Latest on Steven Stamkos, Travis Hamonic, Loui Eriksson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and more in your Sunday roundup of NHL rumors.
Coyotes won’t swap Ekman-Larsson for first-overall pick.
The Coyotes have no intention of trading top blueliner Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
AZCENTRAL.COM: At a recent town hall meeting with Coyotes fans, GM Don Maloney shot down recent speculation suggesting his club could offer up defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson to whatever team wins the draft lottery in order to select hometown prospect Auston Matthews. “That will never happen,” said Maloney. Coyotes co-owner and CEO Anthony LeBlanc acknowledged having Matthews on the roster would be beneficial from a business standpoint, but not at the expense of his team’s top defenseman. “We’re not trading Oliver for a draft pick,” LeBlanc said.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The conspiracy minded will proclaim, “What did you expect them to say? They’re not going to publicly admit it!” I, on the other hand, take their comments at face value. Sure, they’d love to have Matthews in their lineup. Maybe fortune will smile on them and the lottery balls will bounce their way. Trading Ekman-Larsson for Matthews, however, creates a big hole on their blueline that will take years to replace.
Ekman-Larsson has three more years remaining on his contract. By that point, the Coyotes could be a playoff club again with a bright future and he could decide to remain a part of it. Unless the blueliner demands a trade this offseason (and there’s no indication he will), there’s no reason for them to ship him out for a first-round draft pick, even for a chance to select Matthews.
Highlights from Garrioch’s latest “Insider Trading.”
OTTAWA SUN: Bruce Garrioch reports of speculation changes could be coming to the Arizona Coyotes front office. GM Don Maloney is under the microscope as there’s a belief someone in the ownership group wants to speed up the rebuilding process. The Coyotes will have the money this summer to add players via trades and free agency to get back into playoff contention.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: I think Maloney’s job is safe. He’s done a fantastic job navigating his rebuilding club through years of ownership uncertainty whilst stocking his roster with young talent like Max Domi, Anthony Duclair and Tobias Rieder. I also believe Maloney and the club’s ownership intend to use this summer as their opportunity to take advantage of a deep free-agent pool, as well as targeting clubs with limited cap space in need of shedding salary via trades.
Expect the New York Islanders to try and honor defenseman Travis Hamonic’s trade request to be closer to his Manitoba home before the NHL draft in June.
There’s nothing new regarding contract talks between the Boston Bruins and pending UFA winger Loui Eriksson, who could seek something around $6 million annually. The two sides were reportedly a year apart when negotiations broke down before the trade deadline. Garrioch also speculates the Bruins might want veteran forward Chris Kelly back at a reduced rate on a one-year deal.
Nothing new between the Tampa Bay Lightning and pending free-agent superstar Steven Stamkos. Contract talks will likely drag into the offseason. As the most a UFA can get via free agency is a seven-year contract, Garrioch doesn’t rule out the Lightning re-signing Stamkos to an eight-year deal and then trading him.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: While that’s possible, I consider it unlikely. Sign-and-trades don’t happen very often in the NHL. If Stamkos re-signs with the Lightning, it’ll be to remain with the Lightning, not to sign off on a “sign-and-trade”. You can bet he’ll also have a full no-movement clause in that deal.
The Columbus Blue Jackets could try to move forward Gregory Campbell at this year’s NHL draft.
Highlights from Matheson’s latest “Hockey World.”
EDMONTON JOURNAL: Jim Matheson reports the Pittsburgh Penguins are using Justin Schultz as a third-pairing defenseman. While they’re “very happy” with Schultz, Matheson wonders if they’re willing to spend $4 million to qualify his rights. If not, Schultz becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
With Minnesota Wild winger Thomas Vanek being a frequent healthy scratch of late, Matheson believes no one wlll be surprised if they buy out the final season of his contract.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Assuming a cap ceiling of $74 million for next season, the Wild have less than $10 million to re-sign some key free agents and replace others. Buying out Vanek this summer will certainly free up some much-needed cap space.
Surprised at how Vanek’s production and viable have fallen off since leaving Buffalo. Wonder if the Sabres would take a chance on him this summer if he became available?
Why? We don’t need Vanek…this is the start of a new culture so why bring back parts of the old stale one that never amounted to much anyway. I suspect GMTM will go after some younger talent through trade from teams that are going to be cap strapped. If Ottawa makes Hoffman available and GMTM likes the kid he may take a shot at obtaining him. The big problem he has is dumping Moulson somewhere for a bag of pucks. I think Ennis may be on his way out also and if he can acquire a couple of scoring wingers Girgensons may be used to acquire a top-4 D-man. Draft day ought to be interesting this year for the Sabres especially if they keep dropping down the ladder in terms of draft position.
Lenny – just a thought and if he’s available he will be cheap. Thomas may be reborn back where it all started.
Sabres need a real #4 defensemen, left hand shot.
I understand your thinking but he wasn’t a great locker room presence either…this team is starting to get that one for all mentality now and that was never how Vanek was. Cheap or not I wouldn’t want him back here. The Sabres are fine cap wise unless they stray and sign a Stamkos which I hope they don’t even try if he hits the open market. They would be better off putting the money into acquiring 2 good players then again who knows how expansion will effect that kind of thinking for all the teams.
Up to last year everything GMTM did was elementary for a GM, he then started the ball rolling with the Winnipeg and Colorado trades and I think this summer is his most important year to him making his bones as a GM. He’s not afraid to make big moves, seems he rather thrives on it…might overpay at times but now that the cupboards aren’t as filled I think that stops.
viability not viable
vanek is only good on the pp I think he might have a tough time going anywhere if he is bought out
The Yotes may not trade OEL for a shot at Mathews but if I’m the Canucks and win the lottery I’d offer it to Phoenix for Dylan Strome (big centre who was 3rd overall last year) and Phoenix’s first, currently 8th overall. With the 8th pick, Vancouver could get one of the top 3 D in the draft. Phoenix would get the top rated player in the draft and a marketing miracle while Strome and a top rated D would really accelerate the Canucks rebuild.
As I said repeatedly & debated often you don’t trade young top 10 potentially top 5 #1 Dman on good contracts with term unless your getting a premium to do so, an offer you just can’t refuse & that just doesn’t exist. There are less than 10 players in the NHL today I would consider moving OEL for & Matthews isn’t 1 of them not even close. Given a choice of Matthew’s or OEL it isn’t even a consideration. Nor would I move D. Strome & another asset to get Matthew’s. I like Strome better & simply don’t see the point.
Now that said, I hope Arizona gets lucky & picks 1st as it makes for a great story & I would be curious to see what impact Matthews would truly have selling tickets. I just don’t see that argument having any basis in fact. Winning sells tickets, playoff appearances sell tickets, entertaining hockey sells tickets, owner & building stability would help sell tickets greatly. This having 1 foot out the door for the last decade has been brutal for Arizona.
Maloney isn’t going any where. He has positioned Arizona perfectly for the future. This is a very young team surrounded by some solid veterans & they have the best prospect stable in the NHL & have another solid pick this year their’s & as well as NYR’s. Maloney has done an incredible job icing a decent/reasonable team with a multitude of financial & ownership problems.
With expansion coming Maloney has positioned Arizona to take advantage of other teams cap & expansion problems. I assume he will add at least 2, probably 3 players this summer either as UFA’s but more likely simply buying in trade undervalue due to other teams misfortune. Very similar to how Snow acquired Leddy & Boychuk each for a bag of pucks.
Striker, I agree I wouldn’t trade OEL for Matthews, I disagree with you that one player doesn’t see tickets. If Matthews is very good he’ll drive the numbers, not just in season tickets but also in merchandise and advertisement. Will also be a very positive story for the City and the NHL. I’m not putting Matthews up on the map, yet, but their is stats there to show one player can drive sales and not just in their own cities but around the NHL and generally really good players lead their team to winning as Macdavid and Eichel will do. I for one would go see Crosby, MacDavid, Karlsson, Subban, Doughtey and Keith and Ovechkin. Like players of the pass Gretzky and Lemieux sold out barns.
Do you understand how merchandise revenue is controlled in the NHL? Teams have territorial rights. That extends in a 75 mile radius circle around your building, after that all merchandise sales are paid to the NHL & shared equally by all teams less NHL marketing & administration fee’s. How does that help Arizona really?
I go to see players as well but I don’t care if their from Arizona, Russia, or Korea! If their really good players I don’t care where their from. I want to see them play live with at least some frequency.
I’m a stats freak & I can’t think of a scenario where a player from that hometown has helped that team financially. Get a superstar regardless of where their from & it will help sell tickets I can assure you.
The argument everyone seems to want to make for Matthew’s is that because he’s from Arizona he’ll help sell significantly more tickets & I assume this means in the thousands. I say hogwash. He’ll help sell more tickets as he’s a potential stud. The fact he’s from Arizona has little to no relevance & the impact from such would be nominal.
Arizona has some great young players now in Domi, Duclair, Reider, Murphy, Stone etc & a superstar that’s blossomed in OEL right before their eyes over the last 3 season & Arizona is in a 4 year decline in ticket sales!
I should add, as are numerous other NHL teams, in declining ticket sales. Worse is sold tickets are going unused in a multitude of buildings. Add in the dollar & oil issue’s in play & I’m curious to see what the long term impact this will have on total NHL revenue down the road.
The NHL appears to have found incredibly revenue streams to help off set these lost revenue streams, out door games & the selling of electronic rights; NHL Center Ice, etc, thru a whole range of mediums.
Interesting times. Add in expansion & another CBA right around the corner & who would have ever though 20 years ago that being an NHL fan meant discussing so many financial issue’s & the friggin global economy. Weird.
Striker, you can blow your wind all you want and as you stated “YOU don’t care where they came from” my reference to the jersey sales in Phoenix and what that does is draws interest. Nobody is saying that Matthews is financial security for Arizona; however he generates significant interest just like the Phoenix Coyotes did when they relocated there from Winnipeg. Interesting thing is the Coyotes didn’t exist there might not be an Austin Matthews to draft. It’s about getting people interested drawing them to the games and hoping they become fans that you can build a successful franchise. Everyone likes to see there own do well and if it happens to be in their own back yard all the better.
10 teams interested in vessey so far. if he does sign with the preds I think you will see him in the playoffs
He’ll be in Toronto next year, with Stamkos and maybe Matthews? Rebuild is starting to look good. Might be hard for him to turn down the temptation of playing in the playoffs this year; from what I read that’s what the preds might have to offer him to get him to sign; otherwise a lot of connections to Toronto.
from what I read Toronto is down the list boston buffalo and the rangers are leading the way! I don’t know why he doesn’t sign in nsh good team good young core imo he is making a mistake not signing in nsh
i would be surprised if he does not sign in nashville.
Would love to see Stamkos, Matthews and Vessey next year….that would be THE lottery win.
A lot of changes in the whole TO approach to running a team over the past year – but one thing remains constant – wishful thinking among the fans.
If the Oilers get the #1 overall, would they consider flipping it to Montreal for P.K. Subban? Oilers get their defenceman, Habs can draft a top end good forward and get cap relieve to sign a scoring winger or two.