BLH provides you with the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation featuring Derek Stepan, Zdeno Chara, Mathieu Joseph, Noah Hanifin, and more!
Read what TSN’s Craig Button had to say about Carter Savoie, Dylan Holloway, and the 2020 World Juniors right here!
At the 2010 World Juniors, Jordan Eberle was a hero but it was all for naught in the Gold Medal Final… Watch the epic 6-5 battle with Team USA in its entirety right here.
Oilers Insider Bob Stauffer dropped a massive hint regarding a new signing. Read about it here!
BLH has five pre-training camp questions regarding the Edmonton Oilers upcoming season. Read all about them here.
The Fourth Period is reporting that the Oilers are in on FIVE players! Read about it here!
NHL Rumors and Speculation
- Shawn Simpson (TSN): Broke this rumor via his Twitter account,
- “Hearing Yotes and Sens are talking. Derek Stepan has one year left of a cap hit at 6.5, but an actual salary of 5.”
BLH’s Thoughts: If the Sens want to take advantage of this season and take a big step ahead in their rebuild, taking a chance on a player like Derek Stepan is not a bad idea at all. Given the club barely has a no.2 center in Colin White, Stepan would be a massive upgrade down the middle for them.
- Pierre McGuire (TSN): Doesn’t believe Zdeno Chara will retire and that he should sign with the Colorado Avalanche.
BLH’s Thoughts: Anybody else getting shades of the Ray Bourque trade from 20 years ago?… I guess the difference being, Bourque could still play back then. Not so sure the same can be said for Chara.
- Frank Seravalli (TSN): Says to keep an eye on Tampa Bay RFAs Mathieu Joseph and Alexander Volkov. They’ve yet to be re-signed and they’ll need to go through waivers if the Lightning plan to put them on their taxi squad. He figures there’s a good chance they’d be claimed if that happened.
BLH’s Thoughts: And just think, the Oilers could’ve had either if they were willing to trade Jesse Puljujarvi to Tampa.
- Pat Stein (Sportsnet): On “The Big Show”, Stein, Will Nault, and Peter Klein debated what trading Noah Hanifin would do for the Calgary Flames, and for the most part, the consensus was they’d like to see how the team starts before making that trade. What is Juuso Valimaki going to bring to the club and how is 37yr old captain Mark Giordano going to fare after a tough go in the bubble last summer.
BLH’s Thoughts: That is a very reasonable take I feel. Look, Noah Hanifin is basically the American Jay Bouwmeester at this point and look how that turned out for the Edmonton-native… As it stands, the Flames defence is its weakness, so why downgrade it even more?
- David Pagnotta (The Fourth Period): LA Kings President Luc Robitaille said on a recent “Kings of the Podcast” episode that there are no roadblocks to acquisitions and if there’s an opportunity, they’d make the deal, but it has to make sense to them.
- “If there’s a player in the right age bracket to fit in the direction we are going, we would look at it.”
BLH’s Thoughts: The Kings scare me a bit. They’ve got a shit ton of great prospects in their pipeline and just a ridiculous amount of cap space… If they wanted to make a statement trade, they could do it with ease and I hate that idea because at some point the divisions are going to go back to how they were prior to this season and that means Edmonton will be facing the Cali teams again… I’ve got too many dark memories of those clubs beating the Oilers and I’d prefer those don’t reinvent themselves.
- Oilers Now (630CHED): Ken Holland on his plans for the Edmonton Oiler’ roster as training camp approaches,
- “Maybe we bring up a couple of players from Bakersfield who are on American League contracts to fill out, and I think certainly on the defence end I’m exploring options (of signing another player).”
BLH’s Thoughts: As we’ve talked about already, it sounds like the team is looking at UFAs Slater Koekkoek and Ben Hutton. Madison Bowey is also an option. My preference is Koekkoek, but your mileage may vary.
- Mark Spector (Sportsnet): Reckons that the Oilers’ initial taxi squad could consist of Alan Quine, Patrick Russell out of the forwards. Two of William Lagesson, Theodor Lennstrom, Evan Bouchard, and a signing like Slater Koekkoek or Ben Hutton for defencemen. And Anton Forsberg for the goalie.
BLH’s Thoughts: I’d be willing to bet that we see Kailer Yamamoto on the taxi squad during non-game days for financial reasons and it wouldn’t surprise me if some bigger name players like Jujhar Khaira or even James Neal were sent there as paper transactions. Oilers radio colorman Bob Stauffer thinks that Khaira would get claimed, but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing for Edmonton at this point.
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