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NHL Rumors Update
NHL Rumors Update for 03/20/2020
The latest NHL rumors from The Hockey Writers.
03/20/2020 edition:
By Jim Parsons on Mar 19, 2020 02:40 pm
In today’s NHL rumor rundown, there is word out of Finland that the Jesse Puljujarvi’s coach wants him to stick around another season, there is buzz about how much the St. Louis Blues are willing to spend to retain Alex Pietrangelo and who else might be interested, and there’s news that the Chicago Blackhawks are concerned about a flat salary cap for next season. Finally, could this NHL pause affect the plans for Seattle’s expansion into the NHL?
Will Oilers Have Puljujarvi Next Season?
Former Oilers forward (technically, still Oilers forward) Jesse Puljujarvi likely heard his coach in Finland speak a little about Puljujarvi’s possible future in the NHL, saying he’d like to see the 21-year-old forward spend another season in Finland, according to reports from Kaleva.Fi.
His current head coach Mikko Manner spoke on a recent episode of the Kaleva Sports Podcast and said Puljujarvi played “nearly perfect season.” and believes Jesse “made the perfectly right decision when he decided to return to the familiar club – and got a big role in the match.” He noted that staying in Finland another season would be best for Puljujarvi’s game, the next step being to “develop the details and skills to strengthen his mental, tactical and technical footprint.” He believes sticking with his current team is the best option.
It will be interesting to see if Puljujarvi agrees. While he’s publicly said he’s pretty much ruled out coming back to the Oilers, perhaps another NHL would have been an option if traded this off-season. But, if the signs are he’ll stay in Finland, what team would be willing to risk trading for his rights?
Related: NHL Owners: Who Are They?
Bidding War for Alex Pietrangelo?
Tom Timmerman of STLToday.com answered a mailbag question about whether or not St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong would or should pay between $8.5 million to $9 million annually over six years to re-sign captain Alex Pietrangelo. He also wondered how many teams might be in the bidding for Pietrangelo if he hits the open market?
A flat cap next season might actually help the Blues. While other teams will struggle to fit all their players in, should the cap not jump, the Blues won’t have as many competing bids for Pietrangelo, keeping the price down a touch.
Timmerman asks:
One interesting thing will be what the market is for Pietrangelo. How many teams will be in the bidding for him? Vegas? Tampa Bay? That will be a factor in driving his price tag.
Related: St. Louis Blues’ Mount Rushmore
Seattle to Hold Off Team Name Announcement
Scott Charles of NBC Sports reports that, via the Sports Business Journal, Seattle will be pushing back the release of the team name. Seattle’s plan had been to release the name of the new franchise sometime in April, but that appears to be on hold for now with everything that’s going on in the NHL right now.
TSN’s Pierre LeBrun also noted, “followed up today, status quo regarding the Seattle expansion calendar. NHL source says nothing has changed at this point regarding Seattle timeline.”
Blackhawks Crossing Fingers For Higher Cap
Like many teams, the Chicago Blackhawks will be closely watching what next season’s cap will look like when this pause is all said and done and Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun Times notes that if the cap remains at $81.5 million, it’ll leave the Blackhawks only $8 million to re-sign Corey Crawford, Dylan Strome, Dominik Kubalik and Drake Caggiula.
That basically means the Blackhawks can’t fill out the rest of their roster, nor can they find a backup goaltender after letting Robin Lehner go in trade to the Vegas Golden Knights. Pope notes that all of the players on the Blackhawks to-extend list might be pricey (outside of Drake Caggiula).
He also wonders if buying out defenseman Olli Maatta and center Zack Smith to free up an additional $5.5 million, would be an option.
Pope writes:
But even if all those dominoes fall Bowman’s way, the Hawks still will struggle to retain the same below-average roster they fielded this season, much less make necessary improvements. Bringing in outside free agents would be unfeasible.
The post NHL Rumors: Oilers, Blues, Blackhawks, Seattle Expansion Changes appeared first on The Hockey Writers.
By Jim Parsons on Mar 18, 2020 03:10 pm
In today’s NHL rumor rundown, there is news that the Toronto Maple Leafs are taking a look at how to manage their blue line if there is a flat salary cap next season, the San Jose Sharks are making plans that may or may not include Joe Thornton and the NHL players are getting their heads together, trying to help the NHL come up with a way to get this and next season in.
Maple Leafs Looking At Trade Possibilities?
Sportsnet’s Luke Fox examined the effect of flat salary cap and the Toronto Maple Leafs only having $81.5 million available to them for next season. He believes the team would be forced to trade for a defenseman and may already be looking at how that would work.
Fox doesn’t expect either of Tyson Barrie and Cody Ceci to be back with the Maple Leafs next season and with only Morgan Rielly and Jake Muzzin as established veterans left on the blue line, Toronto will use young players like Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren, but shouldn’t rely on them. Fox then wondered what would be more beneficial for Toronto, to add via trade or to add via free agency?
Fox also believes trading a player like William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews or John Tavares is out of the question. That leaves the middle-tier forwards Kasperi Kapanen, Alexander Kerfoot or Andreas Johnsson to land the blueliner they need.
Fox writes:
Dubas & Co. have proven creative in finding ways to keep their high-priced, elite talent in blue and white, but those signings were made on the presumption that the ceiling would only go in one direction.
A flat or reduced salary cap would present a host of fresh challenges.
Joe Thornton Says He’ll Be Back
TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reached out to Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks and noted that while the veteran center is aware that no scenario for NHL playoffs will include the Sharks, there are many fans curious about what’s in store as far as Thorntons future goes.
LeBrun asked Thornton directly if he was planning on playing next season, Thornton responded with a text saying, “I’ve got years left.” That means, not only will Thornton be back, but he may be looking at more than a one-year deal if he’s not back with the Sharks.
The question now will be how likely it is that Thornton and the Sharks keeping going together or if Thornton looks to another franchise, one that might give him a chance to win a Stanley Cup.
In other Sharks’ news, regarding their next head coach, Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News writes that GM Doug Wilson could take a long look at former Nashville Predators bench boss Peter Laviolette, should they decide to move away from interim coach Bob Boughner.
Related: Top 10 NHL Backup Goaltenders
Players Suggesting Ideas to the NHL
According to the TSN Insider Trading panelists some high-caliber players are getting together in group online chats and trying to schedule and plan solutions to get this year’s regular season finished, have an offseason and get a full NHL season in next year.
The idea right now seems to be to open training camps in July, (assuming this COVID-19 stuff is all sorted out by then), play in enough regular season games to formulate a playoff bracket, and from there, start the playoffs in early August and award the Stanley Cup in late September.
They added the league when then have it’s quick off-season in October and resume the 2020-21 season in November, getting all the games in on a condensed schedule.
The league is willing to listen to all ideas from the players and it sounds like they’re on the same page with a lot of what’s being proposed.
The post NHL Rumors: Maple Leafs, Sharks, Players Making Plans, More appeared first on The Hockey Writers.
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