Winger Mike Hoffman is actually going to South Florida, not San Jose, after the San Jose Sharks traded the winger to the Panthers on Tuesday morning just hours after acquiring him from the Senators. The first trade from the Senators comes just two years after Hoffman signed a contract extension with Ottawa..
The rebuilding Sens agreed Tuesday, first according to TSN, to trade the 28-year-old forward to the Sharks, along with defenseman Cody Donaghey and a 2020 fifth-round draft pick, in exchange for forward Mikkel Boedker, defenseman Julius Bergman and a 2020 sixth-round pick.
But just hours later, as first reported by TSN's Pierre LeBrun, Hoffman was already on his way to the Florida Panthers, with the Sharks trading him for a 2019 second-round pick, a 2018 fourth-round pick and a 2018 fifth-round pick.
Hoffman's teammate, Erik Karlsson, is the bigger name who could be dealt this offseason as Ottawa overhauls its roster from a cellar-dwelling season. But his own departure, first as part of the package deal with San Jose and then in the Sharks' draft-pick swap with Florida, is both unsurprising and curiously timed -- unsurprising because he and his $20.75-million contract were considered trade chips at the in-season deadline, and curiously timed because Hoffman's fiancee is just days removed from accusations of harassing the Karlsson family over their recently stillborn child.
Hoffman may very well have warranted the Sens a bigger return than what Ottawa received from the Sharks had he been dealt at the deadline, especially considering he's had more than 20 goals in five of his last six seasons. The biggest piece to land with the Senators was probably Boedker, who offers Ottawa two-way forward depth and has been a regular double-digit goal-scorer since he started with the then-Phoenix Coyotes in 2008-09.
The Sharks might have reaped the most benefits of the Hoffman movement, though, ditching Boedker's contract and then collecting a haul of decent picks from the Panthers in exchange for their new forward -- perhaps all before a run at impending New York Islanders free agent John Tavares in free agency.