NHL Rumors: Sabres, Rangers, Bruins, Maple Leafs, More

In todya’s NHL rumor rundown, after TSN’s Bob McKenzie dug into the rumors that Buffalo Sabres Jack Eichel might be on the move out of Buffalo (which he discovered not to be the case), a number of other scribes took a look at the situation. What did they find? In Boston, it appears the Bruins made one final pitch to defenseman Torey Krug. Finally, one Sportsnet columnist looks at the four ways Toronto can fix their blue line.

Fallout From the Eichel Rumors

Once McKenzie opened the can of worms that was the Jack Eichel trade talk, a number of columnist from different teams took a look at the idea of trading for the top-line center. Specifically, Larry Brooks of the New York Rangers examined the rumor as the Rangers were mentioned by McKenzie specifically.

Brooks shot down the idea of the Rangers looking at Eichel because he noted it would require sending Jacob Trouba to Buffalo and he asked, “Why would Buffalo want to do that? Trouba no-trade clause kicks in 10/9, by the way.” He also noted that, “adding Eichel would lead to Zibanejad’s departure as UFA in ’22, if not sooner.” Finally, he notes:

“And if somehow the Rangers were to re-up Zibanejad for around $10M (if there are still such things as $10M free agents in two years, who knows?), they would then have approximately $38M of cap tied up in four forwards (Panarin, Eichel, Zibanejad, Kreider).”

Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun noted that the Jets could take a look and offer up Patrik Laine, but “Obviously, it would require more than Laine, but aim up, not down.” He also says it doesn’t make sense that the Sabres would want a winger for a center and then the Jets would need to decide what to do with Mark Scheifele who is not a No. 2 center and shouldn’t ask to be played as one.

Bruins Make Final Pitch to Krug

We reported yesterday news that the Boston Bruins were likely very close to trading the rights of defenseman Torey Krug to another team but TSN’s Frank Seravalli notes the Bruins might have made one final offer to see if Krug would stick around on a longer-term deal.

Seravalli writes, “Sounds like there has indeed been significant interest in teams trading for Torey Krug’s rights. My belief is last offer from #NHLBruins to Krug’s camp was 6 years x $6.5 million.”

Maple Leafs Options to Fix Defense

Luke Fox of Sportsnet took another look at the options available for the Toronto Maple Leafs and how they might improve their defense this offseason. He notes GM Kyle Dubas will look closely at four options in the next couple of weeks.

First, would be a to land a big-name UFA. Second, to realize that moving that much cap is too difficult and going after a smaller UFA like Chris Tanev. TJ Brodie or Zach Bogosian. Third, dive into the trade market and move Andreas Johnsson, Frederik Andersen and Alex Kerfoot. Four, do nothing and hope your current defenseman grow and get better.

It doesn’t seem like option four is really in the cards.

Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Lighting!

Finally, a big congratulations to the Tampa Bay Lightning for winning the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup on Monday. Congrats to Victor Hedman for taking home the Conn Smythe Trophy and to players like Patrick Maroon who has back-to-back Stanley Cups after winning with the Blues last season.

It was a strange playoffs but the NHL did an excellent job and the every team faced challenges inside the NHL bubble. The Lightning happened to win without the services of their captain either.