NHL Rumors: Sharks, Oilers, Rangers, Canadiens, More

In today’s NHL rumor rundown, there’s news surrounding the San Jose Sharks, the New York Rangers will listen on a goaltender, the Edmonton Oilers may lose one of their forwards and the Montreal Canadiens might be one of the busier teams around the All-Star break.

San Jose Sharks Won’t Shake Up Core

Despite having a terrible season that will likely see them categorized as sellers for this year’s NHL Trade Deadline, the San Jose Sharks are not likely to shake up their core group, at least according to Sportsnet’s NHL insider Elliotte Friedman.

Bob Boughner Mike Ricci San Jose Sharks
San Jose Sharks interim coach Bob Boughner, and assistant coach Mike Ricci (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

First Friedman revealed during Saturday’s Headlines report that the team intended to stand firm with their key group and contend again next season. In other words, San Jose is going to ride this out. Friedman explained:

“San Jose, there’s been a lot of take about what the Sharks will do… Sharks have let it be known they will look at this the way they looked at 2014 – 2015, the last season they missed the playoffs. The following season they went to the Stanley Cup Final, that is their goal to continue to contend for next year. They don’t plan on removing any of their core.”

So, don’t expect huge changes to the roster. That said, a couple of smaller moves might be possible. Expect the Sharks to look at moving pending UFA’s with Brenden Dillon and Melker Karlsson being the most notable. “I think there is a lot of interest in Dillon, potentially even a team like Toronto kicking the tires there,” Friedman said.

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New York Rangers to Listen on Georgiev

Friedman also noted that the New York Rangers are ready to listen to offers on their goaltender Alexander Georgiev. The Rangers don’t need goalies and they have a lot of good defensive prospects coming so the Rangers have made it known what they want.

Apparently, they’ve told teams Georgiev won’t be cheap and they want a good young forward prospect or player almost ready to play now. And, if a team that has interest doesn’t step up with something impressive, the Rangers won’t even listen.

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Kassian to Face Hearing with NHL Player Safety

After three hits, Zack Kassian lost his cool against the Calgary Flames Matthew Tkachuck in Saturday’s Battle of Alberta and grabbed an unwilling combatant in Tkachuk from behind and began to feed him punches. He got a 10-minutes misconduct and the Flames scored on the ensuing power play.

Kassian answered questions after the game saying he’d do it again and that it sucks they lost the game, but now he’s facing a hearing from the NHL Player Safety Committee and could be suspended. That suspension shouldn’t be big, possibly one game.

There are a lot of upset fans in Edmonton. Most are not dissappointed in Kassian but upset that Tkachuk wasn’t given a penalty on the first-period hit that many deemed charging and a head shot.

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Lots of Montreal Canadiens Talk

Outside of Friedman suggesting Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin will do something but will wait until around the All-Star break to consider a trade, there is tons of speculation coming out of Montreal.

Jake Evans, Shea Weber, Victor Mete,
Montreal Canadiens’ Jake Evans celebrates with teammates Shea Weber and Victor Mete (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes)

It’s hard to know how they’d accomplish a trade but Michel Bergeron of le Journal de Montreal (subscription and translation required) believes it’s time for the Montreal Canadiens to consider trading goaltender Carey Price and defenseman Shea Weber.

Bergeron writes:

It’s obvious that Price is a frustrated player right now. He wants to win a Stanley Cup before the end of his career and knows that it will be difficult to do so in Montreal in the short or medium term. 

source – ‘ Swap Price and Weber’ Michel Bergeron – le Journal de Montreal – 01/11/2020

He also adds, “In the case of Weber, it’s a bit the same. Even though he is having a great season, the reality is that he is not getting any younger either.”

Bergeron suggests management sit down with both players and talk about their options. He also doesn’t believe Price’s full no-movement clause would be an issue if Price wants to go to a contender.

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