Today’s news and speculation from the NHL includes notes on Phil Kessel, Alex Pietrangelo, Ben Bishop, Paul Stastny, the future of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ goaltending situation, and much more!
New Because Oilers:
Edmonton Oilers 3rd line Center search #6 Mikko Koivuhttps://t.co/RUjk6nTOn0
— Woodguy (@Woodguy55) September 20, 2020
The News and Rumors
- Pat Steinberg (FAN590): The Calgary Flames are interested in signing Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom if he hits the free-agent market.
BLH’s Thoughts: Geez, Cam Talbot must be loving all of this speculation. Meh, what does it matter anyhow, he’s going to Dallas, isn’t he?
Between Markstrom, Darcy Kuemper, and Matt Murray, the Flames have been all over the goalie market in search for their new no.1. Signing Markstrom would be a good move on their part, albeit an expensive one…
- Pierre LeBrun (TSN): Loui Eriksson’s agent JP Barry has been given the green light from the Vancouver Canucks to be calling other teams directly himself to try and find his client a new home.
- HockeyNews.se: After breaking the loan deal with Edmonton Oilers prospect Raphael Lavoie, SHL club Rogle BK is reportedly interested in signing Habs prospect Cole Caufield.
BLH’s Thoughts: This Lavoie/Rogle stuff is quite the little mini-drama. Some outlets say he wasn’t good enough to make the team, others say that there was no deal in place for him to even make the team.
Whatever it is, Lavoie is on the search for another club. My question is, why would his agent seek out and sign off this kind of scenario when everybody else is getting proper deals with clubs on that side of the pond? I mean, are other NHL prospects getting cut from European teams right before their first games of the year too?
There is a dusting of irony for Oilers fans in a North American player heading to Europe and not being able to cut it on the big ice though, isn’t there?
- Jeremy Rutherford (The Athletic): The Blues’ current offer to captain Alex Pietrangelo is $7.7M AAV, but he’s been asked to accept the AAV without knowing the structure of the deal.”
- Josh Wegman (The Score): The Leafs, Bruins, Avalanche, Flames, and Oilers are all realistic landing spots for Blues defender Alex Pietrangelo.
BLH’s Thoughts: Pietrangelo to Edmonton is not a realistic landing spot for a player looking for $10M/yr… I mean unless he changed his tune and was looking for something south of $4M on a one-year contract…
- David Pagnotta (The Fourth Period): The Flyers are actively looking to move out some salary and create cap space. There’ve been no contract talks with any of their pending free agents.
BLH’s Thoughts: The Following players are out of contract in Philly, Brian Elliott, Robert Hagg, Justin Braun, Philippe Myers, Derek Grant, Tyler Pitlick, Nate Thompson. Hagg and Myers are RFAs whilst the rest of the names on that list are UFAs…
The Flyers have around $10M is cap room coming up. I would imagine that Hagg and Myers will take up half of that at least.
- Eric Stephens (The Athletic): Contract talks have been quiet between forward Kiefer Sherwood and the Anaheim Ducks.
- Rob Rossi (The Athletic): Although signed to a new deal, Jared McCann remains a trade candidate. Look for the Penguins to get busy on a contract for Tristan Jarry soon.
- Elliotte Friedman (Sportsnet): Jimmy Howard says he won’t re-sign with the Red Wings or retire, he’ll go to free agency. Apparently last season wasn’t the way he wanted to end his career.
- Frank Seravalli (TSN): Dallas Stars goalie Ben Bishop is becoming more and more likely to become a trade candidate.
BLH’s Thoughts: Can you think of a team that will sign Jimmy Howard because I can’t. He’s damned near 37 years old and has been well below-average for a while now.
When healthy, Bishop is a fantastic goalkeeper. His problem is his health though. Well, that and he has a M-NTC (10-team no-trade list) and a NMC.
I could see the Stars moving on from him, but he’d have to okay it. An Anton Khudobin/Cam Talbot duo in Dallas would work lovely in my opinion if Jim Nill did find a way to trade Bishop.
- More Seravalli: Some potential players on the move include; Phil Kessel (ARI), Tyler Bozak (STL), and Andreas Athanasiou (EDM).
- Dan Kingerski (Pittsburgh Hockey NOW): It is getting more and more likely that the Penguins could reunite with Golden Knights netminder Marc-Andre Fleury.
BLH’s Thoughts: Of all the years to have a flat-cap forced on the league… Edmonton could most certainly use both Phil Kessel and Tyler Bozak for a year or two going into 2020-21…
I really can’t see MA Fleury going back to Pittsburgh unless his BFF Sid Crosby is really on the horn about it. Could Vegas flip MAF for Matt Murray and then use Murray to upgrade somewhere else though? An interesting scenario nevertheless.
The Oilers Speculation
For sure Oilers are very keen on OEL because Dave Tippett coached in Ariz but unless they can move a defenceman making good dough (ie $4 mil or more), his $8.25 mil salary is a fairly big impediment
— Jim Matheson (@jimmathesonnhl) September 20, 2020
I agree and now there are rumblings (out of Edmonton of course) that if Arizona ate $2M/yr on OEL’s deal, that would make the trade more palpable.
Now, let’s think about that for a second. Seven years remaining @ $2M/yr… By my math, and it’s not great, that’s around $14M that the Coyotes, a team looking to rid itself of real money, would need to eat… Unless Edmonton is offering them a deal they cannot refuse without keeping that salary, why would Arizona choose to deal with the Oilers?
Well, there is one reason and that would be Ekman-Larsson himself saying that the only team he’ll go to is the Edmonton Oilers to play for former coaches Dave Tippett and Jim Playfair. He has a no-movement clause that puts him in the driver’s seat.
My offer: A 2021 lottery-protected first-round pick, Darnell Nurse, and Dmitri Samorukov or Kris Russell.
The Cult of Hockey’s Kurt Leavins had this to say on the OEL talk,
I have every reason to believe that the Oilers have talked to the Arizona Coyotes about veteran 1st pairing D-man Oliver Ekman-Larsson. With signs that the ownership in the desert will most definitely not be a cap team in 2020-21, Ekman-Larsson and his $8.2m cap hit are in play. The issues for Arizona (and the Oilers, frankly) are three-fold. First, the $8.2m. Second, term…the fact that at 29 years old Ekman-Larsson is still owed 58 million dollars through 2026-27. Finally, third…for a franchise like Arizona who leans heavily on fancy stats Ekman-Larsson’s underlying numbers the last season and a half have been off. But who would know Ekman-Larsson better than Dave Tippett and Jim Playfair, the coaches in Arizona when Ekman-Larsson had his best seasons? And are we sure the slump in EOL is age starting to catch up to him? What other trials might have the player had to work through over the past 18 months? Adam Larsson understandably had some challenges adjusting after his father passed away. Ekman-Larsson lost his mother in a similar time frame. These are the things data and spreadsheets don’t always show.Arizona would also be keenly aware than in order to move their big LHS D-man it would have to both retain salary and probably take one on a contract, as well. With the Desert Dogs suddenly under a self-imposed cap, a contract where the player’s salary has already been largely paid out (such as Kris Russell’s) would be particularly attractive. And if you are wondering about Eckman-Larsson’s No-Move-Clause, I am made to believe that he’d waive it to come to Alberta. But wait. Isn’t Ken Holland the prototypical “Draft & Develop” General Manager? With a flat cap, isn’t now the time to slowly bring those economical ELC players into the lineup in order to create some complimentary player cap space for the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl lines? Keep some of the powder dry until next year when some contracts fall away.
Or does the confluence of the pandemic, civil unrest and geo-political issues in the United States make a safe Canadian market like Edmonton with 2 of the league’s biggest superstars and the nicest arena anywhere make now an opportune time to reach out to clubs who don’t have all those advantages?
