Keep up to date on the latest rumours and speculation around the NHL beat with TSN.ca's Rumour Mill.

'Major' Trade Looming?

The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins are one spot out of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference with a 16-13-3 record through 32 games. 

General manager Jim Rutherford said his evaluation period on the team is coming to an end and he'll soon decide whether or not a move is needed to push the team back towards being a contender.

“We’re coming in to a critical period where we’ll make a decision whether we need to shake things up or not,” Rutherford told Jason Mackey of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Wednesday.

Rutherford said he would consider making a major move to get the team's attention, but added that he still believes in the roster he built. “I’m not going to get into lists,” Rutherford replied when asked which players are untouchable. “I’m not saying we have to shake it up.

“We’re good enough to be better than we’re doing. Hopefully that’s the way it goes here in the next little while. If it doesn’t, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that a major trade would come out of this.”

A possible spot for an upgrade for the Penguins is at centre behind Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Riley Sheahan and Carter Rowney are in the bottom-six roles, while Jake Guentzel has centred the second line when Malkin has missed time.

“We need more depth at our centre ice position, to a point where we can get more production,” Rutherford told The Gazette. “I’d like to see if we could get more balance, more production out of our forward lines. We’ve got some guys here who are capable of producing more. At this point, it hasn’t happened. That may be the area we look at.”

The Penguins visit the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.

Heading West?

The rumour mill has been swirling around the slumping Ottawa Senators for the past few weeks with significant chatter that the team could look to move a significant player to shake up their roster.

The Senators won just their second game since Nov. 11 on Wednesday night and the team remains second last in the Eastern Conference with 27 points through 30 games.

TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger already mentioned Mike Hoffman, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Zack Smith and Cody Ceci as players who could be moved if the team continues to struggle.

Hoffman sits second on the Senators in scoring this season with nine goals and 22 points. Allan Mitchell of The Athletic believes the Senators winger would be a perfect fit to play with Connor McDavid on the Edmonton Oilers' top line.

Mitchell adds that Hoffman could bring much needed scoring to the Oilers and provide McDavid with a sniper to set up both at even strength and on the power play. 

He also writes that the Oilers have rotated wingers beside McDavid this season, with Jesse Puljujarvi and Milan Lucic currently skating with the team's captain. While Patrick Maroon spent the majority of his first two seasons anchoring McDavid's left side, he's been moved down the lineup this season. Mitchell believes Hoffman would be a perfect fit to replace Maroon, who will be a free agent next summer.

Hoffman, 28, is signed through 2019-20 at a cap hit of $5.19 million (per CapFriendly). Mitchell writes it's unclear what the Senators would want back from Edmonton in a trade, but if Hoffman is available, the Oilers should jump at the opportunity. 

Don't Hold Your Breath

The Montreal Canadiens are in the midst of yet another losing streak, having dropped three straight entering Thursday's game against the New Jersey Devils. 

While some fans have called for the firing of general manager Marc Bergevin, the team's ownership has backed him up at every turn. TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie said earlier this week he doesn't see the team making any changes to the front office during the season, barring an absolute disaster.

McKenzie: Is Bergevin on the hot seat?

TSN Hockey insider Bob McKenzie joined The Morning Show to talk Habs following a brutal loss to the Leafs and whether GM Marc Bergevin may be looking for a new job sooner than later.

“My perspective is that absent the team just losing the rest of the games for the season type of thing and just getting to an untenable situation – absent that, I wouldn’t anticipate that there would be any sort of in-season changes, and that everything would be evaluated at the end of the season,” McKenzie told Montreal's TSN Radio 690. “So I really think that’s where it’s at. I know it’s fashionable - and listen - fans, media, whatever, they’re all entitled to analyze and espouse whatever it is that they’re thinking. But I’d be really surprised.

“But again, I’ve got to qualify that by I don’t know what’s going to happen here for the rest of the season. So how many games do they have left? 50-someodd games left? If they lose 49 of them, then somewhere along the line something could give.

“But if they continue to be a fair-to-middling team in a really fair-to-middling division that has a chance, if it gets on a roll, to contend for a playoff spot – I’m not anticipating a regime change in the middle of the season.”

Bergevin has been with the Canadiens since 2012. Montreal has reached the postseason in four of his five seasons with the team.