In today’s NHL rumors rundown, the Montreal Canadiens won a game Monday evening, but lost a couple of players in the process to injury. Meanwhile, are the Tampa Bay Lightning a “stealth team” in on one of the more sought after defensemen on the trade market? The Toronto Maple Leafs may be done making deals already, but are still likely looking for sandpaper and grit. Finally, the Buffalo Sabres are holding Taylor Hall out of the line as a precautionary measure prior to a potential trade.
Canadiens Lose Price and Gallagher to Injuries
As per confirmation from Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme, forward Brendan Gallagher suffered a broken right thumb in Monday’s contest versus the Edmonton Oilers after taking a slapshot off of the stick of teammate Alexander Romanov. He will be out weeks.
As for how the Gallagher injury might change things, depending on how long he’s out of action, (assuming he’s out the rest of the regular season) they could use his $3.75 million on the cap. If Gallagher doesn’t come back until the playoffs, the cap isn’t a factor. David Pagnotta of the Fourth Period said during a hit on TSN690, that Nick Foligno could be a player the Canadiens look at.
If the Habs don’t add, this is not good news for the Canadiens as Gallagher is an elite driver of 5v5 offence. Only Alex Ovechkin has a higher 5v5 goals per 60 rate than him since 2018-19. “It’s tough,” said Montreal forward Tomas Tatar. “Obviously, he will be missed, and we have to do everything we can and battle and get as many points until he gets back, and hopefully he will be ready to play for us.”
That wasn’t the only bad news. Carey Price will not travel with the Canadiens when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday. The goaltender is getting treatment for an undisclosed injury. “He’s getting checked out,” coach Dominique Ducharme said Monday. “We don’t think it’s anything serious.”
Jake Allen will start against the Maple Leafs and Cayden Primeau was recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League and placed on the taxi squad.
Related: NHL Rumors: Devils, Flames, Oilers, Jets, Senators, More
Sabres to Hold Hall Out of Lineup
Darren Dreger tweets that it’s likely the Buffalo Sabres hold Taylor Hall out of the lineup on Tuesday. He writes that “precautionary reasons with trade discussions heating up.”
Friedman, Johnston and Jeff Marek talked about what Sabres GM Kevyn Adams might do and wondered how much his reputation as a new general manager will affect his decision making. Some veteran GMs wouldn’t want it on their resume that they only got a third-round pick for Hall but Johnston argues that Adams is still doing the Sabres a favor by picking up an asset and saving his ownership group some money.
Hall could wind up going for a lot less than people expect.
Lightning Possibly in on David Savard Trade
Suggesting the Lightning are a team that still wants to add a defenseman before the April 12th NHL Trade Deadline, Elliotte Friedman called the franchise the “stealth team” in on blueliner David Savard from the Columbus Blue Jackets. Friedman did acknowledge that the Lightning would need to move some pieces around to make it work.
Chris Johnston loved the theory and said he could see it considering the Lightning were forced to dig so deep into the pool of players last year in the playoffs and noted, “It makes sense that defense would be the top priority.”
Maple Leafs to Go Sandpaper Route, But Could Be Done
TSN’s Frank Seravalli said as part of the DFO podcast that it’s very possible the Maple Leafs have, in fact, already made their ‘big splash’ this year and that the addition of Alex Galchenyuk may be all they needed to do. Arguing that GM Kyle Dubas isn’t adding a player for the sake of adding name recognition, he was looking for the right fit in Toronto and may have found it.
LeBrun noted that the he thinks the Leafs might look to add some sandpaper saying that the team felt they got pushed around last year and that “they might dip into that bucket one more time.” He name dropped a player like Scott Laughton and that it shouldn’t come at a high cost to acquire him. Seravalli said, this is why the Leafs like Mikael Granlund, but wonders if that would made a huge difference for the Maple Leafs come playoff time.
