NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 14, 2020
Contract talks have broken off between the Canadiens and Brendan Gallagher, some “mutual interest” between the Leafs and Joe Thornton, three key Bruins underwent surgery last month, and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines.
TSN: Contract talks between Brendan Gallagher and the Montreal Canadiens have broken off, Gallagher’s agent Gerry Johansson told Pierre LeBrun on Tuesday. The 28-year-old winger is eligible next summer to become an unrestricted free agent.
Montreal Canadiens winger Brendan Gallagher (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: I’ll have more about this later this morning in the Rumors section. There’s still plenty of time for the two sides to work out a new contract. Gallagher is considered among the Canadiens’ core players but this report casts early doubt over his long-term future in Montreal.
THE SCORE: cites The Athletic’s James Mirtle reporting of “some mutual interest” between the Toronto Maple Leafs and UFA center Joe Thornton in reaching an agreement on a contract. The discussions are at an early stage. The 41-year-old center is coming off a disappointing 31-point performance in 70 games last season, his worst output over a full season since his NHL debut in 1997-98.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The idea is Thornton would become the Leafs’ third-line center, allowing Alexander Kerfoot to play on the wing. The former Shark is among the greatest playmakers in NHL history and a future first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. However, the decline in his performance last season should be a concern. The Leafs might be better off looking elsewhere for a short-term third-line center.
NBC SPORTS BOSTON: Bruins forwards Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak and defenseman Charlie McAvoy underwent surgeries in September. Marchand underwent sports hernia surgery on Sept. 14 and is sidelined for four months. Pastrnak had a right hip arthroscopy and labral repair on Sept. 16 with a five-month recovery period. McAvoy, meanwhile, had a right knee arthroscopy on Sept. 8 and is expected to be ready for training camp.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Bruins will be without Pastrnak and Marchand if the 2020-21 NHL season opens in January.
NBC SPORTS BAY AREA: The San Jose Sharks signed Patrick Marleau and Matt Nieto to one-year contracts. Cap Friendly indicates Marleau and Nieto will each earn $700K.
TORONTO SUN: The Maple Leafs signed goaltender Aaron Dell to a one-year, $800K contract.
THE TENNESSEAN: The Predators signed UFA forward Brad Richardson to a one-year, $1-million contract.
NHLPA: The dates for salary arbitration have been announced:
October 20
Andrew Mangiapane
Anthony DeAngelo
Matthew Grzelcyk
October 21
Ilya Mikheyev
October 22
Connor Brown
October 25
Tyler Bertuzzi
October 26
Linus Ullmark
October 27
Sam Reinhart
October 28
Jake Virtanen
October 30
Joshua Ho-Sang
October 31
Devon Toews
Alexandar Georgiev
November 1
Nicholas Paul
November 2
Gustav Forsling
November 4
Victor Olofsson
Warren Foegele
November 5
Ryan Strome
November 6
Brendan Lemieux
Ryan Pulock
November 7
Christian Jaros
November 8
Chris Tierney
MacKenzie Weegar
Haydn Fleury
OTTAWA SUN: Senators prospect Tim Stuetzle will undergo surgery to repair a broken hand suffered during training camp with the Mannheim Eagles. The recovery time is six-to-eight weeks. Stuetzle was the Senators’ first-round pick (third overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft.
TSN: Speaking of the Senators, Eugene Melnyk has filed a defamation lawsuit against Ottawa Sun columnist Rick Gibbons regarding reports claiming the Sens owner was attempting to divert money from a club charity to his own charity and gouging the Ottawa Senators Foundation by charging exorbitant rent. The Sun subsequently published an apology and a correction of errors in Gibbon’s stories.
THE ATHLETIC: Multiple Dallas Stars employees will be furloughed for the second time this year. Team owner Tom Gagliardi is facing mounting financial difficulties as his core businesses (hotels and restaurants) continue to be affected by COVID-19.
The Habs got bigger,faster, younger on RW in a hurry on paper. Once the season starts and players fall into place, Gallagher’s value going forward will be determined.
He’s a small guy who plays hard with a ton of miles on his soon to be 29y/o body. We all love the guy but how much gas is left in the tank?
Play the game and we’ll see.
THAT’S the sort of “false news” that tries to make Melnyk look worse than he is, and feeds the anti-Melnyk crap often seen in here re his “cheap” tendencies. I hope he nails them to the wall
I rank them right up there with the idiots who claim Covid-19 is a “government ruse” and is nowhere near as bad as they’re saying – without, ever, of course, explaining to what bloody end!
Agreed George. Don’t forget Global warming is a hoax. Ottawa residents should be kissing his @$$. They be in Houston Kansas City or Portland without him buying the team. Not saying I would invite him for dinner but journalism has become so scoop oriented fact checking is going the way of analog clocks, wristwatches, newspapers books and landline phones
False news? Sort of like trading a young blue chip d-man and a 2nd rounder for Nate Schmidt??? right?
Wrong Denis.
Your tenacity is noted.
Never said a 2nd rounder Denis – that’s your interpretation – and yes, a pick and Brannstrom for Schmidt would have been a reasonable return to a team that got hosed.
But you go ahead with your guffaws and bwaa ha haas – can’t expect more input than that from someone with the IQ of a kumquat
And, oh, before I forget (old age can do that to you at times, you know) if Brannstrom was a “blue chip prospect” back when the trade happened, that has since faded to a dull grey – in my opinion – surpassed by several two-way types in the Ottawa D depth charts
Could well be that I’m dead wrong and, if so, no one will be more delighted than me, but right now that’s the way I see it
Agree on the need for clicks/scoops/headlines and the impact it has had on the media and actual publications that promote themselves as factual news organizations.
They are also laying people off like crazy and when they are gone we will miss them so they need to earn peoples trust back and find a way to be profitable and factual while still generating revenue. Not sure that is possible these days.
The difference between what I consider actual “false/fake news” and real journalistic institutions that make mistakes or have people that go rogue to advance their careers is that they admit the mistake, correct the error, and hopefully in this case fire/discipline the employee.
I know CNN gets a lot of flack, and they deserve plenty of it, but when they had 3 people involved in something similar and didn’t follow the fact checking process, they fired all 3 of them.
Washington Post has done the same thing.
Do we actually need 24 hr news channels?
And, you can actually sue them and collect damages as well.
Try that with Facebook or some blogger.
And then there’s Fox News!
Hi Lyle
Question re Dell signing
I thought it was a 1 way… if it is …. doesn’t he have to show as part of the 23 man roster, then be waived to clear to get to Marlies
Re Jumbo Joe and Leafs
I love Joe..l absolutely love him… but having a team built on speed, and a young team… to bring in a 41 year old 3C?
If they really wanted Kerfoot on the wing and were stuck… they could technically put Spezza there… he is certainly not with Jumbo’s pedigree … but is 4 years younger and is faster
Adding another 35+ contract, IMHO , to a team at the Cap , still with RFAs to sign… to me… not wise
Dell’s cap hit is below the minimum threshold to bury it in the minors.
Curious, when players go to arbitration, will the teams use the present economic to try and drive down the price or will the arbitrator ignore?
They talked about that subject on 1260 Caper.
I didn’t catch all of it, but the jist of what he said was that it has to be based on 2019 #’s.
So yes, the arbitrator will ignore.
Seems unreasonable to me when the award is just for next season (I think).
Could see a couple more UFA’s?
Don’t you think, Ray, that your point about arbitrators will motivate teams arrive at a deal before the arbitration date?
You would think BCLeafFan, but it takes 2 to make a deal.
Maybe with the current state of events and lower/shorter contracts the players will be more willing to negotiate as well.
The talk in Edmonton was that Holland tried to get AA signed for less than the qualifying offer would have been. AA turned it down. The Oil didn’t qualify him. He is a UFA, still not signed with a new team.
Ray, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Athanasiou, who wasn’t that high a draft pick, nevertheless join Galchenyuk (3rd overall in 2012) and Yakopov (1st overall in 2012) join some of these high picks who are playing ir have played out their careers in Europe
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2499465-ranking-the-biggest-busts-in-the-nhl-draft-of-the-past-10-years
Well they have to play somewhere George. Add these guys to the prospects playing over there and those folks might get some exciting hockey.
Yes for sure …. unless they, too, get shut down due to the second wave – France is issuing a curfew in 9 major cities, Spain has declared national emergency in Madrid, Italy is essentially closing down everywhere and Merkel of Germany is expected to announce major shutdowns. Russia will likely blunder along as usual and we haven’t heard anything yet from Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic, but unless they’ve found some way to prevent the virus from existing there, they woo will soon be announcing closures.
Here in Ottawa it was announced today by health authorities that they are “alarmed” at the amount of Covid-19 virus evidence found in the city’s waste water! WTF?
Stays in your poop I guess
Gaaad. As long as it doesn’t transfer to sewer rats and other such vermin. Rats are, after all, close cousins to the bats in which the damned thing (alegedly) originated … that’s all we’d need