It took 18 months, but Jakob Chychrun finally got traded — and arguably to a team that needs him more than any other team in the NHL.

It’s yet another big domino falling in what has been a wild couple of weeks as the trade market for defensemen plays itself out.

Let’s walk through it all again.

The Bruins are believed to have shown interest in Chychrun about three or four weeks ago, but when it didn’t look like there was a path to a deal given the price, the B’s shifted gears toward Vladislav Gavrikov in Columbus. The Blue Jackets thought they pretty much had a deal with the Bruins around two weeks ago, but the Bruins told the Jackets they needed more time, presumably to shed cap space.

The Athletic has live coverage of the NHL trade deadline with the latest news, deals and analysis. 

In the interim, Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan sent a note to his colleagues around Feb. 19, saying he was ready to listen on pending unrestricted free agent Dmitry Orlov and, well, that obviously changed everything. The B’s pivoted to what they felt was a better option and got a deal done on Feb. 23. Great pickup for Boston.

That left Columbus fuming. And scrambling. There are only so many first-round picks available.

The Athletic: Blue Jackets’ trade involving D Vladislav Gavrikov falls through … so now what?#NHLBruins swing big deal with #ALLCaps for Dmitry Orlov leaves #CBJ at square one with a week to go before the NHL trade deadline.https://t.co/ugY6UmSndn

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) February 24, 2023

The Jackets last Friday began re-establishing trade talks with previous suitors on Gavrikov, reaching out to the likes of Edmonton, Los Angeles and Toronto.

The Maple Leafs, meanwhile, were already engaged by then with Chicago on defenseman Jake McCabe, although that deal didn’t come together until this past Monday.

The Oilers showed some interest in Gavrikov, but it was clear to Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen that Edmonton viewed Gavrikov as Plan B or Plan C. Turns out, it was certainly Plan C.

That’s because the Oilers had been engaged in on-again, off-again conversations with Arizona on Chychrun for a two-week period leading up to Tuesday. Talks really heated up between the Oilers and Coyotes on Sunday and Monday, and at one point, both sides felt they were pretty close to something. But that deal fell apart, in large part because the Coyotes simply didn’t want to take money back in the form of a player contract. Even after moving Jesse Puljujarvi to Carolina on Tuesday morning, the Oilers couldn’t make a Chychrun deal work without sending at least one player contract back.

My sense is that Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong was willing to keep working at it with the Oilers, but Edmonton GM Ken Holland decided he couldn’t risk waiting until too close to Friday’s deadline and miss out on the other defenseman he was having conversations on.

That would be Mattias Ekholm. Holland phoned Predators GM David Poile on Feb. 23 to get the ball rolling on that one. In that conversation, Poile informed Holland that the price for Ekholm would have to include at least a first-round pick this year (with Nashville hosting the draft, that was important), plus prospect Reid Schaefer, drafted at No. 32 last summer. The Oilers weren’t enamored with having Schaefer part of things, but they kept the conversation going with the Predators while also having parallel conversations going with Arizona on Chychrun over the past week.

Once Holland informed Armstrong on Tuesday that, once and for all, he was out on Chychrun, he closed the deal on Ekholm with Poile. Having to include Tyson Barrie in that trade for cap reasons was not an easy decision, either. Barrie was a key member of the Oilers’ power play and a popular teammate. But the overall price tag was worth it for Holland, to get a veteran top-four defenseman like Ekholm, who the Oilers hope will help stabilize their five-on-five game defensively.

Why Mattias Ekholm is a big addition for an Oilers team that needs to win now – The Athletic https://t.co/LTFW7ibdrV

— Daniel Nugent-Bowman (@DNBsports) March 1, 2023

Tuesday was also the last time the Coyotes and Kings spoke on Chychrun. I would love to know how many times those two front offices chatted over the past 12-plus months on the defenseman, who always seemed destined for L.A., with the Kings’ glaring need on the left side. But it never happened. A Kings source told me Wednesday night that there certainly had been many discussions with Arizona about Chychrun, but it never felt like they were that close on a trade.

And, of course, the reason that Tuesday was the Kings’ last conversation with Arizona on Chychrun is that Los Angeles was looking to cement its deal with Columbus for Gavrikov (and goalie Joonas Korpisalo) late Tuesday night.

The two clubs had actually been talking on and off for quite a while, but things got more serious Monday and Tuesday when the idea of having both the defenseman and the goalie in the deal got introduced. Good job by Kekalainen, in the end, getting his first-round pick, albeit a conditional one, given the circumstances around his failed deal with Boston. He scrambled pretty well.

And there you have it. The Kings, Oilers and Bruins — all potential Chychrun destinations — one by one went by the wayside as options for Arizona as they filled their defensive needs.

That being the case, it’s no surprise that over the past 24 to 48 hours, things heated up between Arizona and Ottawa.

There were other teams that talked to Arizona over the past week, as well, including Washington, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Columbus.

But the great appeal in the end for Arizona in gaining traction with the Senators was two-fold. First, Ottawa didn’t need to send money back in a player contract. That was huge for Arizona. And second, the Coyotes felt Ottawa’s first-round pick, while top-five protected, was more appealing than any other pick offered. That pick could end up anywhere from No. 6 to No. 16 — unless, of course, Ottawa makes the playoffs, which, well, is possible.

As others have reported, the Coyotes had a potential trade with Columbus involving Chychrun fall apart at the draft in Montreal last summer, which included the Jackets’ No. 12 pick in the first round. So in the end, the Coyotes end up probably with a similar first-round pick from Ottawa. But they don’t end up with two first-round picks, which was part of the Coyotes’ ask in a Chychrun trade for well over a year.

From a Senators’ perspective, the price certainly softened from earlier conversations with Arizona, in which the names of prospects like Ridly Greig and Tyler Kleven were part of the Coyotes’ ask, on top of the rest of the draft-pick package. It was deemed way too high a price by the Senators, which is why the organization thought it was out of the Chychrun sweepstakes as late as last week. Out, well, until the price dropped.

And, obviously, it did. Sens GM Pierre Dorion showed good patience, and he ends up filling a glaring hole on his blue line at a price he can live with. And while it’s a boost in the short term to a team that’s been playing great hockey, the real impact of the deal for the Senators will be felt over the next few years.

Pierre Dorion has tried to preach patience to the Ottawa fan base.

He used that same attribute to pry Jakob Chychrun out of Arizona.

By acquiring the star defenceman, the Sens can actually dream about the playoffs next year.

And maybe this spring too. https://t.co/8mMKJJMX2i

— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) March 2, 2023

What a wild two weeks on the defenseman trade market, and that’s not even delving into the surprising trade of Filip Hronek to Vancouver from Detroit on Wednesday, or Shayne Gostisbehere ending up in Carolina; or Luke Schenn, Jake McCabe and Erik Gustafsson going to Toronto; or Jack Johnson heading back to Colorado.

And we’re probably not done.

But imagine for a moment how differently the past two weeks could have gone.

Gavrikov was nearly a Bruin. And where would that have left Orlov? And Chychrun easily could have ended up in Edmonton or L.A. What would that have meant for Gavrikov and Ekholm?

So many overlapping trade conversations around a small group of blueliners. Let’s see how it pans out come playoff time.

(Top photo of Jakob Chychrun: Zac BonDurant / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Source link