NHL Rumors: LeBrun on the Complexities of Making a Trade
Making trades this season, especially for Canadian teams, is more difficult because of the salary cap, quarantining and possibly delaying the 2021 NHL Draft.
On the complexities of making a trade due to the salary cap, quarantining, and the potential moving of the 2021 NHL draft

TSN: Pierre LeBrun on TSN OverDrive on how the quarantining period will make it harder for Canadian teams to make trades ahead of the April 12th trade deadline.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

“… the fact is, that if you’re the Leafs or the Habs, I’ll pick the top two teams in the division right now and you think you might make a pretty sizeable move, or at least a tangible move ahead of April 12th, as Marc Bergevin said in my piece, in that article, ‘we’re going to have to look at all this by mid-March as far as what the plan is.’ I think that is pretty honest of him because 14 days, there’s about 12 to 14 games left after April 12th for most teams and if your player is missing six to seven games after April 12th, that’s not a lot of time to integrate in your lineup if, if he’s going to be a top-six or a top-four, right?

Obviously, I think if you’re picking up a depth player on April 12th it doesn’t matter as much. But it’s another sort of layer to all of this when you’re talking trades I think if you’re the Leafs or Habs in particular. Maybe the Jets again before the deadline.”

LeBrun doesn’t think some organizations will be looking to fire coach’s or managers as they may not want to incur the expense of having to pay two salaries.

“Trade-wise, the complexity of it from a Canadian team perspective is quarantine and everything else. Now, I do think we’ll see moves for sure, but I have a feeling we won’t see as many as a normal season, in my mind.”

Host Noodles says that when talking to teams, there is lots of trade chatter going on, that managers want to make trades but issues with the salary cap, border issues, it’s not a traditional year. He asks LeBrun if he thinks there will be trades, if trade chatter has picked up recently or if it’s been constant the entire time.

“I think it’s been pretty constant the whole time, I’ll be honest with ya. There was actually a ton of chatter during training camp. Teams felt a little unsettled with their rosters, and I think some of those conversations have continued. So I do think we’ll see some of those moves.

I think one thing that one thing came to mind when Dregs reported on Insider Trading the possibility of the NHL discussing internally whether the draft this summer might get delayed a year, and we’re not saying for sure that it’s going to happen but it’s clearly a possibility.

Does that devalue in any way that first-round pick that a contender is dangling? Like, just the fact that it might be 12 months later. I’m not saying it would, but it’s the first thing that came to my mind is that, the number one currency for a team trying to win a Stanley Cup when trying to get a, you look at Tampa Bay and their moves at the deadline last year right, they spent a couple first-rounders. And I’m just curious whether you’re a rebuilding team and you can get a first-rounder from a contending team but if it comes to fruition that the July ’21 draft is delayed until June 2022, it sounds silly to say that a first-round pick should be a first-round pick, but the fact that it’s 12 months later, does that affect a GMs thinking? I’m curious about that.”

* Radio hit was a couple of weeks ago but is still relevant and not dated