Insider Trading: NHL trade chatter heating up
Published
TSN’s Hockey Insiders discuss which teams are in ‘listening mode’ as trade talk picks up, the latest on Auston Matthews’ recovery, Cole Caufield’s chances of playing at the 4 Nations Face-off and a concern next season over limited practice days and injury risks.
Sabres, Predators, Penguins could be early sellers emerging in NHL trade landscape
Reda: They are the Insiders, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger.
Gentlemen, the trade deadline is still almost four months away and it's true, Tuesday's Lars Eller deal from Pittsburgh to Washington is not exactly a blockbuster, but are you hearing more trade chatter than normal right now?
Dreger: Yeah that's fair, and on an annual basis you can pretty much mark it on your calendar, right?
The NHL clubs get to the 20-game mark of the regular season, U.S. Thanksgiving is around the corner, and they're coming out of a general managers meeting out of the Hall of Fame weekend.
Obviously the talk among general managers is going to heat up, and that's where it's at now.
I'm looking at three GMs who seem more eager to listen, and continue the potential dialogue for a trade. I'm looking at Kevyn Adams of the Buffalo Sabres, Barry Trotz of the Nashville Predators and I'm looking at Kyle Dubas of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who already made that trade earlier.
If we go back to Buffalo: Yes, Adams is willing to consider something bigger, but he does not want to trade away any of his top young NHL talent.
Trotz has multiple first-round draft picks, he has a couple of seconds, so the draft capital is there - he wants to add long-term solutions in Nashville.
Dubas knows what he's dealing with, he has the Hall of Famers there, but he also recognizes that, given his contract status, the length of his contract, this is going to be a complex project to work. He wants young NHL players and draft picks to build for a better future.
Any timeline on Auston Matthews?
Reda: While some hockey fans are worried about the future, for Toronto Maple Leafs fans, the future is now. They want to know now what the situation is with Auston Matthews; when is he going to return?
Johnston: We're still not able at this point to pinpoint exactly which game he'll be back for. It remains a day-by-day situation for Matthews, but there is some optimism here.
Not only is his recovery progressing in a positive direction, but there is a feeling when he does return that he will be completely over this issue.
This rest period will basically eliminate the issue entirely for Matthews. The schedule is also in favour of the Maple Leafs at this time - they've played five back-to-backs already this year, and they have three games in 13 days coming up, so that gives Matthews a nice window to ramp himself up from practice.
4 Nations Face-off thoughts
Reda: Whenever he does return, Matthews is certainly going to be a major centrepiece for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-off in February. Despite 12 goals in 16 games, the same can't currently be said about Cole Caufield, Pierre?
LeBrun: No final decisions have been made, but my understanding is that despite a really great start to the season offensively for Caufield, he is on the outside looking in for that 23-man roster.
It speaks to the ridiculous depth that Team USA has, maybe the best depth in best-on-best hockey we've ever seen.
He could still make it, I was told today that it really depends on what happens in the final two weeks here. Team USA is down to four or five final decisions here as they narrow down to a 23-man roster.
Reda: With so many players on the bubble, there's word that some teams have asked for a little more wiggle room on their rosters?
LeBrun: Two of the four teams - Canada and the USA - have approached the NHL recently and asked to expand the rosters from 23 to 25.
Of course those two teams have the deeper NHL talent pools, and the answer was no, jointly, from the NHL and the NHL Players Association.
Everyone agreed – the four nations, the league and the NHLPA to a 23-man roster last year when they announced the 4 Nations Face-off. No one was in a mood to change that rule.
You understand it from a USA and Canada perspective - they're going to leave some big names off this roster. But then they're going to go to those big names and say 'please don't book a trip to the Bahamas in February because we might have injuries and we might still need you.' That's why those nations were hoping to expand the rosters, but they got a flat-out rejection.
Reda: We all love the idea of international best-on-best hockey, but there's a cost that comes with it when the games come in the middle of the NHL season.
Dreger: It's a density of games. They condensed the NHL regular-season schedule, and GMs, coaches and rosters across the league are feeling that right now.
You're hearing complaints of a lack of practice time, worry about recovery as teams continue to play games and then you have the travel on top of that - next year it gets worse, with the Olympic break and the All-Star break.
There are two examples this year where there will be five games in a seven-day period for a couple of clubs, just two across the league.
Next year you're going to see a lot more of that. Teams traditionally want to lump their games in March and April, obviously they're trying to fire up for the playoffs, well next year you're going to see a lot more games in October. 14 days taken out of the matrix for schedule makers to work with so there's really no other option but to play more with less.