Weekly NHL Rumours – It’s Officially the Offseason
3 years ago
The Stanley Cup was handed out just a few days ago and we are already being flooded with interesting rumours and trade ideas from around the NHL. I’m always excited for the offseason because I love trade speculation and honestly, I’m loving the fact that the Oilers are being linked to some big names. It makes the few months without hockey a lot better when there are interesting debates to be had. Even if you don’t agree with the ideas being thrown around, it’s still fun to dissect them.
I’ll be honest, the more I heard the Oilers being connected to Oliver Ekman-Larsson, the more confused I got. I just didn’t think it made any sense for the team to go out and acquire a 29-year-old defenseman making north of $8 million, especially when you consider the fact that he’s a left-handed defenseman and the Oilers already have @Oscar Klefbom, @Darnell Nurse, and @Caleb Jones on the roster. I was puzzled, but then Elliotte Friedman dropped a very interesting nugget of information.
So now the big question is this: will Klefbom be out for a month or two? Or will this keep him out for the majority of next season? If this is potentially going to put his career at risk, then the Oilers need to go out and fill that hole immediately.
If it’s the going to keep him out for an entire season, then the rumours about the Oilers being interested in a star defenseman like Ekman-Larsson make more sense. With that being said, I’m still not 100% sold on acquiring Ekman-Larsson if it means you have to give up one of @Evan Bouchard or Phillip Broberg. Those two players could be top-four defensemen in the next two or three seasons and they’ll be on good contracts. I’m not sacrificing that.
If a deal can be made that involves Dmitri Samorukov or even Caleb Jones, I would be more open to it though. I’m not sure if Arizona would do that though.
Another interesting rumour was thrown out by Pierre LeBrun of TSN. He linked the Oilers to Petr Mrazek of the Carolina Hurricanes and that’s an idea I can really get behind. He has one more year left on a contract that carries a cap hit of $3.4 million, so he’s one of the more affordable options on the market.
He was a little up and down this past season but in 2018/19, he was really good, posting a 2.39 GAA and a 0.914 save percentage. The Hurricanes are clearly trying to upgrade their crease and are rumoured to be interested in Jakob Markstrom and every other big-name goalie on the market. They aren’t in a position of strength when it comes to potentially trading Mrazek and that could allow the Oilers to get him for rather cheap.
He’s only 28-years-old, so he should have plenty of good hockey left in him and Ken Holland knows him well from their days in Detroit. I don’t think he should be their ‘Plan A’ but he’s a great ‘Plan B’.
Here are some other stories to keep an eye on as we head into a busy week:
NUGE EXTENSION COMING?
Frank Seravalli sent out a tweet earlier this morning saying that while a deal is not close, talks between the Oilers and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have moved in a positive direction. Nugent-Hopkins is heading into the final year of his current contract.
This is news that should excite all Oilers fans. Nugent-Hopkins is the longest-tenured Oiler and a key part of their forward core. His last deal paid him $6 million a season and if I had to make a guess, I could see his next contract paying him around $6.5-7 million per year.
This does mean that Nugent-Hopkins will need to be protected in the upcoming expansion draft, but that’s something the Oilers would have been planning for already. Locking up Nugent-Hopkins would be a huge win for Ken Holland. The only thing that’s unclear from Seravalli’s tweet is whether or not this is something that could get done in the next week or if it could stretch out closer to next season.
JACK EICHEL RUMOURS
It feels like as quickly as the @Jack Eichel rumours popped up, they went away. It all started with a Bob McKenzie tweet stating that the superstar forwards name had been popping up in trade talks. It caught everyone a little off guard, like any rumour involving a star player involved would. McKenzie followed it up with a series of tweets that basically downplayed his initial tweet, saying that Eichel had not asked for a trade and that the Sabres had no intentions of trading him.
From reading multiple reports since then, what I can gather is that Eichel may have checked in with ownership once he heard the reports that they might not be spending to the cap next season. At that point, he was assured that they’re still trying to win now and that was the end of it.
Honestly, it would make no sense for the Sabres to trade Eichel now. First off, it would completely demoralize that fan base, which is not something they can afford to do. The Sabres have also already paid Eichel a $7.5 million signing bonus and only need to pay him $2.5 million for the remainder of the season.
It won’t happen but it was fun to imagine a scenario where the Sabres trade Eichel to the Rangers for the first overall pick.
With so much going on and some many rumours flying around the hockey world, this won’t be the only rumour report you see on the site between now and the NHL Draft!
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