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2015 NHL trade deadline: High prices for players, high stakes for teams

2015 NHL trade deadline: High prices for players, high stakes for teams

BOSTON — The Arizona Coyotes had suffered their ninth straight loss, embarrassed by the Boston Bruins, 4-1. They sat near the bottom of the NHL standings, in contention for a top draft pick, not the Stanley Cup.

Center Antoine Vermette had been moved before the NHL trade deadline twice before. He knew the drill, and he knew he was about to go to a better team. Still, he had spent three years with the Coyotes and bonded with his teammates. He had his family in Phoenix.

“You’ve got to take it as a man,” Vermette said Saturday night, fighting back emotion in a somber, silent dressing room at TD Garden. “That’s part of the game, unfortunately. It’s not easy.”

Chicago didn't shy away from acquiring Kimmo Timonen, who's almost 40 and hasn't played this season. (AP)
Chicago didn't shy away from acquiring Kimmo Timonen, who's almost 40 and hasn't played this season. (AP)

About an hour later, it was done. The Coyotes had shipped him to the Chicago Blackhawks.

With the NHL trade deadline at 3 p.m. ET on Monday, this is a time of high emotion, high prices and high stakes. Players are dealing with uncertainty and upheaval. Teams are paying up in a seller’s market, hoping to bolster their rosters for what could be wide-open playoffs.

Several players have switched teams in the past two-and-a-half weeks. Just look at what some pending unrestricted free agents have cost:

— Vermette cost a first-round pick and a prospect.

— Defenseman Kimmo Timonen, a soon-to-be-40-year-old who hadn’t played for the Philadelphia Flyers this season because of blood clots, cost the Blackhawks a second-rounder and a conditional pick.

— Winger Jaromir Jagr, a 43-year-old future Hall of Famer whose role had declined with the New Jersey Devils, cost the Florida Panthers a second-round pick and a conditional pick.

— Defenseman Andrej Sekera, a solid-but-unspectacular veteran for the Carolina Hurricanes, cost the Los Angeles Kings a first-rounder and a prospect.

“Teams are saying, ‘We’ll overpay, and we’ll do it early,’ ” said Brian Burke, the Calgary Flames’ president of hockey operations. “Prices are … I’m not saying stupid, because we may pay that price before we’re done, but they’re certainly exorbitant compared to a year ago.”

The Flames actually charged that price Sunday when they sent winger Curtis Glencross, a pending unrestricted free agent, to the Washington Capitals for second- and third-round picks.

Every year is different. Last year, teams tried to acquire center Ryan Kesler from Vancouver, and Mike Gillis, the Canucks’ general manager at the time, held out for a huge return. While waiting on Kesler, who didn’t end up moving, they didn’t bid on others.

Marian Gaborik went from the Columbus Blue Jackets to L.A. for Matt Frattin, a second-rounder and a conditional pick. Matt Moulson and Cody McCormick went from the Buffalo Sabres to the Minnesota Wild for Torrey Mitchell and two second-round picks. Thomas Vanek and a conditional pick went from the New York Islanders to the Montreal Canadiens for a prospect and a conditional pick – after going from the Sabres to the Islanders earlier in the season for Moulson, a first-rounder and a second-rounder.

“The price tags took a dip to the point where I couldn’t trade Mike Cammalleri,” said Burke, who was the Flames’ acting GM at the time and couldn’t find what he felt was a fair price for his rental. “But this year, they’ve rebounded with a vengeance.”

Why have they rebounded? Simple. Supply and demand.

“I just think they’re generally high because there’s a shortage of players,” said Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli. “There’s parity. There’s a lot of teams that are still in it. There’s not many players available.”

The Bruins' Chris Kelly said it's a shock to the system to find out you've been traded. (USA Today)
The Bruins' Chris Kelly said it's a shock to the system to find out you've been traded. (USA Today)

You can wait and hope prices fall closer to the deadline.

“Or just be willing to pay them,” Chiarelli said.

This is a business. The players are professionals who are being paid millions of dollars. As Bruins forward Chris Kelly said: “I don’t think anyone’s ever going to feel sorry for us.” But as reports and rumors swirl, it’s still difficult to concentrate on hockey.

Coyotes coach Dave Tippett could feel the tension Saturday morning. His players were quiet.

“It’s not like it’s a big secret between players and agents,” Tippett said. “It’s a pretty viral world out there right now, so guys know exactly what’s going on. It’s human nature. You can say, ‘Let’s get by it. Let’s get by it.’ But that’s not how it works.”

Even when a player moves on to a better team, it’s not necessarily cause for celebration at first. Kelly will never forget when the Ottawa Senators traded him to Boston on Feb. 15, 2011. The Senators lost to the Islanders, 4-3. He walked into the gym and ran into GM Bryan Murray.

“Chris,” Murray said, “I just traded you to the Boston Bruins.”

“What’d you get?” Kelly asked.

A second-round pick.

The Senators went on to finish 26th in the NHL. The Bruins went on to win the Stanley Cup, with Kelly contributing five goals and 13 points in 25 games. They went back to the final in 2013. Kelly loves Boston now.

But at the time, Ottawa was the only NHL organization Kelly had ever known. He and his wife had a young daughter with another baby on the way.

“I was extremely upset,” Kelly said. “I loved Ottawa. I didn’t want to get traded. It happened, and it ended up being the best thing to happen. But you want to stay where you’re at, especially people with families. It’s difficult. It’s not just one person you’re thinking about. You’re thinking about your family.”

In the Bruins’ dressing room, Kelly heard Vermette had been emotional down the hall. They had been teammates in Ottawa before Vermette had been traded the first time in his career, to Columbus on March 4, 2009.

“I’ll go talk to him,” Kelly said.

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