Hamonic Finally Dealt, Others Staying Put

The New York Islanders finally dealt defenseman Travis Hamonic. It’s been more than a year since he expressed his desire to be traded closer to home. The Calgary Flames parted with a 2018 first rounder pick and second round pick. An additional second rounder will go to New York in 2019 or 2020. The Flames will also receive a fourth-round pick.

It’s a steep price to pay for the Flames. But a good shutdown defender is key if they want to keep up with the other teams in their division and Hamonic is a good one.

For the Islanders, they now have a few more pieces if they want to make a push for Duchene or Galchenyuk. Those two centers are believed to be on the trading block.

The Coyotes were busy on Friday, grabbing Niklas Hjalmarsson from Chicago and Derek Stepan and Anti Raanta from the New York Rangers. Hjalmarsson and OEL give the Coyotes a tough first pairing.

There were no real surprises during the NHL Draft. Nico Hischier went first to New Jersey and Philadelphia grabbed Nolan Patrick. But those two picks were pretty much a given. Miro Heiskanen went third to Dallas and Colorado grabbed Cale Makar.

The Las Vegas Golden Knights had a very good draft. But that’s to be expected when you have three picks in the top 15. Still it was up to the team to make good use of them and they did. Vegas may not be terrible competitive out of the gate. But the team does have a fairly bright future. And they picked up a number of kids to build the farm system with.

If there was a loser in the draft, the Detroit Red Wings would be near the top of the list. Even the biggest die-hard Detroit Red Wings fan can’t be happy with what the team here.