Ottawa has no room or cap for this trade.

I'd accept that if I was Calgary, I'd even throw in a 3rd or 2nd rounder to make it happen

Like someone else said Ottawa has no money and even if they did are pretty good with their top 4 to start the year.

Voit + a 3rd to take Murray seems fair based off his stats but, I've never seen him play so I wouldn't know for sure

If this is the best the Leafs will do, they will be buying Murray out. If you want to get serious about moving him and not having a 2 million buyout hit on the cap next Summer, you'll need to put a 1st or one of Minten/Niemela with a mid round pick (2nd-4th) on the table cause the Hawks are not taking Murray and his 6 million dollars owed for a 3rd and a B prospect. Voit would be hard pressed to make the Hawks top 15 prospects and a 3rd to a team that has 12 better picks in the next two drafts won't get it done.

1000% this. I don't even know if the Hawks could buy out Murray, at this juncture. If not, I understand the actual cash layout for him this year is on the order of $8mm!

All this could so easily been done prior to the draft with the Hawks likely taking Murray along with Boston's pick #28 in the draft, in exchange for (likely) a second round pick. The Hawks would then have bought Murray out (a la Bailey). Many experts had Easton Cowan ranked, too, such that he may well have STILL have been available in the second round for TOR to take him (or, if not, still a good prospect.) TOR would have won that trade, in TWO ways.

Instead, now, TOR is gonna have to buy out Murray, pay him big $ in actual cash, and still have his cap hit rise to a significant number next year. That, or they're going to have to WAY overpay to have someone take him off their hands now.

SMH... It seems as though it could have all been so easily avoided.

1) Hanifin won't sign that
2) Hanifin reportedly wants to be in the US, so likely wouldn't even sign here

Have we ever seen any evidence that the Hawks are afraid to spend cash (not cap) for improving the team? I am not saying this as a criticism of your comment, asking honestly as I don't follow them closely. I know we have seen evidence of this with the ducks, and the sens under Melnyk. And I know other big market teams often don't care (like the Rangers, or the Leafs) about actual $ out the door. So do the hawks?

To the contrary...once Rocky took over for dollar Bill Wirtz, the Hawks have been more than willing to spend money. Pushed the envelop with the long frontloaded contracts that skirted the cap with throw away retirement years, generally spent around the cap ceiling, and have spent money buying bad contracts for draft picks the last 15-16 months.


All that said, they also have not show complete indifference to the market value of cap space which is what the proposal here is. Closest "bad" use of cap space was flipping a 2nd for a 1st and Mrazek which was roughly the net value of a 2nd (so still not terrible value), but that was more not having any NHL level goalie when they did that.

Ottawa is retaining 25% on Murray's deal so an acquiring team would be on the hook for 6 million. Since Kurashev filed for arbitration, the Hawks in theory could buyout Mrazek and save 1 million leaving Murray at a net of 5 million extra in salary. But that still is not B prospect and a 3rd range.

Thank you, Wojo; very helpful.

Question, if I may...Is the window open for others, as well? Specifically, say, if the Hawks acquired Petry in a cap space deal so the Pens could handle gaining EK65, could the Hawks now also buyout Zaitsev? If so, how long is this second buyout window open?

TIA

The 2nd window (if there is an arbitration case) is only for your own contracted players as of the TDL and CAN NOT be used to buyout anyone acquired after the TDL.

Again, very helpful; thx wojohawk. So, in theory, the Hawks could buy out BOTH Mrazek and Zaitsev with this second window (if they chose). I assume this second buyout window closes when the arbitration case closes (or the parties arrive at a settlement), I assume...

Cheers

I could be wrong but I've seen that in the 2nd buyout window a player has to have atleast a 4 mil aav to be bought out. So mrazek can't be bought out in the 2nd buyout window

Thanks. Yes, I think I remember that, too. Makes the trade/acquisition of Murray by the Hawks now even more expensive. Given all this, I'd say that a trade to the Hawks just isn't gonna happen; that ship has sailed. Too bad (SMH)... What a missed opportunity for TOR (IMO).

Yeah so assuming they don't care all that much about the 6 mil cash the question is the 4.6 mil cap space. They only seen to have kurashev as a significant RFA left. Call him 2.5 and another 3 mil for 3 scratches. So 5.5 mil, leaves them with 12.5 mil in cap space. And they have ****ty options in net. Seems like they have the space if they want to and it's mostly a question of getting as much value as they want.

But it wouldn't hurt them to take him on (12.5 or 8 mil, will grow to plenty of cap space by January either way and they only have two retention slots left), so I suppose it's a question of meeting their price. But they're likely better off not playing too hard ball and getting an asset and a goalie who may help, then getting nothing I'd think. 🤷

Hard disagree. They have 3 promising young goaltenders that need playing time. They’ve got a good setup now with Mrazek/Soderblom splitting games in the NHL and Commesso/Stauber in the AHL. Bringing in Murray screws that up and ensures that the younger guys aren’t getting games. A 3rd and a middling prospect isn’t worth it.