nashville wins the trade because they get something tangible and defined without risk. That is, 4M x 2 years in cap space. This could be an Adin Hill type trade where we look back and a player vastly outperformed what was expected when they were acquired, but odds are Colorado either regrets this deal, or it ends up being mostly irrelevant with Johansen living up to his deal but not exceeding it by much.

That's my general feel with this trade. Galchenyuk potentially fills a 4th line role, but at least a 5th rounder could amount to something down the road.

To me, Galchenyuk = Johansen @ $4mil x 2 yrs. However, a 4th or 5th rounder = Nashville retaining $4mil x 2yrs.

I know the trade needed to be done... but just seems like saying 'Future Considerations' would have been easier to swallow.

Lots of positivity for the Avs here and I couldn't disagree more. Johansen is one of the more out of place players in the NHL, his hockey sense is average at best and now his skating has regressed so much hes always behind the play. He's a 2nd line RW max, but truthfully I couldn't even trust that.
It doesn't matter what they traded, its 4m for the next 2 years the Avs can't get back. I thought Sakic would be better than this

From Pierre Lebrun at theathletic...

"There’s no money in the system, ” Predators general manager Barry Trotz told The Athletic over the phone Sunday afternoon. “So I wanted to make sure I got money in the system”

In other words, creating $4 million of cap room for the next two years was worth it for the Predators even though it meant $4 million in dead cap space by retaining half of Johansen’s $8 million cap hit. It’s not about spending that cap money now. It’s more of projecting out as the new GM continues to tweak this roster in his reset of the organization.

“I’m projecting out,” Trotz said. “I’m in a different window."

Trotz just confirmed the obvious. Pain now in a rebuild for freedom later when the cap jumps.

The $4mil in cap space doesn't mean much this season, but means EVERYTHING next season.
Tomasino, Parssinen, Novak and Fabbro all need new contracts after this year.

If they all take steps forward this year, we may be looking at a situation similar to what Buffalo just did and bet on their young talent and sign them to long term deals.
That $4mil next year will be very important.

And confirms that a buyout would NOT have helped that situation either. Interesting to see if there is any movement on Duchene next.