Early Trading: Dreger on Leafs interest in Saad, Klingberg's future

TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger joins Gino Reda to discuss the captaincy announcement for Team USA's 4 Nations Face-Off squad, how much interest the Maple Leafs have in forward Brandon Saad, how soon the Oilers can expect to have John Klingberg ready to play and more.

Reda: It’s captains' day at the 4 Nations Face-Off. We’re going to find out who will be wearing the ‘Cs’ for Canada, the U.S., Finland and Sweden.

Darren, we’re chatting just after noon ET. Team USA is going to announce its captain in less than an hour. Who is it going to be?

Dreger: Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I don’t think there should be a lot of surprise or shock in any of that.

With all due respect to all of the countries participating, the four teams in the 4 Nations Face-Off, all four of these teams loaded with high-level leadership. I think Matthew Tkachuk, what he went through to lead the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup championship, his level of experience throughout Team USA, look at Team Canada, all of that.

But this is credit where credit is due. I think from a Leafs’ perspective, they have to feel pretty good. It just speaks to Auston Matthews’s good health and his want to represent his country. But he also takes the responsibility of being captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs deeply to heart as well. He knows physically what’s at stake here, so this bodes well for the here and now and also for the future because Matthews is going to try and lead Team USA to a 4 Nations championship and then he is going to come back ready to fly for the late push of the regular season and hopefully lead the Toronto Maple Leafs deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Reda: Auston Matthews, captain of Team USA.

Now in another Leaf-related story. We know that the Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to add up front. Big Brandon Saad has been waived by the Blues. What’s the interest level from the Leafs inside?

Dreger: Well, it’s at least moderate. I say that because I don’t want to say high or I don’t want to say limited. High speaks to the level that he’s a primary target and that might ultimately end up being what it is, depending on what Brandon Saad gets on the open market when he clears waivers on Friday.

The reason I choose the word moderate is because as much as I like the history between Craig Berube and Brandon Saad and the fact that Saad could complement what the Toronto Maple Leafs have because he can skate, he can provide secondary scoring. He hasn’t been providing much with the St. Louis Blues to this point of the year, which is why he’s gone through this process and you know, again, I caution.

Toronto has other needs. We watched the game that the Leafs played against the Minnesota Wild. Yes, we know John Tavares is coming back. He should be back after the weekend but they’re suspect up the middle, so Brad Treliving is looking at the centre market and perhaps some help on the blueline. So, can they afford to bring in Brandon Saad if that money invested, cap space invested maybe comes at the expense of something more needy like a centreman or a defenceman? Those are questions that are probably being asked internally in Toronto and will swirl around any sort of negotiation specific to Brandon Saad and his agent.

Reda: Alright, to Edmonton.

Well, we know they have need on the blueline, they signed John Klingberg about two weeks ago, he’s been skating with them ever since. Hasn’t played a game in the NHL since November 2023. What’s his timeline? When do you expect him to debut with the Oil?

Dreger: I reported on Wednesday Gino that I expected him to make his debut on Saturday against the Maple Leafs and then I received word that ‘No, we’re going to push this up a little bit,’ and he could be in the lineup as early as tonight, being Thursday. That’s my expectation as we do this segment.

This is a really good story that could develop Gino into a great story, obviously, for John Klingberg. There was no risk here for general manager Stan Bowman. And Klingberg chose the Edmonton Oilers because of opportunity – opportunity on their blueline.

We’re going to find out what he is. He know he’s a power-play specialist. He’ll start on their third pairing, could he creep into a top four spot? Well, sure, if he plays well. And if he plays well, maybe that moves into a longer-term relationship with Edmonton or a better position when he goes into free agency this summer.

But to this point he’s a good story because of all the work that he’s had to invest to get to this stage. Not that far removed from a serious surgery in that hip resurfacing procedure. So, we’re all going to keep a close eye on John Klingberg, not just because of the debut night but to see how he develops moving forward.

Reda: If this goes Dregs from a good story to a great story, Klingberg is really better than anticipated, what if anything does this do for the negotiations between the Oilers and Evan Bouchard, who is set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season?

Dreger: Negotiations are always about leverage. One side thinks they have it, the other side thinks they have it.

Now, he is a restricted free agent, Evan Bouchard that is. So, I’m sure that he doesn’t think that the success story of John Klingberg and what that might develop into is going to influence that process in any way, shape or form. It might only from a financial perspective, right? I mean they’ve got Darnell Nurse on a big ticket. Can they really afford to keep Evan Bouchard on an equally large or even a bigger contract?

Well, they may not have a choice. The flip side to that is okay, how do you fill the hole of Evan Bouchard if you create a hole? That’s where you get into the John Klingberg conversation. Nobody expects that he’s going to overtake the ice time of Evan Bouchard or any of that. But as we go into this process, I think it’s a fair conversation to have as to how it might influence it.

Best-case scenario in all of this is that Bouchard earns a longer-term or a longer stay in Edmonton based on his play. There’s a few different ways we can consider this.

Reda: Dregs, you’ve had a busy morning and your day is not done yet. The full version of Insider Trading with Dregs, CJ and Pierre is coming up on the early edition of SportsCentre.