The All-Star break is behind us, and it’s officially trade season. With so much going on, you might have missed out on some of the top stories this week.
Buffalo Locks Up Cozens: The week started out with a bang when a seven-year, $49.7MM contract extension was announced for Dylan Cozens. The Buffalo Sabres are making a strong commitment to their young core, handing out long-term deals for Cozens, Mattias Samuelsson, and Tage Thompson over the last few months.
Pretty nice early birthday present for the young center, who turned 22 on Thursday and has 44 points in 50 games so far this season.
Hughes Gets Hurt: New Jersey Devils star Jack Hughes is listed out week-to-week with an upper-body suffered just after the break. While there isn’t anyone challenging Connor McDavid for the league scoring title, Hughes was right in that next tier of players, with 35 goals and 67 points in 50 games.
You could certainly notice his absence yesterday against the Minnesota Wild, but so far, the Devils have been able to step up and continue grabbing points in the standings.
New York, New York: The biggest news of the week came on Thursday when the New York Rangers landed Vladimir Tarasenko and Nikko Mikkola from the St. Louis Blues. With plenty of debate over whether the Blues got enough for the six-time 30-goal scorer, it will hopefully start moving the trade deadline dominoes.
It paid off right away for New York, as Tarasenko scored the opening goal in his first game as a Ranger (on a feed from long-time friend Artemi Panarin, no less). One interesting thing to watch is how the team uses Tarasenko down the stretch. He’s played fewer than 14 minutes in each of his appearances so far.
Press Box For Jakob: This weekend, the Arizona Coyotes have decided to pull Jakob Chychrun off the lineup card, scratching him for “trade-related reasons.” It appears as though he has played his last game for the organization and will finally be dealt after months (and months) of speculation.
Chychrun has been very public with his desire to join a contender and has played well through 36 games so far. The Coyotes have maintained through the entire process that they would wait for a high price to be matched, and it appears that is close to happening.
Oilers Chasing A Shark: Reports emerged yesterday that the San Jose Sharks and Edmonton Oilers have discussed an Erik Karlsson trade, though it would be a complicated deal to pull off midseason. With the way McDavid is playing this season,…
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