NHL Rumor Mill – August 16, 2024

by | Aug 16, 2024 | Rumors | 46 comments

What’s the latest on the Oilers’ offer sheet saga? Did Penguins defenseman Kris Letang request a trade to the Canadiens? Find out in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.

LATEST ON THE OILERS’ OFFER SHEET SAGA

EDMONTON JOURNAL: David Staples cites Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman saying he expects the Oilers will match the St. Louis Blues’ offer sheet to Dylan Holloway but not the one to Philip Broberg.

Speaking with Bob Stauffer of “Oilers Now”, Friedman also believes there’s no way that St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong would’ve signed Holloway and Broberg if Ken Holland was still the Oilers GM. “I do think that…Armstrong’s friendship with Ken Holland absolutely plays a role in how this played out,” said Friedman.

Edmonton Oilers defenseman Philip Broberg (NHL Images).

The Sportsnet insider also thinks there’s lingering unhappiness on Broberg’s part over how the Oilers handled him this season. He spent much of this season with their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

Friedman claimed Broberg asked for a trade in December. He doesn’t believe the blueliner changed his mind. He also claimed Broberg sought $1.8 million annually on his next contract with the Oilers before receiving a two-year offer from the Blues with an annual cap hit of $4.58 million.

Staples colleague Jim Matheson pointed out that signing Broberg would give the Blues 10 defensemen on one-way contracts. He believes the young defenseman could replace Scott Perunovich as the Blues’ second-pairing left-side defenseman.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: One of those defensemen is Torey Krug, who could miss this season after being diagnosed with pre-arthritic changes in his left ankle.

OTTAWA SUN: Bruce Garrioch scolded the Oilers for putting themselves in a position where they risk losing two promising young players like Broberg and Holloway to another team via offer sheets.

He believes they should’ve taken a page from the Ottawa Senators’ blueprint with Shane Pinto. Senators GM Steve Staios didn’t waste time signing the 23-year-old center in early July, especially after word got out that Pinto’s agent was shopping around for an offer sheet.

Garrioch claimed the Oilers are trying to trade Cody Ceci ($3.25 million AAV) and Brett Kulak ($2.75 million) to free up cap space to match the offer sheets. He also indicated teams were showing an interest but the Oilers will have to package those players with draft picks like their 2026 first and second-rounders.

The Oilers could also place winger Evander Kane ($5.125 million) on long-term injury reserve if he undergoes surgery for a sports hernia. However, that’s not a given.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Oilers are above the cap by over $7.225 million factoring in the new contracts for Broberg and Holloway. That’s how much they must free up to become cap-compliant by their season-opener in October. Trading away Ceci and Kulak won’t achieve that goal if Kane doesn’t go on LTIR. If he does, they must clear cap space for when he returns to action later in the season.

THE PROVINCE: Patrick Johnston wondered if the Vancouver Canucks might be one of those clubs interested in Brett Kulak.

Rather than asking for a draft pick along with Kulak, Johnston suggested the Oilers acquire sidelined Canucks defenseman Tucker Poolman. He’s been sidelined with migraines since January 2023 and isn’t expected to play again. The Oilers could place Poolman on LTIR, freeing up $2.5 million to match one of those offer sheets.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: That’s an interesting suggestion by Johnston. The Oilers could be considering that type of scenario, if not with the Canucks, perhaps with another club carrying a player on permanent LTIR.

DID KRIS LETANG REQUEST A TRADE TO THE CANADIENS?

THE HOCKEY NEWS: Conor Tomalty recently cited Pittsburgh radio host Mark Madden claiming he’d heard Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang sought a trade to the Montreal Canadiens.

During an Aug. 5 episode of the “Breakfast with Benz” podcast, Madden said he’d heard “there were discussions to try and bring Letang to Montreal at his request, but nothing came of it.”

Letang, 37, is a Montreal native. However, Tomalty doubted the Canadiens would make this move, pointing out they already have a logjam on defense. Even if they did a defenseman-for-defenseman swap, Letang would take up a roster spot from one of their promising blueliners.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Speculation linked Letang to the Canadiens when he was negotiating his current contract with the Penguins two years ago but he dismissed it, saying he wanted to finish his career in Pittsburgh.

If Letang changed his mind, why would he request a trade from a team starting to rebuild to another club already deep in their rebuilding process? Surely, he’d prefer a move to a contender where he’d have one last shot at winning another Stanley Cup?

All due respect to Madden but I’m not buying that Letang asked to be traded to Montreal. Assuming he did, I don’t believe the rebuilding Canadiens want a 37-year-old defenseman whose best years are behind him with four years left on his contract at an AAV of $6.1 million.







46 Comments

  1. is it just me, or would you like the league to close the loophole that allows players on LTIR to be traded? especially for those expected to never play again, but won’t retire at the team’s request for cap space purposes? Arizona did it with Shea Weber and a lot of other teams have done so.

    Rule should be changed that a player needs to be cleared by doctors in order to be traded

    I’d even go as far as to change the rule that an injured player can only spend up to 1 calendar year on LTIR, after that their contract would count against the cap (teams could no longer exceed the cap by that player’s cap hit). Teams like ARZ used it to get to the cap floor while others have used to to constantly exceed the cap ceiling

    • Yes, if you cannot trade a buyout, i dont understand why you should be able to trade a player on ltir like weber. Agree 100%

      I wouldnt go further than that though.

    • Agreed.
      I agree with cap relief for LTIR, for the team the player was playing for when they became injured. LTIR SHOULD NOT be allowed to be used as a trade piece to allow other teams cap relief

    • mikeP – So what happens if Austin Matthews were to sign an 8x14million contract, and for whatever reason is immediately and permanently injured to where he can never play again? Toronto (or insert your favorite team here) should be stuck with $14 million dead cap space for the last seven years of that deal? And how does that help anyone or grow the game?

      • That’s not what they are saying. They are saying Toronto would get to put him/keep him on LTIR.

        But you could not package him in a trade to another team while on LTIR. They are suggesting that only the initial team (Toronto in your example) would be able to leverage the benefit of LTIR.

      • foleyd7,

        They can only exceed the cap by 10% until the start of the season. If they have two or more players on ltir and exceed the cap more than 10% at the start of the season and can’t trade one of Them, they’re f****d.

      • …and they’re f****d too, if they exceed the cap by 10% before the start of the season.

  2. Hard pass on Letang. While he’s still an effective player, his best years are behind him and he’s got a huge cap hit on a contract that’ll take him till age 40. Better to play the young guys.

    • Wouldn’t worry much. The “source” is madden. He is embarrassingly uninformed and just throws headline grabbers at the wall.

      • So he’s a Elliott Freidman clone.

  3. Read an article that Holland was instructed to get both players signed while they were in the minors and when they felt Edmonton could get them sign to a controllable contract.

    • I read that as well caper. But while it is a nice instruction to get, what incentive would either player have signing extensions while in the minors. If i am their agent i would see what the Oilers are trying to do and probably advise it would be better to wait and see what the summer brings.

    • The source was Stauffer too caper , which is the most reliable imo. If he was instructed , he would have made that effort, you can’t negotiate or force the guys to sign. Word is Broberg camp wanted to wait , and were unhappy with his deployment and a strong chance Holloway would too early in the year with his start to the year, It’s easy to criticize the outgoing gm , as an oiler fan I’m not piling on Ken. If he just signed what they were asking he would have been criticized for caving to the demands of two rfa with limited action with no leverage when every dollar matters. Hind sight is 20-20.

    • 10oilerfan and Craig, very valid points. Always easy to point fingers.

    • I wonder if more offer sheets start to appear..did st. Louis open pandoeas box?
      Sure makes things interesting.

  4. Ceci was never worth $3.25 mil on a great day

    • This is something Sens and Leafs fans can agree on 100%

      • I would just state that the version of Ceci that played on the sens and leafs is not the ceci that performed on the pens and the oilers. Not to be confused with a norris winning dman anyday but i have time for ceci and what he brings at his price tag.

        The mess of a nurse ceci pairing is not all on ceci’s shoulders to burden. Nurse is nurse who ever he plays with and everying gets hauled into his chaos with him.

    • In all seriousness how bad did the coyotes ownership changing screw other GM’s because now they dont have a place to dump a contract or two?

  5. One glaring issue hanging over the Oilers all off season was Kane and his condition. Its hard to manage the cap if there is uncertainy if he will be ready for camp, or if he will miss time, how much is likely. That fiasco no doubt had much to do with stalling up holloway and broberg extenstions. Yes there is the overage allowance but if they go 7 million over and kane doesnt go for surgery, the problem is suddenly bigger than moving ceci and kulak isnt it?

    So in that regard, it isnt surprising the two rfas were still without contract. Also you are trying to extend leon, and having skinner/arvidsson as wingers is more helpful than trying to extend him with the usual rotation of players he has had to endure, so taking care of the rfa extensions vs signing the new wingers wasnt the play either.

    It was always going to be tough this year to navigate the cap while trying to improve the roster.

    • why did Jackson go out and sign Skinner before he had these 2 guys locked up. the Oilers have always been about offence and the teams that have won Cups have had good defense and goalie. The oiler of old can Thank Grant Fuhr for the cups they won not the offence.

  6. I don’t know enough about the Oilers depth, but wouldn’t trading a first round pick just to get room to sign one of those offer sheet contracts be worse than gaining a draft pick and letting them go?

    Also…for what I DO know about their roster… they have so many GREAT pieces, why get so bogged down in these two guys?

    • It would be worse and it won’t happen thesaint.
      Not a chance .
      Only Holloway will be matched IF the poison pill was that stiff. I think they find a way to match both without these 1st and 2nd round picks ever involved . Stauffer also reported, along with Friedman that Kane will be on ltir with Friedman saying he wasn’t talking for just a month or two but long term. He also can be traded at end of February to 16 teams.
      The offer sheets hurt , no doubt , but they have more options than meets the eye with some creativity.

      • Management heads must be spinning in Edmonton as they try to figure out the ins and outs of their options.

        At the moment, PuckPedia shows both Holloway and Broberg as part of the roster, with their offer sheet amounts factored in, and 23 of 23 players committed to for the season – 13F 8D 2G. That has them $7,225,441 over the cap. Placing Kane and his $5,125,000 on LTIR to start the season would still leave them $2,100,441 over the cap, so they’d have to find a way to cover that – probably by a trade involving someone like Ceci – but not without giving up a juicy sweetener. No team is doing them any favors.

        If the decision is to keep Holloway but let Broberg go they’d be $2,644,624 over the cap, easiovered for the nonce by the Kane LTIR move. But they’d enter the season one short of 23 roster players.

        If the decision is to keep Broberg but let Holloway go, they’d be $4,735,084 over the cap – again covered by the Kane LTIR ploy.

        However, either option only works as long as Kane remains on LTIR. And there have been no medical opinions on that, nor will there by until he actually has the surgery.

      • Put Kulak and Ceci on waivers and send them to the minors creates about 2.5 mill cap space. If either player is claimed no loss.

  7. Re Oilers and d/men trades

    They should keep LD, Brett Kulak and trade
    RD man Ceci,@$3.25M
    Put kane on LTIR, he would be out 16+ Weeks after his opperation that would save about $4.25M
    they would be set….

    X GM Ken Holland should have had this all sorted out bye the end of june at the latest, then we would not be in this mess..

    Or just trade out Nurse….👍

    What are the blues going to do with 9 d/men this season thats with Kruge out for the year…❓

    • You always say “just trade” like it’s so simple. Please tell me who would want to take on Nurse. The Oilers would HAVE to retain a lot of salary and even then, I don’t think he’s that sought over.

      • Ottawa would have a better chance at finding someone to take Chabot

      • Right from the start I was flabbergasted at Nurse’s $9.25m contract, and since then he hasn’t improved year-over-year as I guess they were expecting (hoping?). So now, could he possibly be the key to clearing up cap space? I get it that he’s not worth the full salary, but is there a market for Nurse with $4m retained?

      • the saint,

        here you go, the first 4 teams all have cap space

        Ducks, ,Sharks, CBJ, Utah,and maybe Wings
        The first 4 teams They all need help on the d and they need leadership

        Utah have 3 RD but only 1 LD for the top 4 in
        Mikhail Sergachev,
        they have cole but he is 35/36?? and past his prime he is a 3rd pairing d

        Ducks d is old, 33, 34 & 33 nd not that good
        CBJ have a good 1st paring but thats where it drops of to the kids
        Sharks d is the worst in the NHL

        over to you Mr Saint , How would you fix this mess the Oil are in………❓🤔

      • williew, Nurse has total control as to where he’d agree to go – do you really see him agreeing to leave a Stanley Cup finalist to go to rebuilding teams?

        As for Detroit, any reserves they have in cap will disappear once Raymond and Seider get their new deals.

      • @ WillieW

        You miss my point… “just trade” makes the huge LEAP in assumption that any of those teams want him…or his INSANE contract… coupled with whether Nurse will agree to any of it… as he is in total control.

        The Oil are stuck with this guy for a while OR it will take a lot of sweeteners and additions for anyone to take him off their hands.

        This is why my comment is always about you stating “just.” As if it would take one move and he’s gone.

        I don’t claim to know how to get them out of this mess… if I did, I would be getting paid by an NHL to manager them. But I DO know that a Nurse trade is not in the cards unless there is a miracle or Mike Milbury got rehired by someone…

    • Trade Nurse?
      Good one.
      Who would want that pylon and his capbreaking contract?

    • To make a trade you have to have a willing partner.
      I don’t imagine there is a team in the NHL who would be interested or willing to take Nurse’s $9+ million dollar contract off the Oilers hands and pay him for the next 6 years.

  8. Did the Oilers really need Jeff Skinner for one year that bad? Seriously? Maybe Arvidsson but c’mon, Skinner?

    What if they traded Nurse for a shocker??

    • Arnie, Just for discussion sake, name one team you think might have any interest in Nurse – even if Edmonton held back a hefty chunk of his cap.

      I’m NOT suggesting he is totally useless when I say this – with the right skating partner I think he has the ability to be effective.

      Just that there are no teams that I can see that would be able to take on even half his cap hit and where he might be willing to waive his total movement control. Right now he’s in total control of the trade scenario, including a full NMC right through 2026-27, and after that season a modified no-trade provision kicks in right to the end of his contract – 3 years from that point. He will also be alowed to establish a list of 10 no-go teams.

      • Haha, yeah you’d have to throw Draisaitl in as a sweetener.

        You’re right, they’re stuck with Nurse, he has a NMC. Just interesting if Edmonton thought they could give that spot to Broberg and lose Nurse. It’s possible they’d be happy to make that swap.

      • Drai and Nurse ($2.25M retained) for Heiskenen, Johnson, Marchment
        They let Broberg go, Holloway, Marchment and Johson are the 2nd line.
        Maybe Nurse waives if Drai goes with him

    • All Oilers fans were shocked at the Nurse High Contract @ $9.25
      $6.5M would have beed good enough

      the oil are just to cash strapped, They have Bouchard to pay and he is truning out to be a Paul Coffey on the oil d……👌

      i hope they keep both the young guys, kane on LT and trade out Ceci that should do it,
      if the cant move Nurse..

  9. Re the preemptive Pinto signing by Staios, so far anyway, he’s looking like a step up from Dorion when it comes to negotiating potentially good moves. The move to prevent Pinto from being offer-sheeted – as was the scuttlebuck according to Garrioch – was certainly a solid move.

    Since the season ended he also moved out – or didn’t re-up – 9 players – Mathieu Joseph, Erik Brannstrom, Parker Kelly, Domenik Kubalik. Mark Kastelik, Boris Katchouk, Jiri Smejkal, Jacob Chychrun and Joonas Korpisalo (all of whom – except Katchouk – were Dorion acquisitions, whose offensive contributions (the skaters) totalled 55g 90a 145 pts. Their cap total was $19,300,000.

    Brought in were 5 players – David Perron, Mike Amadio, Noah Gregor, Nick Jensen and Linus Ullmark, whose offensive contributions with previous teams (the skaters) totalled 38g 62a 100 pts. Their cap total is $16.500,000. There will also be at least 3 call-ups at varying ELC totals – Kleven Crookshank and Ostapchuk, and to cover that Staios has $1,909,285 in cap space.

    Now we’re about to find out if all that, along with a new coaching regime, some expected consistency in goal and, perhaps above all, consistent 2-way effort improving a dreadful defensive system/pk.

    • I agree with your assessment and appreciate the data to back up your point George!

      Makes me feel better about the coming season to be honest. I am also impressed with Staios and his filling the prospect cupboards a little more too.

      I also feel like he will be able to swing some in season moves too. If things in goal stay solid and Mads maybe gets a couple starts to see if he’s improving, the Forsberg contract could get moved as well.

      I think one or two of the young guys will surprise and make the roster. I also really think Pinto and Grieg will have breakout seasons.

      I look toward the season without even entertaining the thought that Norris will be there because I do not like this rollercoaster anymore haha.

      • Josh Norris is certainly at a crossroads. One more shoulder injury requiring further surgery probably means his career is over.

        The thing is, he can’t enter the season skating on egg shells to avoid another recurrence … he does that and he’s essentially useless out there and an effective waste of a roster spot.

        I hope he knows that he has to work hard at training camp and go into the season playing as if he never had the injury. If the surgeon finally got it right – in much the same manner that Tarasenko’s did when he was experiencing recurring shoulder problems early in his career – then he could become as effective as he was when scored 35 in 2021-22.

        Easy to say – I know – and I feel for the poor kid whose head must be spinning as he gets ready for camp.

    • should read “… a dreadful defensive system/pk, can get them into playoff contention. We’ll know for sure by early December.”

  10. Carey Price to the Oilers for a 1st in 2026, problem solved !

  11. Oilers need to match on both…. A measly 2nd and a 3rd for those two is definitely not enough

    Kane LTIR ; trade Ceci …, no Cap issues until Mid Dec (earliest Kane return)

    Deal with things then. Could be another LTIR pop up? ;in season trade?

    At the very least it provided Oilers 4 months to deal with things

    *Ceci and a 3rd for Nieto (send him to Bakersfield)

    *Pens only have 2 Righties on D (Letang and Karlsson).

    St. Ivany (next RD on Pens depth chart) had a couple of fair games down the stretch but was substantially sheltered. Not ready for a full season yet. ‘25-‘26 perhaps for him

    • Edmont should go after Weber contract
      Give up a 3rd round pick this would solve all salary cap issues moving forward plus Edmonton laughs it off from StLouis doing this crap