Insider Trading: Updates on Shesterkin and Rantanen's looming deals

TSN’s Hockey Insiders discuss the Lightning’s decision to postpone Saturday’s home opener, the challenges of extending Mikko Rantanen, the contract buzz surrounding Sam Bennett, the latest on Igor Shesterkin, veterans still looking for NHL work and Don Sweeney’s confidence in Team Canada’s goaltending for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Hurricane Milton affecting NHL teams

JAMES DUTHIE: Full slate of Insiders: Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger. Some wild images out of Florida in the wake of Hurricane Milton, and it could have been much worse. The Lightning postponed their home opener, CJ, any longer term ramifications? 

CHRIS JOHNSTON: Well this will be a day-by-day thing. I think it’s important to notice that as they postpone Saturday’s game, it’s not a facility issue. 

You might have seen the MLB’s Tropicana Field, the roof was ripped off. There’s no such damage at Amalie Arena, this was more about respecting the region, giving everyone a chance to recover, obviously, the emergency services personnel to do their work, and just doing what’s right for the community.

And so the next game is scheduled in Tampa on Tuesday against Vancouver. We’ll just see as the days go by where the region is at if that one can be played, but I will tell you the Lightning players left earlier this week to Carolina, and they packed heavy, just in case they’ll be away for a while.

Extension talks beginning with trio of top players

DUTHIE: Alright, on the ice, rough first night for Colorado but not for Mikko Rantanen who scores a hat trick in a losing cause against Vegas. How complicated, how expensive is that extension going to be, Pierre?

PIERRE LEBRUN: Yeah, well it’s already fascinating, James. Often, superstars of his ilk get signed a year out, like we saw with Leon Draisaitl, for example, in Edmonton, right? Like we saw with Rantanen’s teammate, Nate MacKinnon a couple years ago. 

But in this case, negotiations have yet to produce an extension, and I really don’t think that anything is imminent at this moment, James. I think there is a gap here, and you know, the same agent that did Leon Draisaitl’s deal by the way, for $14 million a year, Andy Scott, also represents Rantanen, and I think some of the same conversations are happening, “The cap is going up, the percentage of the cap.” 

Let’s not forget, Nathan MacKinnon at $12.6 million a year may be a bit of an internal cap for Colorado, so this should get done, but I will tell you that not everyone knows for sure if it will. Going to be interesting.

DARREN DREGER: Yeah, and you know it’s so early for all of this, but it’s also worth keeping an eye on Sam Bennett.

Now, we know that Bill Zito and the Florida Panthers have got some tidy work done earlier this week extending Carter Verhaeghe, who’s an important piece. But on many nights, opposing teams will tell you that Sam Bennett is the head of the snake in Florida’s lineup.

Florida would love to extend him and keep him long-term, but open market, he’s going to be a big-ticket guy simply because all Stanley Cup contending teams can see a good fit in Sam Bennett. 

DUTHIE: Sometimes contract years can be a distraction for a player, it doesn’t look like that for Bennett so far, certainly doesn’t look like that, Dregs, for Igor Shesterkin.

DREGER: No, amid some suddenly very public negotiating, Igor Shesterkin put the business side aside and focused on what he had to do, and that was stop the puck in the opening night win Wednesday against the Penguins. His game is unfazed but that’s not to say that he wasn’t at least a little bit annoyed by information leaking earlier this week specific to his contract talks.

Guys, there are some out there who believe that this guy is so committed to his position, and the range is somewhere between $11.5-11.7, $11.7 [million] would make him the highest paid Ranger, and it doesn’t matter to him.

He’s going to stay in the crease, stop the puck, and when the New York Rangers find the right spot, then he’ll be happy to sign. 

Veteran defencemen still seeking contracts

DUTHIE: And at the other end of that pay scale, CJ, there’s some veteran defencemen looking for any NHL contracts still?

JOHNSTON: Yeah, specifically Mark Giordano, John Klingberg, and Kevin Shattenkirk, in particular. All of these guys hope that the league has not passed them by at this point in time.

There’s some different situations here with each. In Klingberg’s case, he’s coming back from double hip surgery in January, he’s still a couple months out from being ready, but working very hard towards getting back, hopes he can do so. 

Shattenkirk is ready to go today, pick up the phone and give his agent a call. They’ve been in touch with some teams and he’s hoping to latch on soon. 

And as for Giordano, he was the oldest skater last year in the league. He’s hoping for one more year at age 41, and in particular, he wants to land somewhere where he can be a depth option on a team with a chance to win a Stanley Cup, something he hasn’t done during his career but would certainly like to. 

I’ll throw one more name out there, too, Justin Schultz, coming off of a good season in Seattle. He’s actually turned down some NHL jobs, he might end up going to Europe If he doesn’t find the right fit, but he’s another veteran D that is taking calls from NHL teams. 

Canada's goalie situation for the 4 Nations

DUTHIE: We’ll likely spend a lot of time this fall talking about Team Canada, roster prospects for the 4 Nations, and the most interesting and perhaps concerning area continues to be goaltending, Pierre. 

LEBRUN: Yeah, Don Sweeney, the GM of the 4 Nations Canadian side didn’t quite share that concern when I asked him about the goalie position today, James. Obviously, what else is he going to say?

But he does say that they like the group that they have to pick from, and Samuel Montembeault had an unbelievable opening night, and one of the things that Don Sweeney said when I asked him about that, they’re not going to overreact to great games and bad games day-to-day here.

They’re looking at the body of work, guys that have done things before this season because there’s only seven weeks of track here to pick the goalies by December 2.

The other notable thing, once they pick three goalies, they’re not naming a starter right away, then they’re going to take two months to decide who has the hot hand and starts the tournament in February.

DUTHIE: Yeah, pick the guy who's the hottest going into the break right before the tournament. Insider Trading.