On Friday, the New York Rangers shocked the hockey world when they sent captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for a conditional 2025 fourth-round draft pick and Finnish depth defenseman Urho Vaakanaian.
And the kicker? The trade did not involve any salary retention on his seven-year, $56 million contract that pays him $8 million for two more years.
For the season that Trouba is having – he has just six points in 24 games, ranks third-worst in average GameScore among Rangers players, and is, pretty much, a mess in all three zones – this trade seems to make very little sense for Anaheim.
If anything, this could speak to the current market for defensemen in the National Hockey League. If teams with cap to spare are willing to take on large contracts from other teams for pennies on the dollar, this is setting the tone for a wild trade market.
If this is the case, Pittsburgh Penguins GM and POHO Kyle Dubas needs to get on the phone.
Maybe, just maybe, one could argue that Trouba’s reputation earned him the benefit of the doubt in this circumstance. He’s having a poor season, but he is known around the league for being a physical, borderline, momentum-shifting player. His contract is off the books after 2026, and perhaps Anaheim doesn’t see themselves as having a real shot at contention until then.
But, given the circumstances surrounding Trouba with this trade – the Rangers held him out of practice Friday and, reportedly, threatened waivers for their captain if he refused to waive his no-movement clause – getting no salary retention and giving up an asset seems like a whole lot for a player that simply does not have much perceived value.
Okay, Jacob Trouba:
Hearing Rangers do have several options, but Trouba can block with his partial no-trade. Rangers have indicated they will waive him if he does not accept one. One team is believed to be Columbus.
This is absolute hardball, but there is a precedent. In…
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) December 6, 2024
So maybe there are also opportunities for other GMs, like Dubas, to offload some net-negative contracts at a cost that isn’t as high as previously thought.
One that comes to mind is defenseman Ryan Graves, whose tumultuous season with Pittsburgh in 2023-24 – after signing a six-year, $27 million contract following an impressive season in New Jersey – has landed him in the press box for much of the current season.
On the outside, Graves doesn’t have as much perceived value as Trouba, and there are four years remaining on that contract that pays him $4.5 million annually. But if the market for defensemen is this in-demand – and Graves can string together a decent stretch of games for the Penguins – it’s not inconceivable that a team like the Ducks, San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks, or Columbus Blue Jackets would take on his contract.
Beyond defensemen, goaltender Tristan Jarry has slowly been finding his game again for the Penguins. He is owed $5.735 million annually for four more years, including this season.
#LetsGoPens head coach Mike Sullivan stressed the importance of good goaltending during this winning streak:
“I think our goaltending has been critical to the stretch of games that we’ve put together at this point. It’s hard to win in this league if you don’t get a timely save.…
— Kelsey Surmacz (@kelsey_surmacz4) December 4, 2024
Perhaps a team like Utah – who is on the verge of contention but in need of more steadiness between the pipes – would take a chance on a contract like that, especially with the free cap space they have and the injury to Connor Ingram. Or, maybe, Columbus orchestrates a swap of sorts between Jarry and Elvis Merzlikens.
Or – if there still isn’t much out there for offloading those two big contracts – perhaps Dubas could check in with the Rangers about pending unrestriced free agent defenseman Marcus Pettersson, since they are now short a top-four blueliner. Pettersson should command some value – perhaps, a bigger package involving two-way forward Kaapo Kakko – that the Rangers definitely possess in return, so it might be worth looking into.
In any case, the Trouba trade completely throws off precedent for value in the trade market. As immovable as some contracts may have looked before, they might not be as immovable as previously thought.
And for a team like the Penguins – who are trying to rebuild on-the-fly but are still pretty tight against the cap – offloading one of those bigger contracts would go a long way toward turning over an older roster for another playoff contention window.
So, if there is a market out there for takers on these types of contracts, Dubas should be doing everything in his power to shed some overcommitted cap space.
