Following last week’s chaotic reveal regarding Mike Hoffman’s psycho fiancé and Erik Karlsson’s poor wife, it was evident that Ottawa would be making changes to their roster. They moved quickly trading Hoffman to the Sharks with Cody Donaghy and a 2020 fifth round pick on Tuesday for Mikkel Boedker, Julius Bergman and a 2020 sixth round pick.
The Senators couldn’t keep Hoffman after the rumors regarding his girlfriend stalking Karlsson’s wife, which was supported by ex-teammates’ significant others. A good top six forward, Hoffman was on the move again. San Jose had already re-signed Evander Kane and have a good roster featuring Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski, Tomas Hertl, Brent Burns, and Martin Jones. The question is will they bring back popular former MVP Joe Thornton for one more year.
What Ottawa didn’t anticipate was the Sharks redirecting Hoffman and a 2018 seventh round pick to the Panthers for a 2019 second round pick, plus a fourth and fifth round pick in this year’s Draft.
So, Hoffman wound up back in Ottawa’s division on a good Florida team that could finally break through. The Panthers have added a good secondary scorer to a lineup that features emerging star Aleksander Barkov, Vincent Trocheck, Jonathan Huberdeau, Evgeny Dadonov, Keith Yandle, Aaron Ekblad and Roberto Luongo. Adding Hoffman to this lineup should make them a playoff team. More bad news for the Senators.
Ottawa isn’t done. Karlsson could be next. Considering he’s entering his last year before next summer, expect the Ottawa captain to move. It’s not like cheapskate owner Eugene Melnyk will pay up.
So, you have some more fun before the first round of the Draft. That includes tomorrow night’s awards show in Vegas. I don’t have much interest other than seeing who wins the Hart. Taylor Hall, Anze Kopitar or Nathan MacKinnon?
Friday sets up to be intriguing following Buffalo taking Rasmus Dahlin. Lately, projections have Filip Zadina slipping possibly to nine where the Rangers are. I would sign up for that. I think the first two picks are Dahlin and Andrei Svechnikov. After that, who knows. We know the names but don’t know the order when Montreal picks. It should be fun.