The Arizona Coyotes have brought on a ton of talent in the last two days, and they’ve got even more in the pipeline at the CHL, NCAA, and AHL level. They may be one of the top five teams in the league when it comes down to exciting prospects and bright futures.

They had a pricey deal serving as a bottleneck in their offensive corps, though — and the club is working on earning the good graces of the City of Glendale, meaning they’ll likely stick with a lower payroll in an attempt to maximize as much of a return as possible. They’re trimming the fat, and Sam Gagner‘s $3.2M AAV cap hit through the end of next season was likely a nasty roadblock to extending players such as Mikkel Boedker and Mark Arcobello to the team’s top nine corps.

That’s why he’s been dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers in an ingenious swap for cap hit without the contract.

Sam Gagner will head to the Philadelphia Flyers, where the club has suggested that they may carry through with the rumblings that the 25 year old centre/wing may be bought out of his remaining year deal. In return, the Coyotes will receive 30 year old left shot blue liner Nicklas Grossman and long-term injured reserve defenseman Chris Pronger.

This deal serves as a triple-pronged attack of efficiency for the Coyotes.

On the first prong, the club got rid of Gagner’s contract without having to get a bloated contract on offense in return. Instead, they got the second prong — Chris Pronger provides the club with a $4.941 M annual cap hit to help them reach the salary cap floor, but will only cost them $575,000 per season this year and the following one due to a massively front-loaded contract he’s still under. In essence, the Coyotes managed to shed nearly $3M from their annual payroll, but actually managed to boost their cap hit by another $1.5 M in the process. They can then use that extra $3M in the bank to supplement an extension for pending RFA Mikkel Boedker, and keep fellow pending RFA Mark Arcobello in the lineup with the departure of Gagner at no hit to their cap. In essence, this is the equivalent of trading Gagner for Arcobello, but saving the team money — yet getting them closer to the cap floor.

The third prong of the deal, though, is what makes it the smartest move of all — Nicklas Grossman can serve as a lower-pairing veteran presence on the blue line, preventing a completely inexperienced defensive corps without having to give up an asset to get the player.

The key to the deal is that Sam Gagner and Mark Arcobello put up comparable stats last year on the scoresheet (Arcobello finished the season with seventeen goals and 31 points over four teams throughout the season, while Gagner earned fifteen goals and 41 points over the full year in Arizona), but Arcobello will be a cheaper player and is more likely to both maintain his numbers and elevate the stats of those he’s skating with. A glance at his possession numbers and scoring chances generated over the last three seasons actually suggest that, while he doesn’t have a complete enough sample size in the NHL to say for sure, Arcobello is the one who tends to drive play on his line. In comparison, a look at the same data for Gagner actually proves that he’s not the one driving play, but being driven by his linemates — likely the reason he saw his scoring improve when Arcobello was claimed off waivers over the last stretch of the season.

The two could easily coexist on the same team, but the Coyotes have young talent that needs to work into the lineup — and a budget payroll club can’t afford an ‘extraneous’ player for $3.2M AAV. This would have likely sent Arcobello out the door, hurting the club’s possession numbers in a strong year for team development.

They can, though, pay an extraneous player not counting against the roster cap $575,000 to falsely inflate the cap to the floor with a $4.9M on-paper hit — and for Arizona, that makes it worth it to pick up Grossman over someone like Dennis Seidenberg, Dan Girardi, or even Kevin Bieksa.