Deadline sets stage for summer intrigue
The trade deadline picked up steam as 3 p.m. ET closed in but some of the biggest names in the rumor mill stayed put. It makes for a slower deadline day but sets up an interesting summer.
Parity had a lot to do with it and Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi points out that part of the issue is teams who would have been sellers in the past believe a real turnaround isn’t far away. The conventional thought this year was the lack of sellers meant the prices were too high. He suggests that the prices weren’t high enough to interest teams like the Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Islanders to pass on re-signing their potential unrestricted free agents and spin them off.
“The prices weren’t high enough and teams were saying, ‘Let’s sign him because he’s a good player. He fits in with what we have to do next year,’” Lombardi said. “That was something that was predictable that was going to evolve. Here you are six years into the cap, there’s parity. That’s why you don’t see a lot of juice here.”
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