Ice Breakers: Canucks are actively working to trade Micheal Ferland’s contract

Daily Faceoff Live, previously known as The Daily Faceoff Show, is back for another season, and with that comes the return of Ice Breakers, as Frank Seravalli joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Mike McKenna to talk about the Penguins blueline, the Canucks trying to move Micheal Ferland, and the Jakob Chychrun and Jesse Puljujarvi trade talks.

Tyler Yaremchuk: “Training camps are rolling on and lots of teams have big, big roster decisions to make. Are there any around the league that stand out to you?”

Frank Seravalli: “Yeah, there’s one in particular. I’m keeping a close eye on the Pittsburgh Penguins and their blueline, and that’s because last week Penguins general manager Ron Hextall sent a note to his 31 counterparts, letting them know that Pierre-Olivier Joseph is available via trade, and that’s just part of their process that they’re going through on their back end. When you consider the addition of someone like Jan Rutta and Jeff Petry, all of a sudden numbers get really interesting in a hurry. So, when you get to this time of year, the other part is when you send out a note like that, teams are also kind of calling your bluff. Okay, P-O Joseph is available, well that must mean that you’re in a numbers crunch, and eventually if he’s the guy you’re singling out, well then you may need to put him on waivers at some point, so why would we trade for a player we could just pick up on waivers in a few days?

So, the Penguins have a decision to make. Are they going to be keeping P-O Joseph or are they going to put Chad Ruhwedel on waivers, Mark Friedman? Those are the guys in that mix for that 6-7 or 7-8-9 spot in the Penguins organization. P-O Joseph is just one name to keep an eye on that has been out there in trade talks over the last week.”

Mike McKenna: “So you’re saying we might be seeing a classic smokescreen to a certain extent. Love it.

So cap space is obviously at such a premium here, and we haven’t seen much movement in the salary cap coming out of COVID and everything. Teams have contracts that maybe are eating up cap space that they’d like to move on from. Is there a team out there that you think is trying to move on from those contracts, and who might that player be?”

Seravalli: “It’s not exactly one that’s eating up cap space, but when you consider the ramifications that come with having your team operate in LTIR, the Vancouver Canucks have in recent days and weeks been attempting to move the contract of Micheal Ferland. Now, he’s in the final year of his deal, we know that he’s not coming back to play, his cap hit is $3.5 million, and his real cash owed to him this season is $2.75 million, so they’ve been in touch with some other teams that either have had injuries in training camp up to this point, or are already operating in LTIR and might be able to use a little bit of a boost.

The thing with Ferland’s contract though that I think has gotten in the way of some of this is that because Ferland is out with injury, it’s not insured, so whoever’s picking up that deal would be paying the full $2.75 million in real cash. The Canucks are obviously trying to get rid of it because they don’t want to pay that and they don’t want to operate in LTIR, so they’re probably going to have to pay a little bit to move it, but we’ll see how that unfolds.

Maybe there’s a team out there that says ‘You know what, this is a situation that might benefit us a bit to be operating in LTIR if we are starting this season with some short term injuries that may not last the whole year, that would give us a little bit of a cushion.’ So just something to keep an eye on, Micheal Ferland’s contract. We’ve seen some other teams this summer [do this], like the Montreal Canadiens trading Shea Weber’s contract, so there are teams out there that have been trying to do it.”

Yaremchuk: “Two names that we heard a lot about leading through the draft, free agency, and basically all summer, Jakob Chychrun and Jesse Puljujarvi. As the start of the regular season draws closer, what are you hearing about those two trade targets?”

Seravalli: “Well, they’re definitely still out there and available, and those teams remain active in discussions. I don’t know that anything’s quite front burner yet at this moment on either one of them. The two teams that stand out for me in the Jakob Chychrun saga, as it’s continued on this long as he reiterated again during training camp that he would like to move on, are the Ottawa Senators and the Los Angeles Kings.

The Edmonton Oilers and the Toronto Maple Leafs have been mentioned recently as teams that may be interested in Jakob Chychrun, and I think those are conversations that maybe happened a long time ago, and certainly not anything recent. I don’t get the sense that the Oilers or the Leafs have their radar sights set on adding someone like Jakob Chychrun.

And it’s gone on so long at this point that something has to change. Either the ask has to change from the Coyotes, or someone is willing to step up and pay. If someone was to be that team, to really pay the price to get Chychrun, my money would be on the Ottawa Senators. I think they’ve been most excited about what he brings, and you can see the change that he might bring to their blueline as well, just adding some significance there for a team that already took huge strides off the ice this summer and certainly looks way better on paper.

And Jesse Puljujarvi, there really hasn’t been much remark in there. I don’t think it’s any secret at this point that the Oilers attempted to move on from him this summer. They changed their ask as well, they were at first looking for a player back, then they were looking for a pick back, and I think that sort of slid to this point. And with Puljujarvi on a one-year deal at $3 million, I don’t know that teams are out there looking at it saying, “We’re going to get a lot of value out of this player for $3 million”. Maybe on his previous contract, it might have been different, and I think at this point, there hasn’t been enough of a market to develop to make the Oilers want to pull the trigger.

But they’ve got some significant decisions to make on their own roster front as we get close to setting the rosters next Monday at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. The Oilers are probably going to have to put a player or two on waivers in order to be cap compliant, and you need everyone pulling your weight, including Puljujarvi at $3 million.”

You can watch the full episode here…