Insider Trading: Ovi’s return may not come before Christmas

TSN’s Hockey Insiders update Alex Ovechkin’s road to recovery, how the Sabres plan to patiently turn things around, the Avs’ goalie shake-up, if the Canes are ready to move on a goalie and the 2026 Olympics.

Ovechkin not expected back before Christmas break

LAURA DIAKUN: Alright gentlemen, let’s start with Alex Ovechkin. 

Obviously, the chase for The Great One’s goal record has been on hold for the last couple of weeks, but the good news is Ovechkin is skating again.

The bad news, Chris, is those Caps fans that wanted an early Christmas present, they may not be very happy. 

CHRIS JOHNSTON: No, it’s looking increasingly likely that Alex Ovechkin is probably not going to return before the Christmas break. He’s right at the start of that window, four-to-six weeks, that they gave for him to recover from his fractured left fibula, and he has yet to resume skating with the team. 

A couple of things work against him here. He’s got to go through the progression of skating with the skills coach, skating in a non-contact jersey, going through a full practice with battle drills.

The Capitals have seven games in 12 days before that Christmas break, and so, I think there’s an element here of the team wanting to do what’s best for him, maybe hold off his own instincts to rush back. 

I think it’s more than likely you’re going to see him return after Christmas time.

Sabres preaching patience

DIAKUN: Now let’s stick with the “eights” theme here. We go from the Great 8 to the Buffalo Sabres, who have now lost eight straight, and quickly falling behind in the race for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. 

Dregs, does that mean changes are coming in Buffalo?

DARREN DREGER: Well, not necessarily. I think that there’s hope from an ownership and a management perspective, and obviously, coaching the players factor into all of that, as well.

But, I can tell you, Laura, there’s no sense of panic. We know that general manager Kevyn Adams delivered that message to the media [in the] availability late last week. Of course calls are coming in, but calls are looking for younger talent like Jack Quinn and others.

Adams isn’t doing that, I mean, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. He is open to a trade that helps them now, but that too is common sense. You can’t force it.

In the meantime, the general manager is simply going to support the experience of Lindy Ruff as the head coach of the Buffalo Sabres, who continues to administer accountability. So, for now, that has to be status quo. 

Avalanche shake up goaltending

DIAKUN: What we’ve been learning this last little while, these last few years, is how important it is to have two solid goaltenders on your roster. A good tandem, efficient, reliable. 

Pierre, though, there was one team in particular that didn’t even think it had one on it’s team?

PIERRE LEBRUN: Yeah, Laura. It’s pretty crazy to think. I mean, the Colorado Avalanche are a Stanley Cup contender. When was the last contender you know that swapped out both goalies before Christmas? Like, never. 

And they did it because they just did not see a path back for [Alexandar] Georgiev, their number one that they traded away this week. They made this move very aggressively before the holiday break for two reasons. 

One, is that they wanted to give [Mackenzie] Blackwood a long look before July 1. They may sign this guy, they may think that this guy is good enough to be their long-term solution as a number one goalie, not just for the rest of the year. But they wanted to see him for as long as possible, and not wait until March 7 and just get a short glimpse at him.

Number two is, they thought other teams were in on Blackwood. Notably, Carolina, so they wanted to jump to the front of the queue and get their man. 

Two new goalies, this is it. This is their goaltending now for the rest of the year. 

Hurricanes in the market for a goalie

DIAKUN: Well this is it, this is it. And of course there is a bit of a trickle-down effect with moves like this, so how does what the Avs did affect a team that isn’t even in the same conference, that being the Carolina Hurricanes?

LEBRUN: Yeah, the Hurricanes were having discussions with the San Jose Sharks on Mackenzie Blackwood, and obviously, they were not ready to pay the same price. Notably, [Nikolai] Kovalenko, the young player that Colorado gave to San Jose. The Hurricanes weren't paying that price. 

From Carolina’s perspective, they need assurance, insurance behind [Pyotr] Kochetkov. They have their number one already, but they’re a little concerned with what happens if he goes down, especially at playoff time. That’s why they continue to make calls around the league. 

There are other options. There’s Dan Vladar in Calgary, Anton Forsberg in Ottawa, Karel Vejmelka in Utah. The problem is, none of those teams are ready to be sellers, they’re trying to make the playoffs. 

None of those goalies, so far, have really been on the market, so Carolina is trying to be patient, but they’re ready to trade for one now. 

And of course, the bigger name, John Gibson. We’ve talked about him before, and yes, the Hurricanes have talked to Anaheim about him, but the price is going to have to come down to trade for a goalie that has a couple more years left on his deal. 

Italy hoping for boost to 2026 Olympic team

DIAKUN: We are all excited about the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off in February. The year after that, of course, is the Olympics, and apparently the host, the Italians, are looking to bolster their hockey team. 

Chris, how are they going to go about doing that before the Games get underway?

JOHNSTON: Well, it’s somewhat to be determined, I would say. But certainly, there was a lot of buzz this week with a couple reports out of Europe about Italy trying to get some NHL players that have Italian ancestry. 

I dug into this a bit, and the best I can tell of what happened here is, there was a meeting about a month or so ago with Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, and Bill Daly, and the head of the Italian federation. 

The federation asked “Would you be open to us bringing NHL players?”, to which, of course, the NHL said yes. But they have to be under the IIHF rules, and the key part of that rule is a player has to have a passport, and has to have lived and played in the country for two seasons after the age of 10. 

I don’t know if that applies at this point to any NHLers, but certainly it sounds like the Italian federation is trying to lobby the IIHF, perhaps to get some players on the roster, because obviously there would be concern in a best-on-best tournament that their current national players wouldn’t be up to the mark. 

DIAKUN: And here we thought maybe Carlo Colaiacovo would be a late add for the Italians.

In any event, thanks to the Insiders again, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger.