Portzline added that Hartnell wants to sign with a contender, which comes as no surprise considering the 35-year-old has never won a Stanley Cup.
Hartnell was bought out by the Blue Jackets on Thursday, but it likely wasn't because he was seen as a black hole on the ice. He still scored 13 goals and totaled 37 points while averaging only 12:04 minutes per night. He just may have been deemed unworthy of the $4.75 million he was scheduled to make through 2018-19.
After five years in the NHL, it's time to acknowledge Nail Yakupov for what he is and quit awarding him opportunities in search of an untapped ceiling.
An extremely weak 2017 free-agent class has again shone a light on him. With very few available offensive difference-makers, Yakupov's name recognition has undoubtedly drawn the attention of teams looking to bolster their scoring with the hope this is the year he finally reaches his potential.
With the Edmonton Oilers giving up on their 2012 No. 1 overall selection after just four seasons, Yakupov went on to post just nine points in 40 games with the St. Louis Blues over the course of the 2016-17 campaign.
His career totals now sit at 53 goals, 67 assists, and 120 points in 292 games.
While many NHL players have had prolonged careers having posted much lower numbers, the statistics through Yakupov's first five NHL seasons are doing just enough to keep afloat his perceived promise as a No. 1 draft selection. Last season was a bottoming-out campaign for a player who had a career single-season-best total of 33 points in 81 games back in 2014-15.
The Blues gave Yakupov a career-low 10:39 of ice time per game last season, dropping his career rate to just 14:09. He has a career Corsi For percentage of 46.8 and an on-ice team shooting percentage of just 7.4 at 5-on-5. He has started 58.7 percent of shifts over his career in the offensive zone, but he and his linemates continuously get driven back to the defensive end where he is a replacement-level player.
Yakupov's inability to succeed on offense has consistently brought attention to his ineffectiveness on defense. He hasn't been able to help out at either end of the rink throughout his career, removing him from consideration for both top- and bottom-six roles.
But Yakupov's story is not new. After all, there have been a slew of other high draft picks who were awarded opportunity after opportunity - by several different NHL teams - yet they could never live up to their hype.
Each of the above players had their own reasons and unique situations leading to their disappointments, but each one was continuously given "one last shot." No two NHL players are alike, but this list of players - each one having a high profile - can serve as a warning sign for Yakupov and others like him who'll follow.
The high draft selection will always serve as a bargaining chip for Yakupov's camp in contract negotiations, but they're meetings NHL teams need to stop making.
Dreger adds Marleau plans to weigh the offer with other free-agent inquisitions and consult with his family throughout the process.
Marleau will turn 38 years old ahead of the 2017-18 campaign. He scored 27 goals and finished with 46 points over a full 82 games in his 19th season. It was his highest goal total since 2013-14, largely due to a 14.2 shooting percentage.
At this point, Dreger adds, Sakic remains in waiting mode in hopes of the best possible offer.
Duchene is believed to have been on the trade block for quite some time as the Avalanche look to turn the page on an abysmal 2016-17. He's even gone on record saying there's a good chance something happens on that front this summer.
Since being drafted third overall in 2009, Duchene has averaged 0.73 points per game.
Bouma, 27, had logged 304 games with the Flames, scoring 27 goals, but just three this past year. He was scheduled to make $2.2 million next season, but the Flames will be on the hook for a cap hit of $666,667 this coming season, and $766,667 in 2018-19 instead, per Cap Friendly.
Murphy, 24, was the 12th overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes, but has obviously failed to live up to the high expectations, tallying just 37 points in 151 NHL games. He was acquired by the Flames on Thursday in the Eddie Lack trade.
The 33-year-old Stuart spent the last six seasons with the Jets, after moving over with the Atlanta Thrashers organization, for whom he played half a season. Stuart posted a total of 53 points in 390 games for the Thrashers and Jets. He has a career total of 93 points in 673 games, including time spent with the Boston Bruins for the first five-and-a-half years of his career.
And just like that, the Bruins have nothing left from the infamous Tyler Seguin trade.
The club has placed forward Jimmy Hayes on waivers for the purpose of a buyout, the team announced Friday.
Hayes wasn't directly a part of the trade, but he was dealt from Florida to Boston in exchange for Reilly Smith, who was one of the prospects who came back from Dallas in the megadeal.
Here's a full summary of the pieces Boston acquired from Dallas:
Player
Departure
Loui Eriksson
Left as a free agent (VAN)
Joe Morrow
Not extended qualifying offer
Reilly Smith
Traded to FLA for Hayes
Matt Fraser
Claimed off waivers by EDM; now playing in Europe
With the buyout, the Bruins will be on the hook for a cap hit of $566,667 over the next two campaigns, per Cap Friendly. Hayes was originally scheduled to make $2.3 million next season.
The towering 6-foot-6 winger recorded just five points in 58 games in 2016-17.
The Preds made it to the Stanley Cup Final on the foundation of a strong defense corps. It hasn't gone unnoticed by the other 30 NHL teams, as it has already caused a rippling effect throughout the league.
One day before Hamonic was traded, the Edmonton Oilers re-signed Kris Russell to a four-year extension worth $16 million. Earlier this week, defenseman Brendan Smith re-upped with the New York Rangers to a reported four-year, $17.4 million contract.
Russell and Smith are both second-pairing defensemen at best. Here is how they match up to similar style D-men who signed for comparable money four-to-seven years ago:
Legend: Age = age of player when contract was signed AAV = average annual value Cap% = the player's cap-hit percentage of the cap ceiling for the upcoming season when deal was signed ATOI = average time on ice in the year prior to signing the contract PS/82 = point shares, courtesy of Hockey Reference (how many of a team's points a player was responsible for), per 82 games, taken from the season prior to signing the contract
When a team spent roughly five-to-six percent of its salary cap on a defenseman four-to-seven years ago, it was getting a much better player than Russell or Smith. Seidenberg and Vlasic, specifically, were top pairing D-men at the time.
Hjalmarsson and Gunnarsson logged similar minutes to Russell and Smith, and were much more valuable players prior to signing their contracts.
In comparison, here is how much a team had to spend four-to-six years ago on a defenseman who closely resembled Russell and Smith in terms of their ATOI and PS/82 the season prior to signing their contracts:
As you can see, teams had to spend roughly one-to-two percent less of their salary cap to acquire a comparable D-man. This may not seem like a lot, but in the salary cap era when every penny counts, it's a huge deal.
Nashville's success is a part of why we're seeing middling blue-liners suddenly get overvalued, but the new wave of analytics has played an even larger role.
Team's have placed a higher precedent on defensemen who can move the puck out of the defensive zone, and in a perfect world, enter the offensive zone with the puck on their stick. There's more and more D-men in the NHL who can skate like the wind and handle the puck like a forward, even if they are undersized.
Russell (shot blocking) and Smith (shot suppression) certainly have their strengths, but neither are capable of anchoring a defense corps the way Nashville's top-four did this postseason.
Russell's contract, for example, could come back to hurt Edmonton when it has to pay Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl a combined $20 million per season.
What all of this means is that pending UFAs - such as Kevin Shattenkirk, Karl Alzner, and Michael Stone - are in for bigger pay days than most expect, given how high Smith and Russell set the bar.
Moreover, teams with a surplus of defensemen, such as the Carolina Hurricanes, are in the driver's seat when it comes to the trade market.
Jokinen had one year and $4 million remaining on his contract. In order to buy him out, the Panthers will carry a salary cap hit of $1.33 million over the next two seasons.
The reported move will see $2.66 million cleared off the books for the upcoming season, per Cap Friendly.
Jokinen registered 11 goals and 17 assists in 69 games last season. He'll now become an unrestricted free agent.