In today’s NHL rumor rundown, most of the news comes from explanations as to why teams who weren’t active at Monday’s trade deadline weren’t active. Why didn’t the Vancouver Canucks, Arizona Coyotes, Florida Panthers, and Edmonton Oilers really do much? Plus, how did things go so sideways for the Senators when it came to Mark Stone?
Winnipeg Changed the Stone Scene When They Signed Hayes
Bob McKenzie had a Tuesday morning radio hit on Vancouver’s TSN 1040 and said, …”things took a turn for the worse for Ottawa and a turn for the better for Vegas when Winnipeg just decided, ‘You know what? It’s going to be too rich for our blood. We’d rather do Kevin Hayes and a whole bunch of depth deals.”
That changed everything for Ottawa who was being offered mostly first-round draft picks without A+ prospects like Erik Brannstrom. The Islanders were rumored to have stepped up and offered a first-round pick and Anthony Beauvillier but there might have been some trouble on the extension part of the deal.
McKenzie thinks the reason they chose Brannstrom was because they believe he can sell tickets as an exciting defensive prospect.
Related: Rangers Trade Adam McQuaid to Blue Jackets
Vancouver GM Asks for Patience
Via an interview with TSN Radio Vancouver, Canucks GM Jim Benning said to Canucks fans, “The message to our fans is to continue to be patient. We’re going to do things the right way. We’re going to draft and develop and we’re going to develop this thing piece-by-piece so we can be competitive for a long time.”
There is some news specific to a could certain players. First, Dan Murphy reports that Jonathan Dahlen’s agent had asked for a trade on Dahlen’s behalf because his players is unhappy with how quickly he’s rising through the system. The Canucks simply feel he hasn’t worked hard enough to be promoted.
Murphy also reports that the Canucks spoke to Alex Edler about waiving his no-trade clause but he was unwilling to do so. The two sides are still working on getting an extension done.
Arizona Didn’t Want to Subtract to Add
Dave Vest is reporting the Arizona Coyotes and GM John Chayka stood pat on trade deadline day because “There wasn’t something that made sense … There weren’t any moves that we felt were significant upgrades assuming that there was some sort of subtraction involved with that.”
The Coyotes are battling for a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference and while they wanted to add, weren’t willing to subtract to do so.
Panthers Went After Mark Stone
George Richards of The Athletic wrote an article about the Florida Panthers deadline day and said that GM Dale Tallon confirmed that he made a substantial offer to the Ottawa Senators for Mark Stone and were willing to offer a similar eight-year contract extension.
Richards writes:
Only Tallon and the Panthers weren’t looking for subtle. The blockbuster deal some in the front office and ownership had whispered about last week never materialized. ‘We made a good offer,” Tallon lamented, “just not good enough I guess.’
source – ‘Dale Tallon takes a big swing at the deadline, will try again this summer’ – George Richards – The Athletic – 02/25/2019
The Panthers did move a few pending free agents for draft picks yesterday when the moved Derick Brassard, Bogdan Kiselvich, and Tomas Jurco. Talon said the team is going to be very aggressive after the season and use that cap space to take another big swing.
Most assume that means Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky.
Related: Golden Knights Extend Mark Stone for 8 Seasons
Red Wings Want to Extend Jimmy Howard
Obviously, Jimmy Howard was not moved at the trade deadline yesterday and according to Ansar Khan of MLive, that’s because the Detroit Red Wings are hoping to re-sign him for another two seasons.
Howard has played well and gives the Red Wings their best chance to win. Khan reports that they hope to announce the extension sooner than later. “We basically agreed we’d get to the trade deadline and see if anybody was looking for a goaltender,” Holland said. “I’ll sit down with (Howard’s agent) in the next week or two.”
The Red Wings are also looking at extending coach Jeff Blashill and likes the experience he offers the Red Wings during their transition period.
As for any other moves at the deadline, there were some teams who kicked tires on Niklas Kronwall but he didn’t want to waive his no-move clause.
Related: Oilers Trade Deadline Must-Know Details
Oilers Believe They Have a Shot
Interim GM Keith Gretzky addressed the media after yesterday’s trade deadline closed and the Oilers didn’t make any moves, not even dumping salary. Gretzky said it was in part because he didn’t feel it was fair to write off the season yet and also because whatever came back for pieces like Zack Kassian or Alex Chiasson, it had to help the team today and tomorrow. There were simply no deals out there for them to make in that regard.
LIVE | #Oilers Assistant GM Keith Gretzky's media availability https://t.co/qJQuh2ck0S
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) February 25, 2019
Gretzky did admit he had long conversations with one team about Chiasson but at the end of the day decided to keep the player. There was also some chatter the Oilers tried to land Connor Brown from Toronto for Matt Benning-plus, but the Oilers didn’t feel ready to pull the trigger on that move.
The Oilers will let the new GM who is hired in the offseason do most of the surgery now needed to fix the Oilers.
