BLH provides you with the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation featuring Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Marc-Andre Fleury, Zach Parise, the 2022 Winter Olympics, who’s available on the San Jose Sharks, and more!
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Woodguy on the 2020-21 Edmonton Oilers.
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Evan Bouchard has been recalled from his loan in Sweden, now he’s got to make the Oilers or his future could be cloudy. Read about that here.
NHL Rumors and Speculation
- Steve Simmons (Toronto Sun): Thinks that maybe Hockey Canada should boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics since the Chinese authorities are still holding Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig behind bars in China for reasons that remain mostly unexplained.
BLH’s Thoughts: It would be a bold move, Cotton. Not sure the PA would sign off on it since they were very adamant on Olympic participation in the latest agreement that was just signed between them and the NHL.
- Kevin Kurz (The Athletic): Says the San Jose Sharks could look to offload some bodies with an eye towards the 2021-22 NHL season. Players like Evander Kane, Devan Dubnyk, Kevin Labanc, and Martin Sorensen were mentioned.
BLH’s Thoughts: There’s no better time for the Sharks to start a rebuild than now. They’ve got some really good vets on defence that would help stabilize a rebuild to some extent but with the likes of Brad Lambert, Owen Power, Matthew Savoie, Shane Wright, etc. coming, they should embrace a rebuild.
- Anthony Scultore (The Daily Goal Horn): Believes some trades that are thought to be dead could come back to life this season and lists OEL to Boston, Zach Parise to the Islanders, and Marc-Andre Fleury to Carolina as three potential trades that may be revisited.
- Re: Carolina turning down Vegas’ offer of Fleury (50% retain) and a 2nd rounder, “The Canes should have made the trade because for as talented as they are, their goaltending is suspect. I would not be surprised if these two teams worked out a deal during the season at some point. And for less than the initial offer.”
BLH’s Thoughts: I’m with Scultore here. I think there’s a excellent chance at least one of these trades looked at again. At some point, the Coyotes are going to punt on the season and that is when, I suspect, they will move their big names like OEL and Kuemper.
I’d expect the Oilers to be in on Kuemper, if not more, when he hits the trade market full-time again.
- James O’Brien (NBC): Believes if the Columbus Blue Jackets’ season doesn’t go to plan, they could move one of their young goalies (Elvis Merzlikins or Joonas Korpisalo). In addition to that transactional option, O’Brien says they might want to look at a one-season re-tool and try to relieve the club of some high-priced contracts in order to focus in 2021-22.
BLH’s Thoughts: It’s a tough decision to give up on the year since Zach Werenski and Seth Jones have so few years left on their contracts. But with the club losing as much money as it has, it might make more sense to eliminate as many costs as possible before fans can come back to the arenas.
I’ll say this, if CBJ is intent on moving one of those netminders, the Oilers should really get in on that action. The only position on the team where there isn’t any true youthful depth is in net. Everywhere else, they’re pretty much covered.
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