BLH provides you with the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation featuring Evgeny Kuznetsov (WAS), Sean Monahan (CGY), Anton Khudobin (DAL), Mike Hoffman (STL), and more!
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NHL Rumors and Speculation
Brendan Batchelor (Sportsnet): Vancouver Canucks GM Jim Benning on their offseason:
- “Ownership has given us the resources to do whatever we need to do to get back to where we want to be next season, and that’s a playoff team.”
Larry Brown (NY Post): If the Winnipeg Jets were to be eliminated from the playoffs in the first round and head coach Paul Maurice was fired, he would be a candidate for the New York Rangers.
It’s possible that current Florida Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville could be heading the Seattle Kraken head coaching position once the Panthers season is over. It could be one of the reasons the Kraken aren’t moving quickly to name a head coach.
Stan Sweeney (NHL Rumors.me): The St Louis Blues were the first team eliminated from the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs and the team is expected to make some changes this offseason.
- “Mike Hoffman, Tyler Bozak, and Vince Dunn are all expected to not be re-signed with Dunn the most likely to return as he’s a restricted free-agent and the team could leverage their control. Hoffman and Bozak were rumored to be in trade talks at the deadline and both free-agents are expected to be playing somewhere else next season.”
The Washington Capitals were eliminated by the Boston Bruins from the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sunday night and Caps fans can now expect some major changes this offseason.
- “While Alex Ovechkin is an unrestricted free-agent, he’s likely not going anywhere and will be re-signing a three-year contract extension before heading to Russia to play his final couple of professional seasons. The name to watch here is Evgeny Kuznetsov.”
Frank Seravalli: Disagreed with Flames’ general manager Brad Treliving’s own assessment of the roster. Suggesting he’ll come to realize this was not a good team that had a bad year, big changes are coming and namely to the core of the roster. If the organization doesn’t change up the man in charge, Seravalli believes moving one of Johnny Gaudreau or Sean Monahan is the right option.
Rob Ellis (nhltraderumor.com): The LA Kings have over $20 million in cap space, a plethora of prospects and draft picks and GM Rob Blake will be looking to make some trades or sign free agents this summer.
- “You can expect GM Blake to target Johnny Gaudreau, Evgeny Kuznetsov and defenseman Mattias Ekholm.”
Matthew DeFranks (Dallas Morning News): The Dallas Stars will have a goalie logjam next season with the return of Ben Bishop. While there was some early speculation that the team believed that the Seattle Kraken might grab veteran Anton Khudobin in the expansion draft (Jake Oettinger is exempt and Bishop has a no-movement clause), the scribe believes that Khudobin’s disappointing season, his age (35 years) and two years on his contract at $3.33MM doesn’t make that much sense for an expansion team. While the expansion draft is one potential way to fix the issue, the team might be better off trying to trade Khudobin to team looking for a solid backup. With many goaltenders going for quality prices, the team could pick up a solid draft pick if they decided to go that way.
Sources: nhltraderumors.com, Spector’s Hockey, The Hockey Writers, nhltraderumors.me, nhltraderumor.com, Pro Hockey Rumors
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