Sunday NHL Rumor Roundup – February 6, 2022

by | Feb 6, 2022 | Rumors | 40 comments

Could Claude Giroux draw interest from the Flames? What’s the latest on Mark Giordano? Could the Rangers use a promising player as a trade chip? Check out the latest in the Sunday NHL Rumor Roundup.

WILL THE FLAMES PURSUE GIROUX?

CALGARY HOCKEY NOW: Steve Mcfarland points to Claude Giroux’s MVP performance at the 2022 NHL All-Star Game as justification for why the 34-year-old Philadelphia Flyers forward could help the Calgary Flames. They’re seeking secondary scoring depth and Giroux could address that need. Mcfarland envisions him as their second-line center with Mikael Backlund shifting to the third line.

Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux (NHL Images).

Giroux can also skate on the wing, which would provide options for the Flames’ top nine. Mcfarland believes he’d adjust well to head coach Darryl Sutter’s system. He feels the Flames can send some salary to the Flyers and the potential for the latter to retain some salary could make the deal work.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: It comes down to whether Giroux waives his no-movement clause. If he does, would he consider the Flames as a Stanley Cup contender or would he see another Western team having a better opportunity? One has to think he’d be interested if the Colorado Avalanche came calling. He could also prefer sticking with an Eastern club.

LATEST ON GIORDANO

NHL.COM: Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis intends to meet with Mark Giordano to discuss the 37-year-old defenseman’s future as the March 21 trade deadline approaches. The Kraken captain is slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Giordano seems likely to be shopped before the trade deadline if he and Francis cannot reach an agreement on a contract extension. Recent trade conjecture linked him to the Boston Bruins, Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers. We can’t dismiss the possibility of Giordano being traded to a playoff contender and then returning to the Kraken this summer as a free agent.

COULD THE RANGERS SHOP LUNDKVIST?

NEW YORK POST: Larry Brooks suggests the rise of young Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider could make Nils Lundkvist “the blue chip most likely to be played approaching this year’s March 21 trade deadline” by the Blueshirts. He recommends they add a puck-mover who can beat a hard forecheck if they’re looking to bulk up the left side of their blueline.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Rangers could part with a promising young player for a return that provides significant help to their roster now. Lundkvist could be that trade option if they’re happy with Schneider.







40 Comments

  1. If i’m a Bruin fan this has to be a make it or break it trade deadline for Don Sweeney. He has missed on draft picks, has never truly replaced Chara and Krug and gave out a bad contract to Nick Foligno. I’m too lazy to look up how much cap room he has but adding Giroux & Giordano would go a long way towards making a long playoff run imo. And either play Fredrick on the 4th line and tell him to hit whatever he sees or trade him. That kid has baw lz .

    • Ed your Right,
      Bruins have are very Rich at Goaltending position, But they heed help on there D.. Especally the PP, they dont get much help with point s and moving the puck out the Zone apart from Macavoy ,
      Tyson Barrie a RD PP specialist is avalable in Edmonton as Young Buchard has emerged as the future PP Guy along with Nurse, that make him avalable !
      A Good Trade for Boston Or NYR
      Trade
      Tyson Barrie for A Goaltender… Jeremy Swaman or Georgiev as the Oiler only have 1 good goaltender and are shopping for one

  2. Bruins need Giadano

    • Unfortunately the Bruins cannot afford Giroux- money wiseor prospect wise. Also with a full no-trade he is not going anywhere- he loves being a Flyer.

  3. I agree. Giordano would be a nice fit with Bruins. As would Giroux. But Giroux will be wanting to go to a true contender like AVS. Bolts. His NMC. Will give him the power of where. There will be lots of choices for buyers at the deadline this year

    • Giroux and Giordano combine for $15M in cap space. BOS currently has $1.6M space available. Sweeney would have to do some incredible cap gymnastics to make this happen…let alone find the assets to do it.

      BOS is definitely in the latter stages of their cup window, if at all, with their aging roster. I’m not sure how they’ll approach the deadline but I don’t think they’ll be able to make too big a splash.

      • Daryl

        That is easy fix. Just remove the decimal. And getter done.
        Both would be 50% retained by whimever takes them
        Only 4 teams in playoff spot right now have more cap space then Boston. So there will be tons of cap issues to complete trades at the deadline

      • You don’t get hit with full cap value. If a player makes 8 million per and is traded after 41 games the cap charge is 4 million, not 8. There’s also possibility of retention and dollars going the other way.

  4. In all due respects to Claude Giroux I don’t know how an MVP performance in the All-Star Game proves anything. The game to me is more “fluff” than anything else. Now if you want to look at his current regular season stats then we may have something to brag about. I would take him on my team. If a GM makes a decision based on the All-Star performance then…..oh well……never mind !!

    • snuffy1953, I doubt there’s a GM dumb enough to make a serious trade offer based upon an “all-star game” performance. But if there is, they’ve gone way beyond the bottom of the barrel in choosing who to run their team.

  5. The NHL trade deadline is roughly 6 weeks away and on average each team has around 20 games to play during that span.

    That’s a quarter of the season in 6 weeks. We’ll have a good idea of who’s in or not.

    In the east it’s can the NYI make up ground with all their games in hand.

    The Islanders have 8 fewer games played then Wash but 21pts behind. Winning all 8 stills leave them 5pts behind.

    The islanders have alot of games and a very condense schedule. Trying to stay injury free will be a challenge on its own.

    • Just to finish my thought. The Islanders play 21 games in 39 days leading up to the trade deadline. That is a lot of hockey.

  6. How do Flames take Giroux”s salary ? Trade Monahan for him ? Big age difference and still a couple mil short Add Dube ? Just got a hell of a lot older.
    Claude is god but can’t see him landing in Calgary. Johnny is getting a raise Tkachuk getting a raise. The numbers don’t work.

    • I think Tkachuk heads south of the border on next contract and to be honest I see gaudreau doing the same unless Calgary overpays.

      • FD, I disagree.
        Both players like playing in Calgary and the team is very tight. I expect both to be resigned to long term deals.
        The Flames will have to trade away someone to make room if they do.

    • Hey Silver,
      I agree, Calgary should stay clear of Giroux. I think it would cost too much and I don’t think he is the missing piece to propel the Flames to a Stanley Cup.

      One of the things that irks me about Treliving he always wants to make a move at the deadline usually for a depth defenseman who never get resigned but ends up trading away draft pick and we never get out of the first round. So he trades away a draft pick for a player that he wants for a 4 or 5 game playoff run, just bloody maddening.

  7. I admittedly don’t understand deadline cap but, just looking at current cap hits… even at 50% retention Giroux is left with 4.1m cap hit. Giordano would be 3.3m. Recently read that half the league is over cap and doing ltir gymnastics. None of the “top” contenders have space.
    Rangers have space this year for a rental. I don’t see them adding a dman. Bulking up left side was supposed to be job of Nemeth and Tinordi. Not sure Flyers would send Giroux to Rangers, but he’d be a help on 2nd line with either him or Strome moving to RW. Honestly looking short term, that’s biggest need. Someone like Lundkvist could be used in a package for future 2C.

    • I don’t think that the Rangers are one player away from being a serious SC contender. I would much rather they allow the young players that they have to gain some playoff experience. They are still all so young and we really still don’t know what we have in some of these players. I really do not want to make the same mistake we made with JT Miller (in his early 20’s who played on our 3rd line yet scored 40-50 points every year). Now he’s one of the hottest player on the trade market. Let’s continue to be patient.

      • Rangers goal should be 100% grow our kids and at the same time win the first round.
        Matching up with Tampa/Florida/Canes is tough but if they can get to round 2 without trading a core kid thats great.

        Why is JT Miller getting moved to his 4th team in his career? Great player but why trade the guy…..

    • Giroux has not played much right wing in his career.

  8. What exactly is a “serious” cup contender? The Knights weren’t even a team before going to finals. Canadiens last year were behind Rangers in winning %. I don’t see them selling the farm, but giving up a future pick or prospect at a position where we have depth? Honestly don’t see Giroux on Rangers, but they will add someone before deadline. They didn’t clean house because they felt Gorton wasn’t being patient enough

    • The Rangers do not see to come prepared to play games this year. Yes, they have been the comeback kids but that doesn’t happen a lot in playoff hockey. I am just worried that they will give up someone who turns into a future solid++ player while we get someone on the downslide in exchange. I became a Rangers fan in 1967 when I was 9. I waited 27 years for a SC. It’s been another 27 years since but I think I can wait another year. At least I won’t have to make a “Now I can die in peace sign”. And Larry Brooks is “an idiot”, IMHO.

  9. dov. I don’t agree with Larry Brooks often but, one thing he’s preached: If you keep thinking you’re not ready to win yet it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy

    • This is spot on. Tops in the division but let’s not go for it and marinate our youth? For what? A chance to be good in the division again next year?

      • Might be tops in the division, but they’ve defied odds to get there. Especially early in the season where they were out shot, out played every night.

        I think there’s a middle ground. Trading for any player or players guarantees nothing. It doesn’t mean success. See 90’s-2004 NY Rangers.

        The 94 cup and beyond came at the expense of trading Amonte, Marchant, Etc. Chasing cups in those later years trading away Zubov, Kovalev, Savard, etc.

        I believe they gave up too much during those years, and benefited zero from it. Lindros, Bure, Fleury, Kovalev part deux, Straka, Nylander, Brad Richards, Gomez , Gaborik, Drury, Redden, Holik, Roszival, Quintal, Lefebvre, Verbeek , all signed or traded for at the expense of draft picks, prospects or letting prospects rot in the AHL. I could probably go on and on with this list.

        Jagr, the only trade ny won hands down. But still couldn’t get them there.

        I think the tear down was a waste of time if they’re just going to ship them out the door. Why wouldn’t they have just traded picks and signed big deals?

        They have a ton of young talent. Othmann, Laffrienere,Kakko, Schneider, Fox, Miller, Kravstov, Lundkvist, And so on. I think it would be acceptable to trade a prospect or two at this point, but I wouldn’t sell the farm. Nor would I give up any one of them for an aging rental.

        Or we’ll just be looking at another Neil Smith era of Ranger drafted players thriving everywhere but NY.

      • Holy crap. I left off Gretzky,Kurri, Messier part deux, Robataille , Mcsorley!

      • Don’t let your addiction to losing color the hope of a parade! I really hate to say it. It defies most bones in my body. But the rags have a legit chance this year. Next year you might not! Bread could need surgery! Fox could turn to robbing from the rich to give to the poor! Your dang team is loaded with youth cap space and momentum. You should rent like you were the monopoly guy with pancreatic cancer. Go all out.

  10. Sweeney very seldom goes for a big time name trade he usually sets his sights on depth or a little above depth players … if I’m wrong please let me know

    • Here what usually happened with this dead end kid, Sweeney’ll probably trade away a first for Zdeno Chara on the back end, with Zack Hamill lured out of retirement to bolster the second line centre situation.

    • Joe, what category do you put Taylor Hall in last year?

      • Got Hall cheap with pieces given back and contract …..some teams he’s a 1st line winger some teams a 2nd line winger ….give you one in his 7 years of trading …next ?

      • BTW…. 29 pts in 43 games without a
        Legit 2nd line center … not to bad I guess

    • 2013 trade for Jarome Iginla but that ended up getting nullified and Iggy went to Pitt.
      2018 trade for Rick Nash.
      Last year Taylor Hall.
      Seems like Sweeney actually likes to trade for high end wingers on expiring contracts.

      • Sweeney wasn’t the GM in 2013…

  11. Seems to me that if you have cap space to improve the team right now that you would want to do that. By making your team better now would give you a chance to a better record and seeding position in the play-offs. Jim Rutherford used to buy early, maybe this was a part of his philosophy. NYR is a contender with the most space. Seems like they could further enhance their position by improving their team earlier than the others.

  12. full list of players Sweeney traded for… not many big names here

    Cameron Clarke
    Zac Rinaldo
    Sean Kurley
    Trent Federic
    Jimmy Hayes
    John Michael Liles
    Lee Stempniak
    Victor Berglund
    Drew Stafford
    Nick Holden
    Jacob Lauko
    Rick Nash
    Tommy Wingels
    Steve Kamper
    Cade Webber
    Jake Schmaltz
    Paul Cary
    Charlie Coyle
    Marcus Johansson
    Nick Ritchie
    Ondrej Kase
    Ty Gallagher
    Mike Reilly
    Curtis Lazar
    Taylor Hall
    James Greenway

  13. You know the more I think about giroux being traded, the more I am not sure? The flyers and him would be in total control of where he goes and I agree “he loves being a flyer” whoever said that. His specialty is what you saw on display in the all star game, special teams and specific situations. He is a wizard all right and he puts the puck in the back of the net, great shot, great playmaker, great faceoff guy. What’s not to like? 5 on 5, he ‘s not as effective as he used to be but for a playoff team, there’s a lot to like. But do you give up all those picks or prospects just to get him, I don’t know? I guess will see. GO AVS!!!!!!!

    • should be “tommyboy”. Sorry!

      • Skay mr Clemens.

  14. The Bruins have lots of trouble moving the puck out the Zone and even more trouble on the PP..!! Just look at the last 3 games No point from the D…!!
    Boston really mis K.Krug on the D, They have nobody after MaClvoy
    Edmonton Oilers are looking to move Tyson Barrie A PP Specalist for a Goaltender
    Trade Jeramy Swagman for Barrie