Senators and Hurricanes Make A Deal
Galchenyuk, Paquette, Dzingel on the move
This week’s fantasy waiver wire article on The Athletic is here.
The Ottawa Senators and Carolina Hurricanes hooked up for a trade Saturday.
The Senators Get: LW/RW Ryan Dzingel
Dzingel is a 28-year-old winger with good speed and a good enough shot to have two 20-goal seasons to his credit. However, he tends to have a hard time without the puck and managed to score 10 goals and 33 points in 75 games for Carolina going back to last season.
His offensive impact was whittled away as his defensive shortcomings improved but Dzingel was not having a great impact, certainly not for a player with a $3.375M cap hit.
Returning to Ottawa, where he started his NHL career and had his most success, Dzingel should get a shot to play in a significant role for the Sens. Considering that the Senators won’t be challenging for a playoff spot, though, they could build up Dzingel’s value to the point that he has at least some kind of value as a rental at the trade deadline.
The Hurricanes Get: LW/RW Alex Galchenyuk and C Cedric Paquette
Galchenyuk is a 27-year-old whose career has gone sideways. He scored 30 goals in 2015-2016 and had 23 points in 25 games the next season before suffering a knee injury in December 2016.
From that point on, it has been a series of misadventures. It started with the Canadiens determining, rather publicly, that Galchenyuk was incapable of playing center, which was maybe not a necessary final verdict at age 22 but I digress. The essential point behind it, that Galchenyuk was not sound enough defensively to handle the role had merit. He was below average defensively then and he is still below average now.
Early in his career, Galchenyuk could create offense at even strength but as time has marched on, he has become more dependent on power play production to juice his point totals. In 2018-2019, for Arizona after he was traded there for Max Domi, Galchenyuk scored 21 of his 41 points on the power play.
In subsequent stops in Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Ottawa, he has managed 25 points in 67 games while getting outshot rather handily. This is not the way his career was supposed to go but it’s where his career is now, hanging on by a thread.
Galchenyuk is on a deal with a $1.05-million cap hit so he does come with a cost savings but given his career trajectory, he seems like a roll of the dice for the Hurricanes.
Paquette, 27, is a black hole offensively, still seeking the first 20-point season of his career but he fills a role. He’s a fourth-line center who will hit and can kill penalties and there may be some value for Carolina in that role. A Stanley Cup winner with Tampa Bay last season, Paquette is in the final year of a deal that comes with a $1.65-million cap hit.
Verdict: I like the deal from Ottawa’s perspective. Dzingel was not working out in Carolina but on a Senators team that is desperate for scoring, he may have a chance to play a more significant role.
There is a chance that Galchenyuk works out in Carolina, if they have the infrastructure to cover for his shortcomings, but it is a low-risk investment that does not hurt them if he fails to turn his career around. With the understanding that Paquette is not likely to be a driver of results from the fourth line, he still offers old-school hockey values – a gritty checking center who has played in 91 playoff games and doesn’t shy away when games get physical.
So, having already stated that I like Ottawa’s side of the deal, I can at least understand it from Carolina’s perspective, especially if they have reached the conclusion that Dzingel isn’t going to be a scoring winger in their lineup.
SATURDAY STARS
DET C Luke Glendening 1 G, 2 A in a 4-2 win at Nashville
DET D Filip Hronek 2 G in a 4-2 win at Nashville
TB G Andrei Vasilevskiy had 33 saves on 34 shots in a 6-1 win at Florida.
OTT G Marcus Hogberg saved 30 of 31 shots in a 2-1 victory at Winnipeg.
SATURDAY GAMES
Ottawa 2 Winnipeg 1
OTT G Marcus Hogberg saved 30 of 31 shots in the win. (.859 SV% in 8 GP)
Vegas 3 San Jose 1
VGK C Chandler Stephenson 1 G, 1 A (4 G, 2 A in past 4 GP)
VGK D Alec Martinez 2 A (5 A in past 6 GP)
VGK G Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 24 of 25 shots for the win. (.934 SV% in 7 starts)
Boston 2 N.Y. Islanders 4
NYI C Jean-Gabriel Pageau 2 G
NYI RW Jordan Eberle 1 G, 1 A
NYI LW Leo Komarov 2 A
NYI G Semyon Varlamov stopped 28 of 30 shots for the victory. (.930 SV% in 10 starts)
BOS LW Brad Marchand 1 G, 1 A (9 G, 9 A in 14 GP)
BOS C Patrice Bergeron 1 G, 1 A (7 G, 11 A in 14 GP)
BOS RW David Pastrnak 2 A (5 G, 5 A in 7 GP)
Tampa Bay 6 Florida 1
TB RW Tyler Johnson 2 G
TB LW Ondrej Palat 1 G, 1 A (2 G, 3 A in past 3 GP)
TB RW Mathieu Joseph 1 G, 1 A (3 G, 1 A in past 3 GP)
TB C Gemel Smith 2 A
TB G Andrei Vasilevskiy had 33 saves on 34 shots in the win. (.933 SV% in 12 starts)
Columbus 2 Chicago 3 (OT)
CHI RW Patrick Kane 2 A (4 G, 11 A in past 8 GP)
CBJ RW Cam Atkinson 1 G, 1 A (4 G, 4 A in past 5 GP)
Detroit 4 Nashville 2
DET C Luke Glendening 1 G, 2 A
DET D Filip Hronek 2 G
DET LW Robby Fabbri 1 G, 1 A (3 G, 1 A in past 4 GP)
DET LW Robby Fabbri, C Luke Glendening, and RW Anthony Mantha were on the ice for three goals for during 5-on-5 play.
Montreal 2 Toronto 1
MTL LW Tyler Toffoli 1 G, 1 A
MTL RW Brendan Gallagher 1 G, 1 A
MTL G Carey Price turned away 21 of 22 shots for the victory.
MTL LW Tomas Tatar was a healthy scratch. (1 G, 1 A, 19 SOG in past 8 GP)
Carolina 4 Dallas 3 (SO)
CAR D Jake Gardiner 2 A
St. Louis 5 Arizona 4 (OT)
STL LW Mike Hoffman 1 G, 1 A (4 G, 4 A in past 8 GP)
STL LW Ivan Barbashev 1 G, 1 A (2 G, 2 A in past 3 GP)
ARZ D Ilya Lyubushkin was on the ice for four goals against, and one for, during 5-on-5 play in the loss.
Calgary 1 Vancouver 3
VAN G Thatcher Demko had 18 saves on 19 shots for the win. (.899 SV% in 10 starts)
CGY G Jacob Markstrom turned away 43 of 45 shots in the loss. (.925 SV% in 12 starts)
SATURDAY SHOTS/EXPECTED GOALS (Via NATURAL STAT TRICK)
SUNDAY GAME PROBABILITIES
SUNDAY DFS VALUE PLAYS
VGK C Chandler Stephenson $3700 vs. COL
VGK C Tanner Glass $3500 vs. COL
WSH RW Tom Wilson $4700 at PIT
PIT LW Jason Zucker $3500 vs. WSH
WSH D Justin Schultz $3600 at PIT
PIT D Pierre-Olivier Joseph $3300 vs. WSH