Black Hockey Man

I demanded it and it happened: Pernell Karl Subban is a New Jersey Devil. I’ll get into the particulars of what this trade means for the Predators and Devils (spoiler alert: both sides are pleased), but first i would like to soapbox about what this means to me personally.

P.K. Subban has long been one of my favorite players in the league. His blackness is without question a significant part of the reason why I love him. However, Subban is far from the only high-level black player I’ve seen in my hockey-watching life and I didn’t have the same level of affection for many of those guys. For example, I watched Jerome Iginla growing up, albeit a tick past his prime, and while he was an excellent player, I didn’t feel any sort of special attachment to him. The same goes for Bryce Salvador, probably the most prominent black player to ever put on a Devils sweater. When i think of Salvador, i think of his leadership and the high-quality performance he turned in during New Jersey’s run to the Finals in 2012, before i think of his skin color.

It’s much different with Subban. In my mind, his skin color is the driving factor in his mystique,  but that alone is not the source of my adoration for him. Rather his blackness and approach to life coupled with the sometimes chilly reception he receives from hockey observers is where my admiration for him is derived. P.K. Subban is the living embodiment of Black Boy Joy. It’s almost like i’ve never seen him with anything but a cheerful demeanor. He has a relentlessly positive attitude and you’d think a guy like that would be one of the darlings of the league. But he’s not. Very frequently, Subban is villainized as a selfish, “me-first” player by the NHL commentariat, while his fun approach to the game is also decried.

The thing that is so awe-inspiring about Subban is how he doesn’t let any of this bother him. He’s a black man navigating an extremely white space but it seems like nothing can ever get him down. Part of the reason why this blog even exists is because of Subban’s outlook. Just because you don’t look like the other folks doing a certain thing, doesn’t mean you can’t join in and have a ton of fun doing it. So the fact that this man will be playing his home games in Newark, NJ in the fall warms my heart like some fine soul food.

Skin complexion and personality aside, my favorite hockey team is getting one of the best defensemen on the planet. The Devils have long coveted a true number one defenseman. Andy Greene had been playing that role for approximately the last decade (if you ask me, he should have been an Olympian in 2014, but that’s neither here nor there) but has slowed down tremendously in recent years. Given this, they chased after Kevin Shattenkrik (HA!) in 2017 and would have been in the mix to sign John Carlson if he had opted to test free agency last offseason. I can almost guarantee you they would have been in on Erik Karlsson and they were rumored to be interested in acquiring Jacob Trouba before the Rangers scooped him up. Although Trouba is considerably younger than Subban, I believe the Devils got the better player between the two of them. Last year was certainly a down year for Subban. I remember thinking how bizarre it was that he was barely logging any minutes in overtime against Dallas in Game six, where the Predators were ultimately eliminated. In all fairness to Subban, he was banged up for a lot of last season, but there were times he looked like a second pair guy at best.

As recently as 2018, however, he was playing Norris-caliber hockey. Subban has always been a big time puck-moving, possession-driving defenseman and, at age 30, I see no reason why that would change. There were several players on Nashville last year who had subpar seasons, so I definitely would call last year an aberration for him. I fully expect him to return to form and give the Devils’ backend the boost it has sorely needed for a number of seasons.

I’m sure Nashville is sad to see Subban go, but really it’s for the best. The Predators were right up against the cap but, as they’re presently constructed, need more help to become true Stanley Cup contenders. They’re certainly close, but the offense could absolutely use a bit more juice. It’s clear they have interest in Matt Duchene; Nashville wanted to be the destination for him in 2017 when they helped facilitate the three team deal that landed Duchene in Ottawa and Kyle Turris in the Music City. This trade frees them up to aggressively pursue Duchene. Moreover, the Preds now have the wiggle room to get a deal done with Roman Josi, who, uh, is due for a little bit of a raise from the $4 million he’ll make in the last year of his contract next season.

It’s also not like they’re losing Subban for nothing. No, they aren’t getting William Nylander or another high-level NHL talent, the type that was being floated in the many possible permutations of trades with Toronto (the team many thought would end up with Subban). However, they got a pair of decent prospects, a very high second-rounder in this year’s draft (which they used to trade back and amass more draft capital) and another second-rounder next year (which is hopefully in the 50’s or 60’s because that means that Devils were a playoff team). Again, not a massive haul but good enough considering they have to retain none of Subban’s $9 million salary.

Both clubs walk away from this deal well-positioned for the future. I am absolutely over the moon that a player that has been so important to my hockey fandom will be lacing up for the Devils (and filling their biggest need no less!). Packaged with the addition of Jack Hughes, it’s an extremely exciting time to be a supporter of the New Jersey Devils.

Full disclosure: I never follow the draft closely. This year, I probably know more about the prospects than usual and I still don’t know that much. I only know a little something about this year’s draft because 1.) my favorite team has the first pick (shouts out the kid Jack Hughes!) and 2.) this season’s Under-18 USA team had one of its best rosters ever, so i got to know players like Alex Turcotte and Cole Caufield. Rest assured, there is no way I would have been watching the under-18’s unless my team was in the running for Hughes, the crown jewel of the class (or so I’ve been told by people who actually know).

I still watch the draft every year though because it is always a trade bonanza. Without question, the trades are the most memorable aspect of each draft to me, considering we don’t get to see a lot of the prospects until years after they’re selected. With that in mind, I’ll take a look at a few guys who have the potential to get moved when things kick off in Vancouver.

Nikita Zaitsev, Toronto– One thought I had last week with the flurry of defensemen getting traded was “where’s Zaitsev in all of this?”. After all, one of the first offseason news items was his trade request. Zaitsev has been a solid, if unspectacular, right-shooting defenseman since entering the league in 2017. Although he’s soon to be 28, his best hockey may be ahead of him and a fresh start out of the bright lights of Toronto could be good for him. He could be a decent consolation for a team that whiffed on getting Jacob Trouba.

J.T. Miller, Tampa Bay– I could have listed any number of players here for the Lightning because they HAVE to move somebody. The gymnastics it would have taken to sign Erik Karlsson would have been mind-bending because cap space is a problem right now in Tampa. They have to get a deal done with Brayden Point this offseason and be prepared for one with Andrei Vasilevskiy next year. Things became even more dire when the news broke that Ryan Callahan, the asset they had hoped to move to clear salary, is unlikely to play again. Any hope of a team giving a late round pick to take on his $5.1 million for next season has evaporated. Now, Tampa would have to deal something of value to get him off the books.

The next best hope for Tampa is to move one of their non-star contributors, which also won’t be an easy move. Their middle class is well taken care of: guys like Alex Killorn and Ondrej Palat make a decent amount of money and have no-trade clauses in their deals. Which brings us to Miller, who would be without question the easiest to move of their high priced role players. He’d provide a lot of value as a second-line center and could be a nice boon for a team that would have been in the running for Kevin Hayes had he hit free agency.

P.K. Subban, Nashville– This one is a little selfish because I am demanding that Subban be a New Jersey Devil by the end of the draft. The fit is too perfect. The Devils are in desperate need of a big-time puck mover on their back-end and Nashville would like to free up money to get in on Matt Duchene when free agency starts. Although Subban has played well for the Predators, he’s clearly the second best d-man on the team (behind Roman Josi) and at times the third best (Mattias Ekholm is a real one himself). Subban is actually the highest paid player on the team, with a cap hit of $9 million, so moving his money would ease things quite a bit.

Some Defenseman, Carolina– If Carolina doesn’t walk away from this draft with William Nylander or Nikolai Ehlers or someone along those lines, it would be a major disappointment. The Hurricanes had a fun little season last year that ended with a surprise run to the Conference FInals. They’re pretty well-positioned to run it back in 2020 but they have to get more firepower on offense. Armed with one of the deepest bluelines in hockey, the Canes have the ammunition to trade for an impact forward. The hard part is deciding who to part with. Justin Faulk, Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesce are probably the ones on the table. A few months ago, Jaccob Slavin would have been on that list too but he played Norris-caliber hockey late in the year and in the postseason, becoming their clear-cut top defenseman in the process.

The 2019 offseason promises to be one of the most action-packed in recent memory and a few teams have already gotten things kicked off. Aside from the Islanders inking Jordan Eberle to a long-term deal, the headlines so far have been dominated by defensemen.

The first move after the Stanley Cup Finals was the Flyers and Capitals swap of right-shot defensemen, with Radko Gudas ending up in Washington and Matt Niskanen heading to Philadelphia. This move could prove to be inconsequential for both clubs as the two blueliners are the same player in many respects, aside from Gudas’ character issues (yes i’m calling his past on-ice behavior character issues, just like white guys like to say certain NFL players have “character issues”). They’re nearly identical in size, have had similar production, and will be joining the third NHL team of their respective careers. The aspects where they diverge, and ultimately what tips this trade in Washington’s favor, are their ages and contracts.

Though they have comparable profiles, Gudas is the guy you’d much rather have. He’s three years younger than Niskanen and has a smaller cap hit. What’s more is Gudas has one year left on his deal, while Niskanen has two. This trade gives the Capitals a lot of flexibility. Let’s say Gudas acts a fool on the ice this season or just has a down year, the Capitals can easily move on. If things go well, he can be brought back and, boom, they have a younger, probably cheaper version of Niskanen nailed down. The Flyers better hope Niskanen works out, because if he doesn’t they’re on the hook for $5.75 million for an additional year when he’s 34. On top of this big (kinda asinine) gamble the Flyers are taking, they retained 30 percent of Gudas’ salary in this trade. So they may have potentially gifted a division rival with a better player and immediate cap room to go out and add another piece. As a Devils fan, I really just hate to see this.

The second defenseman trade involved The Other Pennsylvania Team. The Penguins shipped Olli Maata to the Blackhawks for forward Dominic Kahun and a 5th round draft pick. It’s always hilarious to me when late round draft picks get shoehorned into trades like this. This could have been a clean one for one swap, instead a nearly-worthless draft pick is randomly thrown into the mix. Or maybe I shouldn’t be so dismissive considering the piece the Penguins are picking up here was a former undrafted player in Kahun, who did have a very solid rookie season in 2019. Anyway, the Pens had been thinking about moving a defenseman for a while (remember the proposed trade that would have sent Jack Johnson and Phil Kessel to Minnesota?). Instead of doing a dumb thing and trading their third best player (Kessel) just to get off a bad contract (Johnson), they make a pretty decent move here.

Maata was a first-round pick for Pittsburgh in 2012 and developed into an important cog of their back-to-back title teams in 2016 and 2017. I always love when teams have success on the backs of their homegrown talent (even clubs I hate like the Penguins), so it is a bit sad to see Maata go. However, it’s the right move: the Pens needed to clear salary and Maata is coming off an injury-plagued season. They now get a solid young forward still on his entry-level deal who may now have the great fortune of playing with Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin (maybe even some shifts with both).

From Chicago’s standpoint this was a move that had to happen. Their defense wasn’t just awful last season, it was old too. They relied on Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith for heavy minutes like it was 2013. There was already a high chance their back-end would get younger anyway, with the likely promotion of 2017 first-round pick Henri Jokiharju to the NHL level next year. So if the 24-year-old Maata can bounce back, the Blackhawks could be looking at a nice injection of youth to their blueline in 2020. The main downside here is Maata isn’t cheap at a $4.1 million cap hit for the next two seasons. So if Maata flames out in the Windy City, his deal could add to an already pricey, underperforming defensive corps.

Finally this brings us to the biggest news of the offseason thus far. Erik Karlsson has re-signed with the San Jose Sharks on what in NBA parlance would be called a “max deal”. The mammoth deal is right in line with the 8-year, $88 million deal Drew Doughty signed with Los Angeles last year. I, like many observers, thought Karlsson was as good as gone from the Bay Area, after he thanked the Sharks organization on Twitter and reports came that he wanted to play in the East because his family missed the Ottawa area. The only thing that can cure homesickness better than actually going home is $88 million, so i ain’t mad at this man at all for reconsidering.

As strange as it feels for a player of Karlsson’s caliber, there’s a good chance he wouldn’t have received this type of money on the open market. I wouldn’t call him “injury-prone” per se, because he played all 82 games three years in a row from 2014-2016 (with an additional season of 81 games in 2012), but he’s accumulated some pretty serious injuries over the course of his career. So it’s possible a lot of teams may have been leery of giving big-time money to a guy who may only suit up for 65 games per season going forward. Additionally, he almost certainly wouldn’t have gotten this type of money if he had ended up in Tampa, the destination many had pegged as his preferred landing spot, because of their impending salary cap crunch. On the other hand, Karlsson would have been unquestionably the best defenseman since Ryan Suter to hit the open market (and honestly, probably the best since Zdeno Chara in 2006) so teams with money to blow like the Rangers, Canucks, and Devils might have still opened their wallets for him.

The Erik Karlsson saga was a fascinating one that unfortunately has an anti-climatic ending for those of us who are fans of chaos. Now that he’s gone the route John Carlson did last season and re-upped before free agency, teams that thought they’d be in on this generational talent are now left scrambling for a plan B.