Today’s news and speculation from the NHL includes notes on Jack Eichel, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Petr Mrazek, Jaden Schwartz, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, next week’s 2020 NHL draft, and much more!
Short summary of the US Presidential debate pic.twitter.com/c0NAM5yxI1
— Late Night With Uncle PARODY Pants George Parros (@SafetyNhlParros) September 30, 2020
The News and Rumors
- Andrew Gross (Newsday): Isles GM Lou Lamoriello: Casey Cizikas, Adam Pelech, and Tom Kuhnackl all had surgeries but will be ready for camp. More players will be available around the NHL that most people think.
- TSN690: Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin says he’d be willing to trade prospects/1st round picks (or packages) “tonight.” Nothing is close, “it takes two to tango.”
BLH’s Thoughts: Bergevin also said in that interview that there’s nothing on the free-agent market that could fill his team’s needs. He expanded by saying he just doesn’t believe making one UFA signing will have a huge impact on your team, believes you can add players that can help via UFA, complimentary players.
So, no more Taylor Hall to the Habs?
- Aaron Portzline (The Athletic): Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen wants new deals for Pierre-Luc Dubois and Josh Anderson signed quickly so he can get to off-season upgrades.
BLH’s Thoughts: The word is that Columbus wants to add some skill to the roster. Jesse Puljujarvi has been connected to the Blue Jackets in rumors recently but I wonder if they’d be more open to someone like Evgeni Dadonov. A little more expensive but you know what you’re getting.
- Sam Carchidi (Philadelphia Inquirer): Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher says the “mindset” is to pick at 23rd overall but he’d consider moving it in a package to acquire a high-scoring forward.
BLH’s Thoughts: Patrik Laine is one name that Philly is rumored to be interested in. Surely that pick alongside some prospects and a couple of roster players would be enough to interest Winnipeg.
- Darren Dreger (TSN): There’s a lot of interest in Jake Virtanen. Canucks would like to keep him but are intrigued by the interest. Virtanen is looking at 2yrs @ $3M on his next deal.
BLH’s Thoughts: Bob Stauffer floated out a Puljujarvi/Virtanen proposal weeks ago. I’m not sure if the interest is still there mind you. Virtanen is right on the cusp of breaking out but he seems to be having a helluva time with the coaching staff and management in Vancouver. He could be a really nice pick-up for a team looking for a fast power-forward on the wing.
- More Dreger: The Oilers have had preliminary discussions with the Arizona Coyotes regarding Oliver Ekman-Larsson but the cap-hit is going to be a challenge for the Oilers to overcome.
- Patrick Johnston (Vancouver Sun): The Edmonton Oilers are a team to keep an eye on. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins could be on the move.
BLH’s Thoughts: Preliminary discussions?! Ha! They’ve been talking for weeks. Some folks were started to connect Johnston’s RNH comment with Dreger’s and panic ensued on Twitter with Oilers fans going ballistic thinking that Edmonton was trading RNH for OEL…
I wouldn’t discount that sort of trade outright though…
- Bruce Garrioch (TSN): Senators Chief scout Trent Mann says they’ll pick either Quinton Byfield or Tim Stutzle at 3rd overall. Teams have been calling to move up to 5th and Ottawa is listening.
BLH’s Thoughts: The Sens would be daft to move the 5th overall. Take the best defenseman or the best goalie and be done with it.
- Craig Morgan (The Athletic): Lightning assistant director of scouting Darryl Plandowski is in the mix for the role with Arizona. Same goes for Buffalo DoS Ryan Jankowski.
- Jeremy Rutherford (The Athletic): Jaden Schwartz’s situation is worth monitoring in the next weeks. Doesn’t sound like St. Louis wants to trade him, but his value may never be higher.
BLH’s Thoughts: Schwartz is one year from being an unrestricted free agent. So I agree, there may be no better time to trade him. Lol.
- Elliotte Friedman (Sportsnet): “Don’t think Jack Eichel is traded before next season. Buffalo already paid him $7.5M (signing bonus), they’ve told teams they see no point in trading him right now.
- Nick Kypreos: Buffalo Sabres Forward Jack Eichel has told the club that he is open to playing elsewhere, but hasn’t requested a trade.
BLH’s Thoughts: Considering that the Sabres are looking to cut as much expenditure as possible, it’s not shocking that Eichel’s name would come up. But you’d have to think that if Sabres ownership wants to make some money in the future, they’ll keep their franchise player.
- David Schoen (Las Vegas Review Journal): The Vegas Golden Knights will heavily pursue Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo this off-season if he hits free agency.
- More Schoen: Other defenseman options for the Golden Knights are Tyson Barrie, Dylan DeMelo, Brendan Dillon, Travis Hamonic, and Sami Vatanen.
BLH’s Thoughts: Some say to keep an eye on the Oilers this off-season, but I reckon Vegas is going to be the club to watch. They want to make some big moves and have very little cap space to do it. With an owner as ambitious as theirs, how much of the future is willing to sacrifice to stay at the top?
- Eric Duhatschek (The Athletic): The Winnipeg Jets could take a chance on Columbus defender Ryan Murray with center Jack Roslovic possibly going the other way.
BLH’s Thoughts: I dunno about this one. Could the Jets find someone as good as Murray on the free agent market and for a bit cheaper? Maybe a “success by committee” approach would be prudent next season?
- Pierre LeBrun (TSN): The Oilers have shown interest in Darcy Kuemper, Matt Murray, and are keeping an eye on Jacob Markstrom. Petr Mrazek is a secondary option in case the primary ones fall through.
BLH’s Thoughts: If Markstrom is looking for $6M+ I can’t see the Oilers wanting anything to do with that unless they decide to move on from Mikko Koskinen. Even Matt Murray is a bit concerning when thinking about how much he’s looking for and considering that Ken Holland is probably only looking to spend about $7.5M on his netminders. Kuemper is going to cost a 1st rounder (more on that below) and surely there will be better (and cheaper) goalies than Mrazek available.
- More LeBrun: The Lightning could surprise everyone here, they may move a player that no one expected they would move.
BLH’s Thoughts: As I watched Tampa pass the Cup around the other night, I wondered if Ryan McDonagh might be the one that gets moved but he’s got a NTC. So that nixes that idea. What if it’s Brayden Point? Two more seasons at a shade over $6M and then he’s going to make bank. Would the Lightning cash in on that kind of trade with an eye towards the future? Sounds dumb, right? He’s got no trade protection though…
The Oilers Speculation
I’ve had two sources tell me that the Oilers could very well trade one of their top-four defensemen for a package that includes a 1st round pick in 2020. I’m not sure if that’s all the return would be but that would be part of it.
Bob Stauffer (630CHED) has talked about the Oilers trading down recently but I talked to another very well respected source that said not to count on that happening because the expectation is that a very good player is going to drop to the Oilers at 14th overall. The thought is that Seth Jarvis, Jack Quinn, Yaroslav Askarov, AND Braden Schneider will climb into the top-13 and if that happens maybe a player like Anton Lundell, Alexander Holtz, or Marco Rossi will be there when Edmonton is picking.
Now enjoy this semi-hypothetical I’ve got for you…
This morning I woke up and the first thing that came to mind was what if the Oilers moved a defenseman to another team with multiple 1st rounders (NJ has 18th and 20th overall) and then traded down with Ottawa to get their 28th, 33rd, and 58th picks?
Yesterday, I spoke about a Jake DeBrusk rumor that was out there and one of my sources out East figured that the Bruins would probably just want the picks/prospects in order to have more room to add Taylor Hall.
If the Oilers had an extra 1st and an extra 2nd, that puts them in a much better position to go after DeBrusk and a goalie like Matt Murray. Plus they would still have another 1st rounder and potentially another 2nd rounder to use on prospects or to bring in a replacement for the departing defender.
So to summarize,
- Edmonton sends Oscar Klefbom to New Jersey for the 18th overall pick and Pavel Zacha (for example)
- Edmonton sends their 14th overall pick and Kris Russell (2020) to Ottawa for the 28th, 33rd, and 58th overall picks (2020)
- Edmonton uses the 18th overall and Alex Chiasson to acquire Jake DeBrusk from the Bruins.
- Edmonton uses the 33rd overall pick from Ottawa and Cooper Marody to bring in Matt Murray and Juuso Rikola from the Penguins.
I threw in some extra names to make it interesting but you get the gist (I hope).
At this point, the Oilers would still have to move some pieces around if they hoped to bring in Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Maybe that’s a “Darnell Nurse and a 2021 first-rounder” sort of trade with Arizona eating a couple million to make it work.
My oh my. I’ll admit, that’s an awful lot of wishful thinking though. That said, it accomplishes the following:
- Brings in a big-bodied third-line center.
- Changes the overall makeup of the defense.
- Gives the club a starting netminder.
- Upgrades the LW and top-six overall.
- It’s a roster that stays under the cap if DeBrusk and Murray are given $5M/yr and ARI eats $2M of OEL’s deal.
DeBrusk-McDavid-Kassian
RNH-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Nygard-Zacha-Puljujarvi
Neal-Khaira-Archibald
Haas/Russell
OEL/Larsson
Riikola/Bear
Jones/Bouchard
Lagesson
Murray
Koskinen
To be frank, I’m not sure how much I like that roster. But it is what it is. Maybe Riikola and Zacha would be placeholders for the year.
What do you think?
