TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger joined Gino Reda on Tuesday to break down the latest on Zach Hyman, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ injured list, the Seattle Kraken and Nashville Predators being names to watch on the trade market and more.
Reda: Zach Hyman got run into the boards in the Red Wings game last night. Looked like he kind of smacked his head against the glass, went down, stayed down for a while, got up, left, didn’t come back. Any early word on him?
Dreger: No, not really, Gino. It’s going to be a wait-and-see process with Zach Hyman and the Edmonton Oilers. But as you’ve described, it was a scary scene for Zach Hyman and for the Oilers and their fan base on home ice.
And, as Mike Babcock talked about postgame, the fact that Zach Hyman has had similar injuries now since the start of the season. He was hurt in game one of the season for the Edmonton Oilers, he missed six games and now he’s hurt again in such a small window of time. That is very concerning.
And then you look at it from a hockey perspective here. He’s such a big part of the culture in Edmonton and their success story. When they’re winning games, it’s mostly because of how they protect the puck. And Zach Hyman is a big part of their overall attack. So, it’s going to be a day-by-day scenario for sure as they continue to evaluate Hyman’s situation.
Reda: Speaking of injuries, Chris Tanev hasn’t played since Oct. 10. He’s got an upper-body injury, while John Tavares has been out since Oct. 15th because of a lower-body injury. Any updates on potential returns of one or both of these guys?
Dreger: Well, nothing specific other than to say that both are making progress. And this is interesting. It sounds like Chris Tanev, the veteran defenceman for the Toronto Maple Leafs is ahead, maybe slightly ahead, of John Tavares in terms of return.
We know that Chris Tanev is on the road with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He skated in Calgary a couple of times and he’ll remain with them through their game in Seattle. So perhaps, Gino, that bodes well for Chris Tanev returning, but they’re going to need to have him on the practice ice and getting back into contract drills, etc.
And John Tavares is also skating in Toronto. But as I said, it’s believed that Tanev is ahead of John Tavares. And when Tavares went down close to two weeks ago, it was expected that he wasn’t going to miss as much time, that this was likely going to be a two-to-three-week situation, and it could be as long as that or even slightly longer.
But there’s no overall concern with the management of the Maple Leafs at this point.
Reda: After a loss in Calgary last night, the Leafs keep heading West. They’ve got to stop in Seattle tomorrow night. And while the Kraken hosts the Leafs, their GM, Jason Botterill, is on the hunt to add, Dregs.
Dreger: He is. And Botterill has been on that hunt, Gino, as you described, for quite some time now.
I can remember checking in with the Seattle Kraken in early July and wondering what their path was looking like going into the off-season. At that point, I was told that, look, ‘We’d like to add a top-line scoring winger.’ Well, that’s a lot to ask. And that’s a pretty big piece to try and land. But that search continues. They’re not afraid of making a splash if the right player is made available. And Gino, when you look at centre ice in Seattle, you see these big, good, young names. So those are the pieces that Jason Botterill, I believe, I’m told by NHL sources, is willing to consider as part of that trade bait.
Meanwhile, you look at the standings, and the Seattle Kraken are right in the middle of things. But those close to that organization say that their record is better than their performance. So, there’s a lot of things that are being worked on in terms of how the Seattle Kraken are playing these days.
Reda: The Preds are another team looking to add. Chris McFarland hasn’t been shy to make moves since he got officially the GM job in June. And it doesn’t sound like he’s done yet, Dregs.
Dreger: Look, we wouldn’t be doing our job as Hockey Insiders if we didn’t have an update on the Nashville Predators at least once a month. So, this is part of that, perhaps the second time this month.
But we know Chris McFarland has made trades since arriving as general manager in Nashville in June. But he’s very, very interested in adding some young skill, if you will, and getting younger, but adding skill on top of that would be great if both those things were covered off.
The names that I’m hearing right now are veteran defencemen - and that’s Nick Hague and that’s Brady Skjei. Now, not saying that McFarland is trying to push these players out. He is, as I said, just trying to get a little bit younger. We’ve talked about the possibility of some of his veteran talented forwards being in play. Well, he’s most definitely still willing to listen on those. Again, in the spirit of trying to get younger and trying to add more skill.
So, this deems to be more of a long-term goal of Chris McFarland and the Nashville Predators, but definitely names that are in play in Nashville and names that other general managers are paying attention to.
Reda: Speaking of names in play, Dylan Larkin was a hero again with a big goal to force overtime against the Oilers last night. That riled up the trade chatter again, Dregs. There are a couple of teams that would love to get him, including the Montreal Canadiens, but they’re just not on the trade list. So, any sense of anything going on here?
Dreger: Yeah, go down the list of all the teams that have been speculated who want Dylan Larkin who aren’t on his trade list. That would include the likes of the Montreal Canadiens, the Boston Bruins, maybe Nashville. What about Buffalo? What about St. Louis? I mean, the list of teams interested in Dylan Larkin but not on his trade list, Gino, is probably longer than the list that he’s willing to go to.
But the Detroit Red Wings have to do their due diligence, and so their pro scouting people are continuing to monitor teams that maybe could get in play. And that includes the St. Louis Blues and the Montreal Canadiens.
Here’s a name that I think is of interest to Nashville and probably nine or 10 other clubs, and that’s Simon Edvinsson. And this is a story that we’ve continued to follow here at TSN. I mean, everybody has because he’s on the outside looking in. There’s no comfort zone in terms of finding a signing position by the Detroit or the Edvinsson side. So, we know that interim general manager Sean Hocoff continues to explore trades of Simon Edvinsson.
That’s not his first choice. He would prefer to get this 23-year-old defenceman back on the ice in Detroit, but the deadline is also looming on Dec.1 of trying to get that done. So, I’m sure Nashville and several other teams will continue to kick tires, hoping that trade is more of a reality than Edvinsson returning to Detroit.
Reda: A lot going on, brother. That’s the early edition of Insider Trading, the full version coming up on the early edition of SportsCentre with Dregs, Pierre, and CJ.