The $5.75 Million Dollar Question: Trading Bryan McCabe

Colorado already has seven pretty solid NHL D-men under contract.

Columbus just acquired Mike Commodore, Fedor Tyutin and Christian Backstrom and, despite signing Kristian Huselius, still need help upfront.

The Sharks have plenty of cap room, but having picked up UFA Rob Blake, the club now has 10 D signed to NHL contracts so there’s not much room for an additional blue liner there.

Similarly, with Lubomir Visnovsky and Sheldon Souray under contract in Edmonton there’s little to no chance a deal for McCabe is going to happen with the Oil.

That takes 21 teams off the table.

So What’s Left?

Given McCabe’s alleged preference is to play close to home that leaves just six teams in the east as potential trading partners, two of which are division rivals.

East

Atlanta

With just five D-men under contract, the Thrashers need to acquire some defensive depth. They have lots of cap space and could really use the PP help that McCabe would bring. The challenge will be finding the right return for McCabe as the Thrashers are rather thin upfront and don’t have the greatest prospect pool. It’s also not clear that McCabe would accept a move that far south.

Buffalo

The Sabres have just six D-men under contract for 2008-09 (having traded Brian Campbell at the deadline and losing Dimitri Kalinin as a UFA to the Rangers). Rumour has it that Sabres GM Darcy Regier has contacted 40 year old former Sabres D-man Teppo Numminen about a possible return (yikes) so there might just be an opening for McCabe (who has a knack for scoring last second game winning goals for the Sabres).

While the Sabres do have lots of young players to possibly complete a deal with the Leafs, they may have budget issues that are too large to take on McCabe’s cap hit. The Sabres have already committed $42M in salaries and they still have to qualify Steve Bernier and Daniel Paille.

Furthermore, McCabe’s multi-year deal might also interfere with the Sabres’ ability to sign a slew of key players who are slated to become UFAs and RFAs in 2009-2010.

Carolina

The Canes do have about $9M in existing cap space. Unfortunately, they already have eight D-men under contract including PP guys Joe Corvo and Joni Pitkanen.

The Hurricanes and Leafs do have a history as trading partners, but I have a hard time seeing McCabe squeezing into the Canes blueline or under their budget.

Islanders

The fish sticks have just six D-men under contract, but more importantly, the club has only nine forwards signed. There may be lots of cap space in Nassau County but most of it is going to be directed to finding another handful of forwards.

There is no doubt the Isles could use some help on their moribund PP; however, GM Garth Snow is on the record as saying he wants a pick from the Leafs in return for taking on McCabe’s contract. If that’s the opening bargaining position, I’m not sure where or how you even start to build a counter offer (how about a lower draft pick?)

Ottawa

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