In today’s NHL rumors rundown, the Montreal Canadiens have made a couple of new executive hires. What does Vincent Lecavalier‘s role entail?
The Ottawa Senators are trying to be both buyers and sellers at this year’s NHL Trade Deadline, while the Vancouver Canucks are rethinking the idea of trading J.T. Miller. How many assets could the Seattle Kraken sell and what blue line targets are the St. Louis Blues looking at?
Canadiens Hire Nick Bobrov and Vincent Lecavalier
The Montreal Canadiens were rumored to be interested in adding Lecavalier to their organization and on Friday the team hired the former NHLer. He, along with Nick Bobrov will join the hockey operations department. As per Pierre LeBrun, the Lecavalier role is similar to Scott Niedermayer’s recent appointment in Anaheim.
There are a number of jokes coming out of Montreal today that the Canadiens finally landed the guy they wanted and it only took 16 years to do it. Eric Engels said of the Lecavalier hire:
A good opportunity for him to learn and grow in hockey ops while advising Gorton and Hughes from a player’s perspective. He’ll likely get to do his job without moving to Montreal. Canadiens fans wanted him for so long. Now he’s here.
Senators Want 2022 NHL Trade to be Last Deadline as Sellers
Pierre Dorion hopes this trade deadline will be the deadline that helps the team turn the corner and the Senators become a team on the rise. A franchise that has been in rebuild mode for a few seasons now, Dorion said in a phone interview with The Athletic on Thursday, “We’re definitely hoping this is our last deadline as a seller.’’
These comments suggest the Senators will be moving assets this season but how many is not clear. Dorion added:
“We don’t know how many pieces we’re going to sell. I think this year compared to other years, whether the market is going to be set early or not … I think it’s going to be a bit more of a buyer’s market than a seller’s market this year.’’
source – ‘LeBrun: Senators GM Pierre Dorion hopes this trade deadline will be his last as a ‘seller’ – Pierre LeBrun – The Athletic – 02/18/2022
LeBrun adds that the Senators could be in the unique position of being both a seller and a buyer. They will look to make hockey deals and try to add pieces that will help them start off strong next season. That leads to questions about pending UFA forward Nick Paul. Chris Johnston of TSN recently reported that the Sens were open to potentially signing Paul instead of trading him.
Canucks Not Shopping Boeser
While there was some trade talk brought up by Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli who mentioned the rumors in a recent article and again while on Sportsnet 650, discussing the team’s plans for both J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser. Seravalli suggested: might consider it for cap flexibility reasons and that the New Jersey Devils might be an option.
Elliotte Friedman said the key to any potential Boeser deal is where the Canucks think his next contract is going and Rick Dhaliwal said during the Donnie & Dhali show that “The Canucks are not shopping Boeser. They need to figure out the Boeser contract before they ever think about trading him.” He adds that there have been no contract talks to this point with his agent Ben Hankinson.
Related: NHL Rumors: Flames, Canadiens, Rangers, Maple Leafs, Golden Knights
Meanwhile, LeBrun said during the recent TSN Insider Trading segment that the Canucks are pulling back the reins on a Miller trade a bit. There is a firm belief inside the organization that they can get as much for Miller in the summer as they can now at the deadline. If a team wants Miller this season, they’ll really have to put a strong offer together.
Kraken Have Host of UFAs to Watch
As per Greg Wyshynski of ESPN, there are six unrestricted free agents to watch coming out of the Seattle Kraken organization at this year’s deadline. Defenseman Mark Giordano is among the most discussed names out there, but forwards Calle Jarnkrok, Marcus Johansson, and Riley Sheahan are also getting some attention.
Blues Blue Line Trade Targets
According to Jeremy Rutherford and Scott Wheeler of The Athletic, the St. Louis Blues have a number of trade targets in mind. Saying the Blues are targeting a left-shot defenseman and are basically in a money-in-money-out situation, they write:
The five defensemen they’ll be taking a look at are Arizona’s Jakob Chychrun, Montreal’s Ben Chiarot, Seattle’s Mark Giordano, Anaheim’s Hampus Lindholm and the New York Islanders’ Zdeno Chara.
source – ‘Blues trade targets: 5 potential additions on defense, evaluated by a former GM, scout, prospect guru and cap expert’ – Jeremy Rutherford and Scott Wheeler – The Athletic – 02/18/2022
