Speculating from an Edmonton Oilers fan’s perspective, BLH comments on the latest NHL rumors featuring players such as Willy Nylander, Rasmus Ristolainen, Ryan Strome, Tomas Tatar, and more!
The News and Rumors
- Howard Berger (Between the Posts): “What if Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas swapped William Nylander to Buffalo for right-shooting defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, the Sabres’ top blueliner?”
BLH’s Thought’s: I don’t think that Nylander makes a lot of sense for Buffalo this year though. They’ve already addressed their top-six with Staal and Hall, but next season Staal will leave as a UFA, maybe then the Sabres would look at Nylander of Dylan Cozens hasn’t taken that spot by then.
- Lyle Richardson (Spector’s Hockey): The 2020-21 season is likely going be Tomas Tatar’s last with the Canadiens due to “lack of consistency”.
BLH’s Thought’s: Start the rumors to Edmonton in 3…2…1…
- Tom Gulitti (NHL.com): The Carolina Hurricanes haven’t ruled out bringing back d-man Sami Vatanen. They recently spoke to him and think he’s a good fit.
BLH’s Thought’s: The Canes have one of the deepest blue lines in the league and you can never have enough good defencemen but if you’re Vatanen, do you want to play every night on the cheap or every other night on the cheap? I feel like if I was him, I’d want to play because the season is going to be shortened as is, right?
- Tracey Myers (NHL.com): UFA Mike Hoffman would be a good fit for the St. Louis Blues if he signed a one-year deal.
BLH’s Thought’s: Oh look. More Mike Hoffman speculation… I should really just stop including him in these aggregations until something fresh pops up…
- Anthony Scultore (Daily Goal Horn): Believes the Edmonton Oilers are still searching for a defenceman to replace Oscar Klefbom. He ponders, “Hey… How would Chara look on the Oilers? Just a thought.”
BLH’s Thought’s: Edmonton just isn’t in much of a position to add a top-three defenceman right now. Asset-wise or salary cap-wise. Chara would look fantastic on Edmonton’s 2nd pair, there’s no doubt about that, but they’d need to move salary AND convince Big Z that the Oilers are a Stanley Cup contender this year or else why would Chara choose Edmonton over someone like Tampa or the Islanders or even Boston again?
- Luke Fox (Sportsnet): Fox believes that Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas has added plenty of depth contracts this off-season and Toronto would have to make additional trades to clear cap space in order to even add some PTOs during training camp. So they are effectively finished making moves.
BLH’s Thought’s: Their off-season might be over, but I think they’ll be tinkering after the season starts and busy at the trade deadline. As Fox says, the Leafs have a lot of skilled depth at forward, but need upgrades on defence and their blue line is where I expect them to attempt to upgrade the most.
- Kurt Leavins (Cult of Hockey): “I expect a deal this winter could move a winger in order to shore up the lineup elsewhere. But I wouldn’t put Alex Chiasson on that list.”
BLH’s Thought’s: My feeling is that I think the Oilers coaching staff really likes this player and they want him in the lineup on a full-time basis. He can scoot over to the left-wing if need be, so that leads me to believe that IF there’s a deal where a winger is involved, it will either be one of the left-wingers (aside from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Dominik Kahun), Zack Kassian, or Jesse Puljujarvi.
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