It happens at the start of every NHL season. You tune into the first hockey tilt in months and are almost instantly thrown for a loop when you remember a few key players are sporting different sweaters.
That late-summer lull between the opening of free agency and the start of training camp is just long enough for many of us to briefly forget some of the league's biggest stars have been traded to different teams. (Well, it's unlikely anyone forgot about John Tavares going to Toronto. But we'll get to that in just a moment.)
Here's a look at big-name players who will be on new teams for the 2018-19 campaign.
Erik Karlsson - San Jose Sharks
New contract: TBA, in the final season of a seven-year, $49 million deal
2017-2018 stats: 62 points (nine goals, 53 assists) in 71 games played
The two-time Norris Trophy winner isn't just regarded as one of — if not — the greatest defenseman in the league. He's considered one of the NHL's most coveted players. So naturally, the former Senators captain gained a fair amount of attention when there was speculation he would leave Ottawa.
All that came to an end when it was announced that Karlsson had been traded to the San Jose Sharks less than 24 hours before Team Teal reported for training camp. While Karlsson admitted in his press conference with Bay Area media that he was "shocked" by the trade, he also said he's excited to join such a competitive team. Sharks general manager Doug Wilson, on the other hand, told the media the move to acquire Karlsson started back around the trade deadline. After the criticism San Jose endured after a quiet offseason, the Sharks no doubt enter camp on a high note.
The move also boosts San Jose's defense tremendously, as the 29-year-old Swede joins elite defensemen Marc-Edouard Vlasic and fellow Norris Trophy winner Brent Burns. "All I have to do is give (Burns) the puck and, you know, usually it takes care of the rest," Karlsson said.
Max Pacioretty - Las Vegas Golden Knights
New contract: four-year, $28 million extension, which kicks in after 2018-19 season
2017-2018 stats: 37 points (17 goals, 20 assists) in 64 games
The former Montreal Canadiens captain was a big name in trade talks for the better part of last season. And even though the winger previously said he would've signed an extension with Montreal, he was introduced as the newest member of the Las Vegas Golden Knights just ahead of the start of training camp.
After shouldering the weight of the Habs' problems for a few seasons, Pacioretty has an opportunity to make a fresh start with the Golden Knights. Vegas has made a couple of changes to its roster ahead of its sophomore season, which gives Pacioretty wiggle room to find where he fits on the squad for the 2019 campaign. Surely having experience playing for Gerard Gallant will help that process along.
Although, according to Vegas general manager George McPhee, Pacioretty should have no problem fitting in. "He fits the personality of this club," McPhee said of Pacioretty during a press conference following the trade with Montreal. "He brings speed, he brings some size and he fits our club."
James Neal - Calgary Flames
New contract: five-year, $28.75 million
2017-2018 stats: 44 points (25 goals, 19 assists) in 71 games
It's hard to remember the last time James Neal wasn't a big-name player when it came to trade talks. Now, after being a key piece to Las Vegas' astounding inaugural season, he joins Mark Giordano, Johnny Gaudreau and a scrappy Flames contingent up in Calgary.
From a scoring standpoint, Neal appears he will bring a lot to the Flames' forward attack. The 31-year-old has scored over 20 goals every season he's been in the league. He found the back of the net 25 times last season for Las Vegas, including six game-winners and five markers on the power play. (For a team that struggled with scoring last season, the addition could be huge.)
But Neal also brings playoff experience to the table, thanks to back-to-back Stanley Cup Final runs with the Golden Knights in 2018 and the Nashville Predators in 2017. Not surprisingly, this is something his new Flames teammates are eager to learn from him.
"I’m going to ask a lot of questions to Nealer over the year in different situations,” captain Giordano told The Province. "He going to be a big leader on our team because
he’s been there and he’s done it, especially most recently the last couple of years he's been right to the Final."
James van Riemsdyk - Philadelphia Flyers
New contract: five-year, $35 million
2017-2018 stats: 54 points (36 goals, 18 assists) in 81 games
James van Riemsdyk spent his first couple of seasons in the league playing for the Flyers. Now, after a six-year stint with the Maple Leafs, he returns to Philadelphia as one of the best pickups from the 2018 offseason.
As NBC Philadelphia points out, bench boss Dave Hakstol has more depth to work with this season with JVR in the mix. The 29-year-old New Jersey native is coming off a career-best, 36-goal season and could pack a powerful punch on Philly's second line with Claude Giroux holding down left wing responsibilities on the first string. He also has the potential to give the Flyers' power play — which ranked 15th overall last season — a nice pick-me-up.
John Tavares - Toronto Maple Leafs
New contract: seven-year, $77 million
2017-2018 stats: 84 points (37 goals, 47 assists) in 82 games
Of course, there was no bigger move during the offseason than the one that brought former New York Islanders captain John Tavares to Toronto. Several teams clambered over him before he chose to play for his hometown squad. And now that the Islanders have made it clear they've moved on from their breakup this summer, we can finely focus on what Tavares is going to bring to this Maple Leafs team.
The current roster in Toronto gained plenty of attention a couple of seasons back when the Auston Matthews-led rookie class not only made the Leafs a playoff contender, but also fun to watch in the process. The young team then got some seasoned help in 2017 when veteran Patrick Marleau joined it. And although Toronto was booted from the first round of the playoffs both of those years, it has clearly improved.
Now with the addition of Tavares, the Leafs are a preseason favorite to make a deep Cup run — a run that Tavares himself is ready to make sooner rather than later.
"Getting into the dance is what it’s all about,” Tavares told Postmedia News. “It’s about giving yourself that opportunity to compete for a Stanley Cup."
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As the Pittsburgh Penguins continue trade talks centered around wing Rickard Rakell, the veteran has drawn a lot of interest around the league. The Penguins may be able to net some strong assets for him in any deal, but there is also a high asking price to move the wing. Rakell could be a real game-changer for a team this late in the offseason, and there is some smoke around a trade happening. But where the veteran lands remains a major mystery around the NHL. NHL insider David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period linked the Seattle Kraken to a deal for Rakell. While it remains to be seen if a deal will come about, the Kraken could be a solid landing spot for the veteran. Rakell remains a valuable scoring option and could heavily impact any team that would land him. Last season for the Penguins, the veteran wing scored 35 goals and 35 assists, showing his strong productivity. The biggest obstacle for the Kraken in trading for Rakell is that he owns an eight-team no-trade list. It's unknown which teams are on this list, so Rakell would need to waive this if Seattle were part of it. We have seen players do this over the years, so it's possible that a deal could happen. But it has also been reported that Rakell would prefer to stay with Pittsburgh, despite all the trade rumors around him. If Seattle were able to pull a deal for Rakell off, it could help them get back to the postseason. Seattle has missed the playoffs in three of the four years that it has been a franchise in the league, and the front office has a lot of pressure to win moving forward.
The 2024 offseason expanded the $30M-per-year wide receiver club to six members. D.K. Metcalf, Ja’Marr Chase and Garrett Wilson have taken it to nine this year. Terry McLaurin is undoubtedly pushing to bump that number to 10, after seeing 2019 Day 2 classmates Metcalf and A.J. Brown land among that contingent. McLaurin reported to training camp Sunday and landed on the active/PUP list. As our Rory Parks explained, skepticism exists about how injured the Commanders’ top wide receiver really is. An ankle injury has keyed the PUP stay, but it can be safely assumed McLaurin would be ready to practice if an extension comes to pass. Nevertheless, the Commanders have been surprised by the difficulty of these talks. Using an injury to avoid practicing while negotiating — developments the Jonathan Taylor and Micah Parsons sagas brought — represents a third tactic, joining the holdout and the increasingly utilized hold-in amid extension talks. McLaurin shifted from a holdout to the injury route; no matter how he is accomplishing not practicing, the seventh-year veteran is aiming to land a lucrative third contract. His age provides a complication for Washington. McLaurin is going into an age-30 season, separating him from Brown and Metcalf. Both Ole Miss products were drafted just before McLaurin, a 2019 third-round pick, but they are each two years younger. This strengthened their cases for big-ticket third contracts. McLaurin went first to ignite the second-tier boom on the receiver market in 2022, agreeing to a three-year, $69.6M extension. That shaped the Metcalf and Deebo Samuel extensions, both of which coming in higher than McLaurin’s despite the latter’s consistency with suboptimal quarterback situations. McLaurin’s AAV has dropped to 17th at wide receiver. The Commanders are prepared to extend their top wideout, but Sportskeeda.com’s Tony Pauline indicates the "holdup" is regarding the $30M-AAV number. Some around the league point to the team not wanting to go into that neighborhood for McLaurin, despite his five 1,000-yard seasons. Courtland Sutton and McLaurin are nearly the same age, and the Broncos’ top target signed a four-year, $92M extension. That matches where the Titans went for Calvin Ridley (now 30) in 2024. McLaurin, though, has a better resume than both and should be aiming higher. The Commanders have a Jayden Daniels rookie contract to structure another McLaurin extension around as well. Adam Peters was around for the 49ers’ 2022 Samuel extension but not Brandon Aiyuk‘s $30M-per-year deal. (The Samuel extension also did not work out for the 49ers, who proceeded with a salary dump of sorts by trading him to the Commanders.) The second-year GM taking a hardline stance with McLaurin would be an interesting route given the WR’s importance to a sudden contender. Peters confirmed talks are ongoing, with that comment coming after McLaurin expressed frustration about the negotiations. A potential gap between the pack of 20-somethings (and Tyreek Hill) north of $30M AAV and the Tee Higgins–Jaylen Waddle–D.J. Moore tier could be relevant here, and it will be interesting to see if McLaurin settles for something just south of that $30MM benchmark. Guarantees and contract structure, of course, will be important to determining the value as well. A short-term extension should be reached soon, per Pauline, but if the Commanders hold the line at or around $30M, the McLaurin matter could drag on for a while longer.
While the Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders have garnered a lot of attention lately, there is one NFC team that has quietly been flying under the radar. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost a one-score game to the Lions in the divisional round in 2023 and followed that up with another one-score loss to QB Jayden Daniels and the Commanders last season, proving how close they have been to the ultimate prize in the two seasons with Baker Mayfield under center. In an appearance on ESPN's "Get Up" Tuesday morning, analyst and former player Ryan Clark offered high praise for Mayfield and what the Buccaneers are capable of. "Baker Mayfield is a top-10 quarterback in this league," Clark said. "Baker Mayfield is a football player. And when I say that, I know people at home are gonna be like, 'Duh, he gets paid to play football.' No, not all quarterbacks are seen as football players. Not all quarterbacks are embraced in the locker room as one of us." Clark sees the Buccaneers as a team the rest of the league should be paying attention to because of who they have returning and the close calls in the playoffs the last two seasons. "This is a team that's been on the cusp the last two years," Clark said. "Now you think about some of the pieces they've added, the confidence in their quarterback and the way that he plays, and Todd Bowles with another year to understand winning at a high level at the head coach position. This is a team you better be extremely scared of because they're stacked and they're confident." Mayfield has been sensational during his time with the Buccaneers. Although he did throw 16 interceptions, Mayfield accounted for the third-most passing yards (4,500) in the league last season and has thrown the most TD passes (69) in the last two seasons, per StatMuse. To add even more incentive for Mayfield, the team restructured his contract, which is set to expire after the 2026 season, to include $30M in guaranteed salary for that season. The Buccaneers return a lot of production on both sides of the ball, in addition to bringing in first-round draft pick Emeka Egbuka, who topped 1,000 receiving yards twice at Ohio State and accounted for 26 total TDs. While Tampa Bay allowed the 17th-most points per game (22.7) last season, it returns the majority of its defensive production. On top of that, the offseason acquisition of veteran LB and two-time Pro-Bowler Haason Reddick, who agreed to terms on a one-year deal, should be a welcomed addition for a franchise that had some question marks on defense last season. The Buccaneers are projected to have the sixth-easiest schedule in the NFL this season and have the best chance to win the NFC South for the fifth consecutive season, according to ESPN Analytics. If Mayfield can cut back on his turnovers and the defense can create more pressure on opposing QBs, the Buccaneers could be a threat in the NFC once again as they look to put their recent nail-biting losses in the postseason behind them.
The Los Angeles Lakers are looking for Bronny James to make some changes ahead of his second year in the NBA. James, the No. 55 pick in the 2024 draft, played in 27 games for the Lakers last season and started in one game. He averaged 2.3 points, .8 assists and .7 rebounds per contest. For James to improve on those numbers this season, head coach JJ Redick thinks the 20-year-old needs to change his physique. "The biggest thing for Bronny is that he has to get in elite shape," Redick said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. "That's the barrier of entry for him right now. And if he does that, I think he's got a chance to be a really fantastic player in the NBA." James didn't have much of a chance to get in elite shape before his rookie season. He played a shortened season at USC after suffering cardiac arrest on July 24, 2023. James made his debut for the Trojans on Dec. 10, 2023. Redick compared James' ceiling to Davion Mitchell of the Miami Heat and T.J. McConnell of the Indiana Pacers. For James to get there, he has to push past his fears of the prior cardiac arrest caused by a congenital heart defect. "I think we have all seen these amazing flashes of it from Bronny," Redick said. "And to get to that next level for him, it's cardio fitness. "He's cleared. ... I get that there's a history there of a really scary thing that he had to live through, and I think it's tough to push past certain points for him, but he's going to get there. He's going to get there." Based on Redick's comments, James has more to change than getting his 6-foot-3, 210-pound frame in shape for the upcoming season. He has to work on his mental fear of pushing his body too far. James' mental hurdle might be the biggest obstacle to his improvement as an NBA player.