Early Trading: How will Oilers address blueline issues?

What's the latest with Joseph Woll's injury? Will the trade speculation surrounding Timothy Liljegren continue to grow? TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger has the latest with the Maple Leafs and the slow start to the Oilers' season, which has seen the team allow 15 goals in their three losses to start their winless season.

Maple Leafs waiting on Woll and Liljegren

Gino Reda: What are the Toronto Maple Leafs going to do with Timothy Liljegren? Is he on the trade block? What's going on with Joseph Woll? Why is Corey Perry waving the white flag in Edmonton? And why could Gary Bettman be on his way to meet with junior hockey leaders this week? For the details on these stories and more here's insider Darren Dreger with the Early Talk.

Dregs, a couple of months after Liljegren signed his two-year, $6 million deal, he's been a healthy scratch for the Leafs' first three games. Woll was supposed to be the Leafs' No. 1 goaltender, but he's hurt. Can you give us any updates on Woll first, then the Liljegren situation?

Dreger: We'll start with the goaltending of the Maple Leafs. They feel like it's a position of luxury now. Best case scenario is Woll comes off injured reserve and he's ready to step back into the National Hockey League but what we know is that they are going to be conservative, they are going to take their time with Woll.

He did not practice with the Maple Leafs [Tuesday], but he was on the ice prior to practice so again, they're simply going to take their time and it's important to note that IR has to be a minimum of seven days so clearly Woll is going to be longer than that.

That's fine, they've got Anthony Stolarz, who has proven early on that he is more than a capable backup goaltender and then they've got Dennis Hildeby, who also made a pretty brilliant NHL debut last week against the Devils in New Jersey.

Goaltending isn't a deep concern even though we continue to watch Woll, literally on a day-by-day basis.

Defensively, you're going to see some changes here. I believe that Liljegren will draw back into the lineup against the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday. Maybe this fuels more of the trade speculation around Liljegren, or maybe some of it fades.

The Maple Leafs like the fact that they've got depth in that position. Connor Timmins had a really good training camp, had a decent preseason. He fit the eye of head coach Craig Berube and the coaching staff, so they wanted to give him a look. 

But it's also important to get Liljegren on his game at the NHL level once again and also to prove to everyone, including the Leafs organization, that they believe depth matters, so Liljegren should be on that third pairing with Simon Benoit tomorrow against LA.

Oilers have questions to answer

Reda: Elsewhere: Early, but a bit of a mess in Edmonton - 0-3, tied for the worst record in the league. As I said, Dregs, it's still really early, but frustration beginning to boil over and some more obvious than others.

Dreger: Well I think it's more [that there’s frustration] around the Edmonton Oilers as opposed to what's going on internally. I don't get the sense from management that they're pushing any panic buttons. Of course it's a far-from-perfect start at 0-3 but nobody actually believes that the Oilers are going to remain on the carpet in the Pacific Division, they're just too good and not that far removed from Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.

But there are also some confused and dismayed, if you're an Oilers fan, about how their blue line was dismantled and some believe it is a primary focus of concern. I just don't think that management looks at it that way three games into the 82-game regular season. I think that rather than point the finger at their five-six-seven defence, they're looking at the larger group. Their top players have not performed up to their ability to this point. There's no sense of panic.

I think of an upgrade on defence, somebody like Kevin Shattenkirk, who's out there, this guy's a 35-year-old right-shot defenceman, all he wants to do is chase a Stanley Cup again. He's not looking for a big pay day so it's a little bit confusing, maybe just because it's so early, why Stan Bowman wouldn't embrace an opportunity to bring in a veteran puck mover, a guy who can still retrieve pucks, in to the fold there to help that blueline.

Reda: Interesting moment involving Perry?

Dreger: Yeah, interesting. It's never dull surrounding Perry, especially in the offensive zone, especially when it involves Perry in the crease. He has been a habitual offender, and he probably feels at times, with due cause, that he's been targeted, but in this case the NHL got it right.

I think most of us who saw this play and the disallowed goal, saw the frustration there from Perry, recognized that this was maybe a reputation call. That's the way it appeared. It didn't look like much in that game, but I ran this play by a couple of general managers and the NHL, and the feedback I got was that this was a textbook call.

Perry was stationary in the crease, even though [Calgary Flames goaltender Dan] Vladar was trying to push him out, when he made the puck deflection. So, significant time in the crease? Yeah, in this case it was, even though Corey clearly didn't like it.

Bettman attending meeting between CHL and NCAA

Reda: As you say, other guys might get away with it, but his reputation precedes him.

A big junior hockey meeting coming up this week, so big that Bettman is going to be there?

Dreger: I don't know if it's fair to call it a headliner, per se, it's the Canadian Hockey League's meeting in Toronto, and that's the Ontario Hockey League, the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League and of course the Western Hockey League, and there's a lot going on. Of late, of course, there's news from the NCAA who recently tabled a ban on lifting the restrictions of the CHL to a November vote. Now it's expected that the NCAA eventually is going to

lift that ban and implement it in time for August 1 of 2025, so I have no doubt that NHL commissioner Bettman is going to be asked about that relationship. We know that the CHL and NCAA and the USHL are the primary feeder systems to the NHL so I think he'll probably get peppered with some questions along those lines on Thursday.