NHL Rumors Update

NHL Rumors Update for 07/10/2020

July 10, 2020

The latest NHL rumors from The Hockey Writers.

 

 07/10/2020 edition:

By Jim Parsons on Jul 09, 2020 01:10 pm

In today’s NHL rumors rundown, the New Jersey Devils have officially made their coaching and GM announcement changes. The Florida Panthers are losing Chris Pronger and the Toronto Maple Leafs are one of five teams listed by the Hockey news as franchises that will be heavily affected by a flat salary cap. What’s their plan?

Finally, the NHL has official dates set for every major happening in hockey, all the way up to the start of the 2020-21 season.

Devils Make New GM and Coach Changes Official

They tweeted on Thursday afternoon, “The New Jersey Devils have signed Lindy Ruff to be the 19th head coach in franchise history. Welcome to Jersey, Lindy!” They also confirmed that Tom Fitzgerald has been named Executive Vice President/General Manager of the club.

Kevin Weekes had tweeted out that the Devils were expected to make the announcements soon and with the Devils officially confirming those announcements today, the team can continue to move in the direction Fitzgerald had envisioned.

Managing partners Josh Harris and David Blitzer released the following statement about Fitzgerald’s promotion:

Having gone through the process of interviewing various candidates, including Tom, and reviewing his work in the interim, we feel that he is the best fit for the New Jersey Devils moving forward. Our decision was solidified by his ability to stabilize the organization, get solid returns at the trade deadline, make impressive plans for player development and hire a new coach in Lindy Ruff. 

Considering it was Fitzgerald who was behind the hiring of Ruff, the new permanent GM had this to say about his decision to hire the former Sabres and Stars coach:

We are proud and excited to have Lindy Ruff join our organization as Head Coach. He is one of the most successful and respected coaches in the NHL, not only today, but in League history. His personality, experience, knowledge, work-ethic and focus will provide a calm presence in our locker room. He is the right coach at the right time for our organization. Lindy has a proven track record of getting the absolute best out of his players across the board- stars, role players and everyone in between. His teaching ability, and communication skills will be well-suited for our team, especially our young, developing players. Throughout his career, his teams have been greater than the sum of their parts. I look forward to working together with Lindy as the organization moves forward.

Pronger Leaves the Panthers

The Florida Panthers PR department tweeted that former NHL Hall of Fame defenseman and executive Chris Pronger has left the Florida Panthers organization. His plan is to pursue other interests and focus on his family’s travel business.

GM Dale Tallon said of the news:

“We want to thank Chris for his invaluable contributions to the Florida Panthers organization. Since joining our hockey operations staff in 2017, Chris approached his role with great passion and provided our team with a fresh and unique perspective. A true professional, champion and proud family man, we wish Chris, Lauren and the Pronger family the very best in their new business endeavor, Well Inspired Travels.”

Maple Leafs Plan for Flat Salary Cap

The Toronto Maple Leafs were one of five teams listed by Matt Larkin of The Hockey News as teams that will struggle to deal with the flat salary cap. The Tampa Bay Lightning, St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks, and Arizona Coyotes were the others.

Larkins notes that after Tyson Barrie leaves via free agency, the team still won’t have enough space to bring in one or two impactful right-shot defensemen. GM Kyle Dubas will have to shop a mid-tier forward like Kasperi Kapanen, Andreas Johnsson, or Alexander Kerfoot to solve the blue line issues.

He says Dubas may also try to acquire more LTIR contracts with David Clarkson and Nathan Horton coming off the books in the off-season.

Key Dates for the NHL’s Return to Play and Afterward

TSN’s Frank Seravalli laid out all of the key dates for the NHL moving forward, both as it pertains to the return to play and the draft and free agency that will follow the playoffs. The dates are as follows:

  • July 10 – Beginning of training camp

  • July 24 – Travel to hub cities

  • July 25 – Beginning of exhibition games

  • July 31 – Beginning of qualifying round

  • Aug. 9 – Beginning of Stanley Cup Playoffs

  • Aug. 23 – Beginning of Second Round

  • Sep. 6 – Beginning of Conference Finals

  • Sep. 20 – Beginning of Stanley Cup Final

  • Oct. 2 – Last possible day of Stanley Cup Final

  • Oct. 6 – 2020 NHL Entry Draft

  • Oct. 9 – Opening of free agency

  • Nov. 17 – Beginning of training camp for 2020-21 season

  • Dec. 1 – Beginning of 2020-21 regular season

Dates, of course, are subject to change based on hurdles and logistical issues that may pop up. Realistically, training camps have already been pushed back to July 13.

Seravalli also notes that no decision has been made on how Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers are supposed to solve the conditions in Milan Lucic / James Neal. Seravalli says the NHL plans to develop process for clubs to make arguments and be heard fairly. That includes cases put forth by teams being heard by an arbitrator.

By Jim Parsons on Jul 08, 2020 12:40 pm

In today’s NHL rumor rundown, Chris Tanev talks about wanting to play alongside Quinn Hughes, while there’s talk about Hughes and Elias Pettersson extension. Meanwhile, the Vegas Golden Knights could be seeking a backup goalie. Where will they find one? For both the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers, they could be without two key players, and what will the playoff schedule look like when games begin on August 1?

Chris Tanev Wants to Stay With Quinn Hughes

Pete Jensen and David Satriano of NHL.com write that Chris Tanev has said one of the main reasons he wants to stick with the Vancouver Canucks is because he hopes he’s able to continue to play with defense partner Quinn Hughes.

Tanev is a pending free agent and has not hid the fact he’s looking to re-sign with the Canucks despite the fact the team will have trouble keeping everyone with a flat salary cap next season. Tanev notes:

“I’d love to stay here and play with Quinn as long as I’m able to,” Tanev said Tuesday. “I think we played great together when we did this year and I think we both enjoyed it. … I think he’s an extremely dynamic player that is only going to get better and better for this organization, and it was pretty special what he did this year.”

As it pertains to Hughes next contract, Elliotte Friedman said on during an appearance Sportsnet 650, the next contracts for Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson will revolve around whether each respective player wants a shorter-term deal or a longer-term one right away.  “Are Hughes and Pettersson going to come to the Canucks and want big time back-loading? So the AAV remains the same but more of the money is on the back-end.”

Golden Knights Looking for Backup Goaltender?

If Robin Lehner departs the Golden Knights organization in free agency, the team will need to find a backup netminder for Marc-Andre Fleury. With over $74.6 million invested in 17 players for 2020-21, Lehner will likely be looking for a long-term deal after spending the past three seasons on one-year contracts, thus losing him is a real possibility.

The Golden Knights could put Oscar Dansk in as the backup, or they could look at free agency or a trade.

The Athletic’s Jesse Granger writes:

If they find a way to sign Lehner, then the position is secure for years to come and acquiring another goalie becomes unnecessary. However, if Lehner goes elsewhere in free agency, which is a legit possibility considering Vegas’ lack of cap space, the team could opt to go with a cheaper option at backup goalie, and wait to acquire one at the deadline.

source – ‘Five potential Seattle expansion goalies Vegas could target via trade’ – Jesse Granger – 07/03/2020

The goalies Granger suggests might be targets include players who will be exposed in next summer’s NHL expansion draft. Among the names mentioned were Pittsburgh’s Matt Murray, Arizona’s Antti Raanta, and Toronto’s Frederik Andersen.

Could NHL Deem Players Unfit to Play?

For the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers, they could be getting bad news thanks to a health protocol from the NHL. According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, the league has the ability to deem players unfit to play if they think they’re higher risk. The clause reads as follows: “Players who are determined to be at substantial risk of developing a serious illness as a result of exposure to the novel coronavirus shall be deemed to be unfit to play and shall not be permitted to participate either in Phase 3 or 4.” 

That could mean both Max Domi of the Canadiens and Kaapo Kakko of the New York rangers could have to go through extra steps to be cleared for play, possibly not being cleared at all. Both players have celiac disease and are Type 1 diabetics. McKenzie notes that both Domi and Kakko want to play in the Return to Play and they intend to play. 

This is not to assume the NHL will rule either player out, only that they need to go through the extra step, with a doctor signing off during their pre-Phase 3 medicals.

Playoffs Game Schedule

Thanks to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, we now have a better idea of how the scheduling of games will work when the NHL season kicks back in. The plan is to play three games a day at each of the hub locations, for a total of six games per day. This will include both qualifying round games and round robin seeding games. 

These games will be scheduled for the same time each day – 12pm, 4pm, and 8pm. On the east coast, this means games will be on at noon, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, 8pm, and 10pm, while on the west coast things will get started a little earlier with games at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, and 7pm. 

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