NHL Rumors Update

NHL Rumors Update for 01/25/2019

January 25, 2019

The latest NHL rumors from The Hockey Writers.

 

01/25/2019 edition:

By Jim Parsons on Jan 25, 2019 02:44 pm

In today’s rumor rundown there are whispers about Pavel Datsyuk returning to the NHL but Datsyuk’s side says not so fast. There is an update on what the Toronto Maple Leafs might be looking for on the blue line and who the Oilers are considering for the vacant GM spot.

Pavel Datsyuk Return to the NHL?

It was reported recently that Pavel Datsyuk is not ready to retire from professional hockey and rumors are, he is considering a return to the NHL. But, before people get too excited, Datsyuk’s agent has cautioned people not to get too hyped about the buzz.

(Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Dan Milstein, (Datsyuk’s agent) spoke to the Free Press Thursday, suggested the only way Datsyuk would consider a return would be if he came back to the Red Wings. “He spent an entire career in Detroit. If he wants to come back, I believe he would only consider the Red Wings,” Milstein said. That’s not the easiest thing to do since the Arizona Coyotes own his rights.

Milstein said the idea of Datsyuk coming back “has been blown out of proportion.” All Pavel said is that he’s not ready to retire, would consider the NHL but neither he nor Milstein has spoken to any NHL executives about Datsyuk and won’t until ‘he tells me is considering coming back to the NHL.”

Latest on Maple Leafs Search for Defense

Josh Wegman of The Score cited a report by TSN’s Darren Dreger claiming the Maple Leafs are actively searching for a defenseman and heavily scouting the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes are open to moving Dougie Hamilton but team may be more interested in Brett Pesce.

Brett Pesce, Carolina Hurricanes, Mar. 1, 2018 (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

One area the Leafs are weak on is right-handed d-men and that could open the door for the acquisition of either Justin Faulk and Trevor van Riemsdyk. That said, neither name has really surfaced in trade rumors.

The return Carolina would want is a scoring forward and Pesce is likely the piece that fetches the kind of scorer the Hurricanes would be looking for. He’s got a good chunk of term left on his contract at a reasonable cap hit and Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas said that is the kind of player he is ideally looking for versus grabbing a rental.

Could a Pesce for Nazim Kadri type deal work?

Oilers Might Not Have Options on New GM During Season

Bob McKenzie had a Wednesday morning radio hit on Montreal’s TSN 690 and noted the Edmonton Oilers might have trouble landing a GM right now if that’s what their intention is. With so many teams in the hunt for the playoffs and big decisions coming just prior to the NHL Trade Deadline, there aren’t going to a be a lot of teams eager to give up their assistants. McKenzie said the answer will simply be, ‘No, not now.’

.@DarrenDreger updates the Oilers’ search for a new GM. VIDEO: https://t.co/XyolgBxh4l pic.twitter.com/bRj0yA2yWy

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 25, 2019

McKenzie also said it’s hard to know what the Oilers are thinking. “At this point I have no idea what Bob Nicholson and Daryl Katz’s plan will be. Do they look for a young guy who’s an assistant GM somewhere, or do they look at it and say, ‘Man, we better bring somebody in who’s got some experience here.’ He figures, no matter what, there will be people upset about the decision.

Some will argue that a new guy won’t be prepared to handle the task of turning the misfortunes of the team around and the other side of the coin is that people might complain and experienced GM is just another demonstration the Oilers are shopping in the recycle bin.

“So at the end of the day, you’ve just got to find somebody who you think is really good at the job and give them the power, the autonomy, and the resources to do it.”

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet suggested Steve Yzerman doesn’t seem like a fit, but it wouldn’t hurt the Oilers to ask. Other candidates could include Bill Guerin, Mark Hunter, Kelly McCrimmon, Craig Heisinger, Ron Hextall, Doug Armstong, Ken Holland, and Mike Gillis.

Listen to the Latest Episode of the THW Podcast

By Jim Parsons on Jan 24, 2019 01:43 pm

In today’s rumor rundown, there are updates on the Edmonton Oilers and their need to do an organization audit, news on the status of the Toronto Maple Leafs negotiations with Auston Matthews, the Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars might have some players moving, and are the Vancouver Canucks looking at Micheal Ferland?

Oilers Need an Audit

One of the big things coming out of the Edmonton Oilers press conference that addressed the firing of GM Peter Chiarelli was the phrase, “there’s something in the water here that we don’t have right.” While the phrase itself got all sorts of attention from water companies in the area and fans that thought it was an interesting choice of words, the big takeaway was that the lack of success in Edmonton is not all being placed on Chiarelli.

(Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports)

Before the Oilers can look at any new GM — and some of the candidates include Bill Guerin, Mark Hunter, Ron Hextall, Kelly McCrimmon, Craig Heisinger, and even Steve Yzerman — Edmonton needs to take a hard look at their practices for evaluating talent. That includes their approach to analytics and Elliotte Friedman wrote in his 31 Thoughts article that Edmonton is way behind when it comes to how they view statistics in regards to evaluating players.

One example, a former analytics guy for the Oilers, Tyler Dellow, was let go by the Oilers is now working for The Athletic. He will likely get hired by another NHL team because his work is so strong in this area. Friedman believes the Oilers should give him another look or at the very least find someone to lead their analytics department who can assess today’s player more accurately.

Oilers Options for Trade

Friedman also added that despite the changes in management, the Oilers are not necessarily done looking at options for this season. On the radar are Washington’s Andre Burakovsky and Detroit’s Andreas Athanasiou “whose speed seems a perfect complement to McDavid.”

Detroit Red Wings center Andreas Athanasiou celebrates (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

The Oilers had talked to the Blackhawks about moving Tobias Rieder to clear up cap space and one team called about defensive prospect Evan Bouchard, but Edmonton shot down that option immediately.

Auston Matthews Dialogue

Friedman reports that an eight-year deal and a four-year extension are not really options for the Maple Leafs and the Auston Matthews camp. What it appears might be the right fit is a five- or six-year contract. That would put the Matthews deal somewhere in the neighborhood of Connor McDavid’s $12.5 million but also not march him right into unrestricted free agency.

DETROIT, MI – OCTOBER 11: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates his second period goal during an NHL game against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on October 11, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)

Kyle Dubas said his intention was to get something done before the deadline so that means Matthews will be a player to watch in February.

Speaking of the Maple Leafs, on defense, it appears the target is Los Angeles Kings’ defenseman Jake Muzzin. That said, the Maple Leafs are not willing to trade Kasperi Kapanen to acquire the popular blueliner.

Blackhawks Have Some Players of Interest

It sounds as though the Chicago Blackhawks may be able to move Chris Kunitz and John Hayden if they choose to. There are teams potentially interested in those players and while the return won’t be great, it will give Chicago some cap space, move a couple contracts and eliminate some of the repetition in the lineup (Hayden is similar to the newly acquired Drake Caggiula in many respects.)

Dallas Stars Dangling a Few Big Names

The Stars have made Valeri Nichushkin, Brett Richie and Mattias Janmark in trade. It will be interesting to see what value is out there for these players and who might be interested considering the buyers market that exists leading up to the trade deadline.

This particular trio has combined for just six goals and 27 points this season — Janmark has 15 of those. Just a year ago, Janmark scored 19 goals but this year has been not very productive, shooting just 4.3%. He may be the player who attracts the most interest.

Canucks Linked to Micheal Ferland

Patrick Johnston of the Vancouver Province writes that there have been rumors the past couple of weeks linking the Vancouver Canucks to Carolina Hurricanes forward Micheal Ferland. The problem is, Vancouver has concerns in trading for him that he might still want to test the free agent market.

Carolina Hurricanes left wing Micheal Ferland (James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports)

If the Canucks pursue this, they’d need assurance that he’d re-sign and with the Canucks hosting the NHL Draft, they don’t like the look of trading away picks for a player they don’t have on the roster less than one month later.

Canucks GM Jim Benning said on Sportsnet 650 that he’s not going to mortgage their future just to make the playoffs.

Listen to the Latest Episode of the THW Podcast

By Jim Parsons on Jan 23, 2019 02:18 pm

In today’s rumor rundown, there are massive updates in Edmonton after the organization relieved GM and President, Peter Chiarelli of his duties. There are also updates on Matt Duchene’s negotiations in Ottawa and who the Montreal Canadiens will be holding onto.

Oilers Will Search for a New GM

After firing Peter Chiarelli late on Tuesday evening (actually, during the second intermission of last night’s game versus the Red Wings), Oilers Entertainment Group CEO & Vice Chair Bob Nicholson held a press conference with the Edmonton media discussing the news.

#Oilers Entertainment Group CEO & Vice Chair Bob Nicholson discusses this morning's announcement that Peter Chiarelli has been relieved of his duties as President of Hockey Operations & General Manager. https://t.co/XgpWAmWwKb

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 23, 2019

A few interesting comments were made that got people talking:

A Lack of Character

Nicholson touched on the need for character. A primary focus will be on bringing in secondary leadership to help Connor McDavid. Of course, the first thing that stood out was that he didn’t touch on the skill level of the team. Clearly, its lacking and there was no emphasis put on finding better players.

The First Overall Pick

The Oilers will not be trading their first-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft before the trade deadline. He said, “We’re not trading away our first pick. When you look at some of our other top prospects, we’re not giving them away unless we get some real good pieces back.”

It’s difficult to tell what that means for the team as it pertains to this coming trade deadline. The only real option left would be to move Cam Talbot.

New GM Candidates?

It was suggested the Oilers organization will not be in a rush to find a replacement GM. Keith Gretzky will work alongside Nicholson to carry forward with the team that is in place, making the changes needed as a committee. One thing Nicholson stressed the club would be looking for is someone who is a leader and can figure out what’s wrong in the waters.

Four names to consider, according to Oilers Now host Bob Stauffer for GM moving forward: #1. Kelly McCrimmon #2. Bill Guerin #3. Norm Maciver #4. Mark Hunter.

Roster Changes

It appears the Oilers have sent Kailer Yamamoto and Ryan Spooner down to the AHL. Nicholson said the team needs to stop rushing players up and let them over-ripen in the AHL so fans should expect to see more names on the move, including potentially sending down Jesse Puljujarvi.

#Oilers assign forwards Kailer Yamamoto & Ryan Spooner to @Condors. pic.twitter.com/LaAqb5Yhqq

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 23, 2019

Also, whether or not the management changes have affected this plan, there were reports by David Pagnotta that the Edmonton Oilers had been looking to acquire a forward and have inquired about New York Rangers Mats Zuccarello and Ottawa Senators Ryan Dzingel, among others.

Duchene Talks Continue

TSN is reporting that talks between the Ottawa Senators and Matt Duchene‘s agent Pat Brisson is ongoing and will continue this week. It was first reported when they met last week in Los Angeles, the discussion was general parameters of a deal. That’s where the eight-year extension talk came from. Then it was about money and the numbers tossed out were between $8 million to just over $9 million annually.

Ottawa Senators center Matt Duchene could give the Blue Jackets a top-six boost. (Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports)

For Ottawa, the key here is the timing of these talks and timing of a deal. Ottawa needs to know by the first or second week of February what’s happening on this front so that they can explore a trade if he won’t re-sign.

Montreal to Keep Hudon and Benn…For Now

Eric Engels of Sportsnet is reporting that it looks like Charles Hudon and Jordie Benn will be staying put with the Montreal Canadiens. The problem is neither is fetching much on the marketplace and instead of trading them for no return, they’ll keep them in the fold.

At best, Hudon might be worth a late-round pick and Benn a notch higher than that. “It can change as we approach the deadline, but there are so many established sellers in the market that the second-tier UFAs like him could go for less than what we’ve seen in the past,” one scout said.

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