Leavins Says Chicago is Willing to Take a Contact Back for Duncan Keith

Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with excerpts from 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 Spector’s Hockey

COULD EICHEL LAND WITH THE BLACKHAWKS OR FLAMES?

THE ATHLETIC: Scott Powers reports a source said the Chicago Blackhawks aren’t planning to get into the bidding for Jack Eichel. They cited the fact the club already has two $10-million players on the roster (Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews) and don’t see how they can have a third.

CALGARY SUN: Wes Gilbertson mused over whether the Flames could pursue a deal for Eichel. He speculates general manager Brad Treliving could be interested in the 24-year-old Sabres captain so long as there aren’t any long-term concerns regarding his neck injury.

The Flames lack a high first-round pick or an obvious stud prospect. Gilbertson thinks the Sabres asking price could start with wingers Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane plus a promising player and more.

LATEST ON KEITH AND THE OILERS

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Oilers may be interested in Keith but they’re not under any pressure to make this move. If they can’t make a deal work they can just walk away and seek more affordable blueline options elsewhere.

The Blackhawks will have to retain part of Keith’s contract or take back a contract they can buy out to make the dollars fit here. Maybe they can acquire a contract from the Oilers and flip it to another team for a draft pick or prospect.

BLH’s Thoughts:

From The Hockey Writers

Islanders Have Talked to Palmieri

Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello acknowledged that he has spoken with forward Kyle Palmieri regarding an extension and says the team expressed interest in having the forward return. The Islanders might have the room to re-sign him if It the Kraken select one of Jordan Eberle or Nick Leddy in the expansion draft, removing $5.5 million in cap space.

BLH’s Thoughts: Ya know, if the Islanders didn’t want to lose Leddy to the Kraken, he’d be a decent trade target for the Oilers should the Duncan Keith negotiations break down. A discounted Leddy would offer as much as Keith sans all the Olympic gold medals, Stanley Cup rings, Norris Trophies, and Conn Smythe awards.

From the Cult of Hockey

As the Edmonton Oilers learn how to win, there’s a lot Duncan Keith could teach them: 9 Things

8. The Oilers pro scouting meetings have wrapped. If I had to guess, the organization looks at its situation this way: There is substantial talent coming from the club’s prospects. If the team spends on 2-3 bigger pieces then it would be content filling slots in the Bottom-6/3^rd pairing with the likes of Ryan McLeod, Evan Bouchard and Dylan Holloway…all on economical ELC’s.

BLH’s Thoughts: If Holloway hadn’t injured his thumb at the end of his season for Wisconsin, I truly believe they would’ve had him up with the Oilers. I think the club thinks this player is good to go right now and they’re willing to develop him at the NHL level.

Personally, I think that’s a mistake, but what are you gonna do? If a player is ready, they’re ready.

They should either give that opportunity to Tyler Benson to lose or sign a cheap option and allow Holloway at least a half season in Bakersfield to get acclimated to the professional game.

Trust me, there will be some players left holding the bag by the time training camp opens who thought they’d have a deal signed by then. Give them a tryout and go from there. Like, how bad would it be for Edmonton to have Tyler Ennis come back for another season while Holloway marinates in Bakersfield?

7. I continue to believe that Mike Smith will ultimately be resigned by Edmonton. But I think it’s also possible that Mikko Koskinen could still be an Oiler come training camp.

BLH’s Thoughts: To take it even further, I’ve said it before, Koskinen could be Smith’s wingman until at least the trade deadline and then the Oilers could strike a deal for somebody like Darcy Kuemper who’ll be a UFA in the summer.

6. I don’t believe the Oilers will protect Jones in the expansion draft. But no doubt they wouldn’t mind getting something “for” him rather than just lose him to Seattle for nothing.

BLH’s Thoughts: Every team is going to have to lose somebody for nothing, right? So instead of losing Jones for nothing in this scenario, they’re going to lose another player… For nothing… Why in the world would they be worried about this with a 6/7 dman?

5. This is a critical off-season for Ethan Bear. I expect that he will get protected in the expansion draft. But with that will come some expectations from the Oilers that Bear put in the requisite work in a number of areas during the off-season. They felt he was better prepared for the 2019-20 season after spending most of it training in Edmonton. A summer in the Okanagan plus a coincidental contract issue didn’t seem to deliver the same quality results.

BLH’s Thoughts: Hmmmm. There you have it. The way I’m reading this is that Bear went to the Okanagan to train with the big boys and got caught up having a good time as opposed to getting the job done and it bit him in the ass. Don’t think Ken Holland, whose offseasons are spent in the area, didn’t know about it either…

If you’re asking me, I think Bear is on borrowed time in Edmonton unless he blows the doors off at training camp and comes in looking like the player from two years ago.

4. I’ve talked with two people in the last 24 hours that believe Ken Holland either has or will have a discussion with the Tyson Barrie camp about extending his stay in Edmonton. One of those sources expected it would happen this coming week. I reported last week that the market is flatter than it normally would have been for Barrie after the type of productive season he had. The chatter I hear is that Barrie feels there’s a mutual fit in Edmonton. And no, I don’t think they would re-sign him (or acquire any other D-man) at the expense of Adam Larsson.

BLH’s Thoughts: It’s probably going to be even more flat since he’s become the first defenseman in the history of the game to lead the league in scoring for dmen and not get a single Norris Trophy vote… That’s the McDavid Effect for ya…

It’s interesting that Leavins didn’t have an update on Larsson’s negotiations this week… I’m happy to hear that the priority is on The Iron Swede though, that said, I’m curious if the agent is trying to drag this out as close as he can to the expansion draft in order to squeeze some extra cash out of the Oilers because he knows the Larsson is so valuable to the team?

1.I wrote this week at The Cult of Hockey (go to the article here) that I believed the Oilers were front-runners in the Duncan Keith stakes. While nothing is done, there are 2 North-Western teams who Keith would likely waive his no-trade clause for: Edmonton and Seattle. But the Oilers appear to be the front runners.

I think Keith could earn $3-$3.5m. But I also do not believe that Chicago is interested in retaining that much. 25% is more in their ballpark. However, as I suggested earlier in the week the Hawks are likely willing to take a contract back (and then buy it out) instead.

But let’s assume Keith’s new player agent Gerry Johansson has talked with his client about extending his career by becoming a role player. A list of Hall of Fame level D-man have done that in their careers: Larry Robinson, Brad Park, Chris Chelios, Serge Savard, Randy Carlyle. Duncan Keith is of their quality. And within that context, Keith’s agreeing to come here as a 2^nd-pairing D-man makes a lot of sense. Edmonton would be a different workload, different TOI, different match-ups, different comp, even D-partners than he had last season in The Windy City. And Chicago was a bad team. It is simply not an apples-to-apples comparison.

But after watching the Oilers stall in the post-season the past 2 seasons, it seems abundantly clear to me they need someone (who is still capable of playing a meaningful role on this club) who knows what it takes to win when the chips are down. And yes, there’s an analytic for that. They’re called Stanley Cup rings.

Duncan Keith has all that plus some on his resume. Which other left-handed D-man in the NHL today is both available, possesses the same CV and wants to come here? And what is that worth to you?

BLH’s Thoughts: I’m curious which contract they’d be willing to take back to buy out? Bob Stauffer is pretty firm in his belief that it won’t be James Neal because it’d cost them nearly $7M but I don’t recall much on Mikko Koskinen and the $1.5M they’d save buying him out.

The whole, “wanting to come here” is a massive deal in Edmonton. It’s very rare that a player would go there without any prior attachments to the city or club if it was his choice. The Oilers have always had to overpay to get quality NHL players to go to Edmonton to play for them and I don’t think that’s something that will ever change. The city, as much as I love it, just doesn’t have that much going for it with regards to it being an attractive option for professional hockey players.

So if a future HOFer says he wants to go to the City of Champions and the belief is he can still contribute and not be a liability to the team on the ice, there’s no doubt in my mind, you do the best deal you can for him without overpaying. You’re doing the player and yourself a favor, not the other team and the offer should reflect that. Otherwise, thanks but no thanks and good luck going forward.

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