BLH provides you with the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation featuring Jack Eichel (BUF), Sam Reinhart (BUF), Dougie Hamilton (CAR), and lots of coaching rumours!
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NHL Rumors and Speculation
Rick Carpiniello (The Athletic): Says not to be surprised if new Rangers GM Chris Drury comes up with a coach who is not on a lot of lists.
- “The list includes Patrick Roy, who won a Stanley Cup with Drury as Colorado teammates, and then coached the Avs.”
- “It might, but probably won’t, include Rod Brind’Amour, who is likely to re-sign with Carolina…”
- “Also on the list of availables: Gerard Gallant, Mike Babcock, Rick Tocchet, Bruce Boudreau and Bob Hartley. I don’t know if Kris Knoblauch, hired by Drury to coach the Hartford AHL affiliate, will get a serious look…”
- “Perhaps to be considered: Jim Montgomery, who was in the running when the Rangers, with loads of input from Drury, hired Quinn…”
John Vogl (The Athletic): Wonders if the Buffalo Sabres might look to trade forward Sam Reinhart after he said this recently,
- “It’s just unfortunate for me being here how often that reset is. No one wants to go through a rebuild, especially going into next year turning 26 at the start of it.”
Vogl added that even if Buffalo offered Reinhart a long-term deal, it doesn’t sound like he’d be interested in signing it.
Ed Francis (1st Ohio Battery): The Blue Jackets hope to have a new coach in place before the free agency opens in July according to GM Jarmo Kekalainen.
Aaron Portzline (The Athletic): Higher-priced coaching options for the Columbus Blue Jackets include Bruce Boudreau, Gerard Gallant, and Claude Julien.
Lower-priced coaching options include Jack Capuano, Kevin Dineen, Rikard Gronberg, Benoit Groulx, Jukka Jalonen, Lane Lambert, Brad Larsen, Manny Malhotra, Kirk Muller, Luke Richardson, Brad Shaw, Rick Tocchet, Mike Vellucci, Pascal Vincent and Geoff Ward.
Aaron Portzline (The Athletic): Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen is said to be more open to trading Laine now than he was at the trade deadline. Does Laine, Korpisalo and the two late-first-round picks get Eichel?
Elliotte Friedman (Sportsnet): There will be a ton of interest in Eichel this offseason as he’s still only 24-years old and under contract for another five seasons. The New York Rangers were interested last year and could be again. The Boston Bruins and Columbus Blue Jackets are two others but do they have the pieces? The Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings have the pieces. The Ottawa Senators may not make sense to make the move. The Montreal Canadiens could be interested too.
TSN: Pierre LeBrun’s sources say that Sabres forward Jack Eichel hasn’t asked for a trade.
- “Now, a couple teams come to mind for me as potential fits. One is the Minnesota Wild, obviously the idea of Eichel playing with Kirill Kaprizov on the same line certainly seems to be fun to think about. But the Wild have to sign Kaprizov, they also have to sign Joel Eriksson Ek this summer, so they would have to make the money work. The New York Rangers. Hardly a secret that last offseason the Rangers did have discussions with the Sabres about Eichel. Again, I think the Rangers want to be careful about their cap situation as well.”
TSN: Frank Seravalli notes that he’s not sure if the Sabres would want to trade him to a divisional rival and sending him out west would limit the number of times you would see your ‘franchise player.’
TSN: Frank Seravalli on pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Dougie Hamilton. Contract negotiations between Hamilton and the Carolina Hurricanes had been ongoing, but they’ve been put on hold until after the season according to GM Don Waddell.
- “A lot of people wonder if that’s expansion draft related. I think they’re further apart than many realize and there’s a lot of work to be done in order for Dougie Hamilton to stay. So I think there’s better than a 50 per cent chance that Dougie Hamilton makes it to market this summer. There will be no shortage in interest.”
Source: nhlrumors.com, The Athletic
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