Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation from all of the internet’s best sites including Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, The Athletic, TSN and more!
From The Daily Goal Horn
Anthony Scultore recently posted a small write-up on the Edmonton Oilers and their star UFA Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Scultore is of the belief that althought RNH wants to stay in Edmonton, GM Ken Holland won’t be giving him anything over $7M per year on a new deal, but there are teams who need help down the middle that would.
- “The 28 year-old scored 35 points in 52 games this season. Many teams like the New York Rangers believe he could make the transition back to the middle with ease. However, his face-off winning percentage is a putrid 44%. So you aren’t getting him for that facet of his game. The Blue Jackets are another team looking at him as a possible free agent signing.“
- “RNH is also coming off a deal that paid him $6 million AAV. He will be looking for a 7 year deal on the open market and an increase in the $7.5 to $8.5 million range for sure. If the Oilers do re-sign him, they are likely to get a hometown discount, but like many teams that won’t happen until after the expansion draft. Free agency starts on July 28.”
BLH’s Thoughts: As much as I love RNH, there’s no way a winger who scores at a .67 ppg rate should be getting anything over $5.5M and even that is pushing it. So if there’s a team out there that is willing to give him north of $7M, have at it.
The Rangers are a legit team in the Nuge sweepstakes should he make it to free agency because they’re on the cusp of the next stage of their rebuild and if they wanted to put RNH at centre, they’d be able to give him some outstanding wingers to play with.
The Blue Jackets, on the other hand, not such an intriguing destination now that Seth Jones wants out of town.
I’ll maintain that Seattle is the team willing to give him top-dollar until he signs elsewhere.
From Spector’s Hockey
TRIBLIVE.COM: Mark Madden recently envisioned the Pittsburgh Penguins trading Jake Guentzel for a different type of forward after watching the skillful winger getting battered and bullied in the playoffs. He pointed to when the Penguins traded James Neal for rugged Patric Hornqvist in 2014.
Seth Rorabaugh speculated the Penguins could free up some cap space if they can entice the Seattle Kraken to select someone like Marcus Pettersson ($4.025 million annually) or Jason Zucker ($5.5 million) by offering up a draft pick. They did something similar with Marc-Andre Fleury during the Golden Knights’ expansion draft in 2017.
BLH’s Thoughts: When I was writing this morning’s post, I didn’t even consider that the Penguins would think of trading Guentzel. You’d think they’d want to keep as many players who could score as possible, no?
On the latest 31 Thoughts podcast, Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek were throwing around the idea of Pittsburgh reuniting with goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. In my opinion, where they went wrong was asking The Flower to move on in favor of Tristan Jarry.
This past year, nobody was willing to take Pettersson, I don’t know how they think things will have changed since the trade deadline. Besides, isn’t this the team that led them to first in their division and 5th in the entire league? Why the urgency to flip the roster inside out?
Tell ya what though, if Ron Hextall wants to rid himself of Guentzel, the Edmonton Oilers would be more than happy to take him off of their hands.
From NHL Rumors (dot) Com
Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia: Philadelphia Flyers Claude Giroux will be entering the final year of his eight-year, $66.2 million contract next season. The 33-year old is third all-time in Flyers scoring with 858 points.
With the flat cap next year, the best way for the Flyers to improve their roster is likely the trade route. Giroux is not an option to be moved if they are looking for a major shakeup.
There was internet speculation involving the Ottawa Senators and Giroux, but those rumors are far-fetched.
BLH’s Thoughts: F*ck that. As if the Flyers are going to let their franchise player get traded or walk for nothing. He’s only 33, not 43 and there are plenty of good years left in Giroux before the need to start contemplating moving him begins.
I might be on an island by myself, but I happen to think that Philly is very close to shedding the underachiever tag that’s haunted them for so long. The Flyers’ young forwards like Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Travis Konecny, Isaac Ratcliffe, Tyson Foerster, and Zayde Wisdom are already contributing at the NHL level or about to be. They’ve got hot shot goalie Carter Hart in net for the next decade (if they’re smart) and the defense is headed by Ivan Provorov and Travis Sanheim with the likes of Cam York ready to take a full-time spot very soon.
Chuck Fletcher’s team could use a couple of top-four defenders to shore up the defense and my feeling is that they could use some of the futures they’ve accumulated over time here to do just that. There’ll be Johnny Gaudreau rumors throughout the summer until he re-signs with the Flames or is traded, but stay the course is what I say. Quality is on the way.
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