In another big, three-team trade involving a Blue Jackets player and picks, Columbus netted another first-round pick (among others), the Maple Leafs landed Nick Foligno, and the Sharks helped make the money work for a fee. The Maple Leafs confirmed the Nick Foligno trade shortly after word surfaced.
Stefan Noesen is also going to the Maple Leafs in the Nick Foligno trade.
Maple Leafs trade for Foligno; Blue Jackets get picks; Sharks involved
Maple Leafs receive: Nick Foligno (at 25-percent of his salary) and Stefan Noesen.
Blue Jackets receive: Maple Leafs’ 2021 first-round pick and 2022 fourth-rounder. Blue Jackets retain 50-percent of Nick Foligno’s salary (according to reports, including that of Cap Friendly).
Sharks receive: Maple Leafs’ 2021 fourth-rounder for absorbing another portion of Nick Foligno’s salary in the trade.
To clarify the salary cap implications, Cap Friendly breaks it down:
Again, the Nick Foligno trade isn’t the only significant, three-team trade orchestrated by Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen. He also landed a package including a first-round pick for David Savard. In both cases, salary cap juggling was involved:
We couldn't add this three way trade to our site right away due to its complexity.
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) April 10, 2021
It required 9 separate manual database queries to display properly, but, our trade engine can handle it with those custom edits just fine
Here it is in all it's glory:https://t.co/RoEUAGKJkh
Strong work from CBJ; TOR gets a playoff-ready player
First things first: this is great work by the Blue Jackets. As much of a mess as this season has been, they’ve sold two expiring contracts for first-round picks, and additional selections. They didn’t need to trade someone like Seth Jones or Zach Werenski to “reload, not rebuild.”
In a tough 2021 NHL Trade Deadline market, that’s strong work.
It’s easy to see where the Maple Leafs are coming from in the Foligno trade too, though.
[2021 NHL Trade Deadline Primer: More on Nick Foligno]
Old-school types will throw out “intangibles,” and they’re true. Foligno is the sort of gritty forward who can help you during playoff runs, and he wore the “C” with Columbus.
But he’s more than that ... or at least the intangibles translate to positive impacts that are, well, “tangible.” When you dig into analytics, Nick Foligno often comes up as a stealth Selke candidate. (His brother Marcus Foligno also surfaces.)
Nick Foligno (to Toronto in threeway deal with various picks and retentions) is an extremely good defensive forward. Do not expect him to score much but he will help Toronto a lot. pic.twitter.com/dCPthTeTjN
— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) April 11, 2021
Is a low-scoring, big-defense forward worth the price of the Foligno trade for the Maple Leafs? That will probably hinge on something Foligno can only do so much about: how far Toronto goes in the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“Nick Foligno has been everything you’d want in a captain, in a representative of your team and ambassador for your community. His contributions to the Blue Jackets franchise and the impact he and his family have had off the ice is immeasurable,” said Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen. “We are grateful for everything he, Janelle, and their family have done for and with us over the past nine years. Given where we are right now, this move made sense for us as an organization and for Nick.”
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.