Around the NHL Draft Day Edition: Vegas Making Moves, Babcock to Columbus, Who Goes Third? More

Tab Bamford Tab Bamford
Jun 28, 2023
Jun 28, 2023

Things are buzzing around the NHL as we get ready for the start of the 2023 NHL Draft on Wednesday night. From free agents getting deals done to trades to accommodate new/existing obligations, the NHL is getting busy! I’m going to update this throughout the afternoon before the draft to keep us up to date with everything going on.

  • The NHL announced — officially — the salary cap numbers for the coming season. Now teams firmly know how much money they have to get off the books to make things work if there are specific free agents they’re pursuing.

  • The realities of the cap only going up a minimal amount are hitting teams all over the league. And the Stanley Cup champions aren’t excluded from the list of teams with money to move. They traded one of their original players, forward Reilly Smith, to the Penguins for a pick in next year’s draft on Wednesday afternoon.

  • Vegas then got a deal done with a forward they acquired before the deadline. A nice deal for Chicago Wolves legend Ivan Barbashev.

  • We’ve known for a while that Mike Babcock would become the head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets at some point after July 1. Now we have some details on his contract to become their next head coach.

  • The Colorado Avalanche offseason retool continues. After injuries limited their ability to defend their championship this spring, the Avs have been aggressive in filling in their holes before the start of the draft. Colorado already added center Ryan Johansen from Columbus and flipped center Alex Newhook to the Habs for two picks in the 30s in this week’s draft. Now, one of the picks acquired from Montreal is heading to Tampa to get RFA forward Ross Colton. This is a really savvy maneuver by the Avs’ front office, essentially turning Alex Galchenyuk and Newhook into Johansen (at 50 percent of his cap hit), Colton and the 31st overall pick in tonight’s first round.

  • We’ve all been talking about where Matvei Michkov will come off the board, but it appears there’s some debate about what the Blue Jackets will do at No. 3 overall after the Blackhawks select Connor Bedard and the Ducks presumably take Adam Fantilli. This would be a pretty striking climax for Will Smith’s meteoric rise up the draft this year. He’s a fantastic, impressive prospect but I don’t think anyone had him going third overall in October of last year.

  • One of the biggest trades at the deadline was New Jersey getting Timo Meier out of San Jose. He recently instructed his agent to get an eight-year deal done to keep him with the Devils, and that mission is reportedly accomplished. And, again, the Devils get it done at an incredibly reasonable number.

  • Blackhawks legend David Kampf has carved out a nice role for himself in Toronto. Nice enough that the Leafs thought a four-year deal made sense. This is a really nice deal for Kampf, who registered a career-high 27 points in 80 games last season.

  • Fans interested in a reunion with Max Domi will be pleased to read/hear that Dallas is apparently moving on from both Domi and Luke Glendening (a center who I really wouldn’t mind in Chicago but will likely have better offers).

    • written by

    Tab Bamford has been writing about the Chicago Blackhawks for almost two decades. He joined Bleacher Nation as the lead Blackhawks writer in May 2022. Tab is a member of the and is the author of three books about the Blackhawks: (Triumph Books),"100 Thin꧅g🃏s Blackhawks Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die" (Triumph Books) and "Chicago Blackhawks: An Illustrated Timeline" (Reedy Press, 2021). Find him on Twitter/X/Instagram/Threads at @The1Ta꧟b

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