With contract talks at a stalemate with the Edmonton Oilers, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins might be looking down the barrel of a long-term future playing for another team. BLH digs in.
Ryan Rishaug sent off quite the tweetstorm yesterday regarding RNH and I’m hearing something very interesting from my own sources on the topic as well.
Trade deadline a few months away, am told at this point there has been no resumption in talks between the Oilers and RNH camp. Talks broke off abruptly before the season and its been radio silence since then. RNH has made it clear he wants to remain an Oiler long term.
The organization has said they’d like to keep him, but figuring out the term and dollar figure in a flat cap Covid environment proved tricky. He’s developed chemistry with McDavid, who has said he really likes playing with him, kills penalties, is on their top PP.
And is an important player in their room. Replacing him on the open market would not be an easy or cheap task. With that said, the economic uncertainty moving forward has many teams carefully considering every dollar they spend, so it is complicated.
This is not an asset the organization would want to lose for nothing in free agency, and letting him walk out the door could be a big set back, especially considering the relationship and chemistry with McDavid. Tough decisions ahead for both these sides with clock ticking.
See, only a few hours later I got a DM from a source out on the West coast saying that Nuge would like to sign a five-year deal at $7.5M per, but GM Ken Holland isn’t moving off of $6.5M. The feeling is that there’s a strong possibility that this could be Nuge’s last year in Edmonton.
Not helping is the fact that NCAA standout Dylan Holloway will be signing with the Oilers sooner than later and Edmonton has a lot of young wingers on their way too. Some say that Ryan McLeod will end up being a winger at the NHL level. OH! And we can’t forget about Tyler Benson (even though I don’t believe he’ll make it to the show full-time).
Personally, I wouldn’t blame him for taking the money elsewhere. As a fan, you’d love to see him sacrifice one more time for the good of the club, but you cannot blame him one bit if he wants to head off to greener pastures after all the things that he’s been through in Edmonton. He’s been through a few tours with the Oilers.
My question is when would be the most optimal time to move him if that was the final decision?
Remember when Oilersnation was all “KEEP NUGE FOREVER”?… They had the shirts and everything done up and even a bunch of Oilers wore them at Nuge’s wedding… Times have changed it seems…
They’ve gone from,
https://twitter.com/theDanalytic/status/944063027363528704
To…
https://twitter.com/theDanalytic/status/1362209989939486722
Ah… Sports fans… Never change.
FWIW, I’m not a #keepnugeforever guy, but I’d have no issues giving Nuge a million-dollar raise for five years in order to see him play on McDavid’s wing. At worst he ends up being another David Krejci… At best, he’s your Joe Pavelski. Five years takes him to 32/33yrs old? Hardly a painful proposition, and if there’s a possibility that the team wants to move on from him during that deal, simply structure the contract in a manner that makes it easiest for the team acquiring RNH.
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