NHL Notebook: Senators shoot down Brady Tkachuk trade rumours
1 month ago
It doesn’t look like a young, up-and-coming team will be trading a key player anytime soon.
In this edition of the NHL Notebook, we’ll be taking a look at comments from former Oiler and current general manager of the Ottawa Senators, Steve Staios, as well as reactions to the Jacob Trouba fine, as well as some other bits and pieces.
Ottawa doesn’t plan on trading captain Brady Tkachuk
Speaking with The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun on trade rumours surrounding their captain, the Senators general manager said that it was “complete B.S” that the team is planning on trading Brady Tkachuk. He went on to say that “there is absolutely no validity to it”
This isn’t the first time Tkachuk’s name has come up in trade rumours, as former Oiler and teammate of Staios, Ryan Whitney, reported that the team could be cooking up a trade involving captain Tkachuk. However, Staios also shot that down at the time.
Any team would love to have the 24-year-old winger. This season, he scored a career-high 37 goals to go along with 74 points in 81 games, with his career-high being in 2022-23 with 83 points. On top of that, Tkachuk brings a competitive fire to the team as he picked up 134 penalty minutes, the fourth time in his career he’s had more than 100 penalty minutes.
After a season where it looked like the Senators could make the playoffs in 2022-23, even trading their first for Jakob Chychrun at the deadline, the Senators finished as the third-worst team in the Eastern Conference and missed the postseason by 13 points.
Still, it doesn’t look like the Senators will be trading their captain anytime soon.
Trouba fined for elbowing
During Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Florida Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues made a move towards the Rangers net, and instead of using his stick to poke the puck, or using his body to disrupt the movement, New York Rangers defenceman Jacob Trouba leaned in with an elbow and caught Rodrigues with it.
Somehow, despite a significant history here, the National Hockey League saw fit to fine Trouba $5,000. Back in late January, he was suspended for elbowing Vegas Golden Knight forward Pavel Dorofeyev, as well as a suspension in 2017 when he hit Mark Stone (who played for Ottawa at the time) in the head. At least it led to a funny quote from Panthers’ head coach Paul Maurice.
Frank Seravalli and Colby Cohen discussed it in the May 27 edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE.
Frank Seravalli: I wanted to ask you about the Jacob Trouba hit. Was it the right call or the wrong call? Should it have been a major and maybe a suspension?Colby Cohen: No, I think they got it right. I didn’t like the way it looked in real time and with different angles I do not believe his elbow had square contact with the principal point to the head. Evan Rodrigues sold this a little bit in my opinion. I think he felt where it was and players are definitely conditioned to do that at this point. I know it looks bad when you slow it down and look at Trouba’s elbow but I will remind people that the game is not played in slow motion.On any hit, you can slow it down frame-by-frame and make it look like a guy’s elbow is up or his shoulder was to the face or whatever it may be. I think the officials absolutely made the right call here with only a two minute penalty.Frank Seravalli: I agree with you and I would say that you can tell that Trouba is trying to catch him, meaning he knows he’s beat and he’s trying to get an arm out and a lot of hits do actually begin with the arm out. I think there was definitely a heavy amount of embellishment from Rodrigues that probably doesn’t help. And in the end I think this was warranting certainly a minor penalty but I don’t see it as anything more than that.
PWHL Boston force Game 5
There was some controversy in what became an instant PWHL Classic Sunday night.
With PWHL Boston on the brink of elimination and nearly five periods played, it looked as if PWHL Minnesota would take home the first ever Walter Cup, as Sophie Jaques buried a puck that found its way to the slot.
However, after some deliberation, the refs and the league ruled it was no goal, as there was goaltender interference from the forward on the drive to the net. Less than a minute later, Alina Müller beat Minnesota’s goaltender in the slot to send the series back to Boston for the decisive Game 5.
There isn’t anything more you could ask for in a debut final, as it’s going the distance and there was some controversy in a classic of a game. Let’s hope Game 5 is even better.
Czechia won gold at the IIHF World Championships
Unfortunately for Team Canada, their chances of becoming back-to-back gold medal winners came to an end on Saturday, as they fell 3-2 in a shootout to Team Switzerland. The Swiss, meanwhile, met Czechia in the final after the latter had a 7-3 win against Team Sweden in the semifinals.
Team Switzerland (and former Oiler Gaëtan Haas) was looking for their first ever IIHF World Championship gold medal, but they fell 2-0, with David Pastrňák scoring the game-winning goal midway through the third period.
In the bronze medal game, Team Canada lost 4-2 to Team Sweden, failing to medal for the first time since 2018, when the tournament was hosted by Denmark. Interestingly, Connor McDavid finished third in scoring with five goals and 17 points in 10 games. Hopefully, he will never play in another World Championship.
If you enjoy my content, you can follow me on Twitter @Ryley_L_D.
Recent articles from Ryley Delaney
