NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – September 4, 2024
The Blue Jackets and Flames to hold candlelight vigils for the Gaudreau brothers, plus the latest on Leon Draisaitl, Brad Marchand, Torey Krug, Thatcher Demko, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
SPORTSNET: The Columbus Blue Jackets and Calgary Flames announced they will hold candlelight vigils on Wednesday evening to honor the lives of Johnny and Matthew Goudreau after the brothers were killed by a drunk driver last Thursday.
The Flames ceremony will be at 8 pm MT/10 pm ET at the west stairs of the Scotiabank Saddledome. The club will stream the candlelight vigil on the Flames website, app, and the team’s social media channels.

Columbus Blue Jackets winger Johnny Gaudreau (NHL Images).
The Blue Jackets vigil will be held outside Nationwide Arena starting at 7:30 pm ET/5:30 pm MT.
MONTREAL GAZETTE: Canadiens winger Cole Caufield will start wearing jersey number 13 in honor of Johnny Gaudreau, who wore the same number for most of his NHL career.
Caufield, 23, called Gaudreau his hero on an Instagram post following the winger’s death last Thursday. On Tuesday, Caufield issued another Instagram post explaining the number change, praising Gaudreau as an inspiration and trailblazer for smaller players with dreams of playing in the NHL.
The Canadiens winger was Gaudreau’s teammate on Team USA at the 2024 IIHF World Championship.
TSN: Donations continue to pour in to support Matthew Gaudreau’s widow Madeline, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child, due in December. A GoFundMe set up by Madeline’s sister raised more than $560K as of 7 pm ET on Tuesday.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: Leon Draisaitl said it was difficult to imagine himself wearing a different jersey or walking away from the Oilers. On Tuesday, the 28-year-old superstar signed an eight-year, $112 million contract extension.
Draisaitl said he saw himself as an Oiler for life. He stated that he felt at home in Edmonton, believes the club is building something special and wants to be part of it.
THE ATHLETIC: Daniel Nugent-Bowman believes Draisaitl’s new contract ensures the Oilers can keep their Stanley Cup window open. He expects this improves the club’s odds of signing team captain Connor McDavid, who is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2026.
Nugent-Bowman pointed out the Oilers are the oldest team in the NHL with little draft capital and a depleted prospect pool. He considers it imperative that they win the Stanley Cup with their current group before they reach what he calls “Pittsburgh Penguins territory.”
He also noted the expected high cost of re-signing McDavid and emerging star Evan Bouchard would put the Oilers among the teams with top-heavy rosters forced to fill out its roster depth with young prospects or inexpensive veterans.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It was expensive to re-sign Draisaitl and it will be costly to keep McDavid and Bouchard in the fold. That’s the cost of being in “win-now” mode when many of your best players are in their late twenties and early thirties.
The Oilers are betting they can win the Cup or at least remain a serious contender during the first half of Draisaitl’s new contract (and McDavid’s, too) before age inevitably takes its toll on their veteran roster.
A rising salary cap in the coming years should help the Oilers offset some of the big salary-cap crunch coming their way. Like the Penguins, however, management will eventually find it challenging to maintain a Cup contender as age and injuries catch up with their expensive stars.
NBC SPORTS BOSTON: Bruins captain Brad Marchand revealed he underwent three surgeries during the offseason to address nagging injuries that plagued him throughout last season.
Marchand, 36, said he played through a torn elbow tendon through most of last season. He also underwent groin and abdominal surgeries to repair a sports hernia that he suffered late in the season.
The Bruins captain indicated the surgeries limited his offseason training. He’s hoping to be ready for the start of his club’s training camp on Sep. 18 or shortly thereafter.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: That would explain the decline in Marchand’s production last season. Nevertheless, he finished with 29 goals and 67 points in 82 games.
STLTODAY.COM: Blues defenseman Torey Krug will miss the upcoming 2024-25 season due to surgery on his left ankle.
Krug, 33, was diagnosed with pre-arthritic changes in the ankle earlier this summer. He was attempting to rehabilitate the ankle through non-surgical means.
The Blues could turn to Nick Leddy or Ryan Suter joining their top-four defense.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This could also open up an opportunity for a younger blueliner to move up in the pecking order on their defense corps.
THE PROVINCE: CHEK-TV’s Rick Dhaliwal reported yesterday that Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko has resumed skating and working out on the ice.
Recent reports speculated Demko, 28, could miss training camp and the start of the Canucks’ season as he continued to rehab an offseason medical procedure tied to his playoff-ending knee injury this spring.
Canucks training camp opens on Sep. 19.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Demko could still miss some or all of training camp. Nevertheless, Dhaliwal’s report is the first positive news about the goalie’s condition in weeks.
DAILY FACEOFF: The Flames have invited free-agent defenseman Tyson Barrie to training camp on a professional tryout offer (PTO).
SPORTSNET: The Toronto Maple Leafs are expected to invite former Florida Panthers forward Steven Lorentz to camp on a PTO.
RG.ORG: Vladimir Bure, father of former NHL players Pavel and Valeri Bure, passed away in Miami at age 73 on Tuesday. He was the former conditioning coach of the New Jersey Devils and won two Stanley Cups with them in 2000 and 2003.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: My condolences to the Bure family and the Devils organization.
Marchand and Krug,to small players who s size and injuries are catching up to them! As durable as Marchand has been he s been operated on at least the last 2 years!Swayman practicing with his teammates at preseason workouts should tell you about his contract status!
Surprised that the Rat didn’t need surgery on his foot from all the slew footing he has done.
And just like that we have a new catch-phrase to describe a once cup contending team facing the ravages of time with not much in the prospect pool – “Pittsburgh Penguins territory.”
I dont mind “pittsburgh penguins territory” being a catchphrase. The opportunity to attend three stanley cup parades is an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. Fine territory to be in.
Wasn’t it only a few years ago that people were saying that no team with a player making over 10 million has won the Stanley Cup?…Kind of pointing out how teams with the Superstars, just haven’t performed in the playoffs…..And now, correct me if I’m wrong, the only player to ever win the Cup that makes $10 million of more is a goalie? And that was this past season.
My point….Maybe $14 million still won’t help?…..Just sayin’
Sticky situation when it is not easy to lure free agents to places like Edmonton and now the selling point is ‘come play with two superstars with a chance of the Cup’ but for a smaller contract than other teams can offer. Oilers have made due with Kane and Perry….
And they just lost two young players who could of been depth pieces for the next 5+ seasons because of the Cap issues
Toronto often gets players taking less to play in their hometown. Florida gets less because of the location and taxes.
If this Oilers team doesnt win at least one Cup its a fail imho
Starsfan, Barkov also made $10M in FLA, so they had 2. Eichel made $10M on Vegas when they won the cup as well.
But ya, paying high end players big money hurts your ability to add/pay quality depth through your lineup. That seems obvious to me.
But, if you don’t have elite players the depth kinda doesn’t matter as you won’t compete for a cup either.
If the Oil didn’t keep Draisaitl and McDavid (just got easier) they were basically starting over. That doesn’t make much sense does it?
Cost of doing business in the NHL if you want to keep you cup window open. At least now they should still get to the dance regularly, but adding the depth just got harder after this season. Would like to here what folks would have done instead if they were the Oilers GM?
ds, the reason players didn’t want to come to Edmonton was because they were not a good team. SJ seems like a nice spot to play hockey in the winter, see a bunch of top FA’s going there? And also, why would a crappy team at the bottom of the standings even try to recruit a top UFA?
So it’s mutual.
Build it and they will come.
I believe Eichel broke that barrier first the prior season, but I may be wrong. Either way, the point stands. Top heavy may not be the way to go. Until it works for one team then everyone will do it. LOL
Jack Eichel / Vegas was the first to win with a 10 million player.
This strikes me as a weird argument… as salary numbers are rising every year, there are no data to support your hypothesis.
I mean… if we said more Cups were won by players making 500 grand we could support that by stats from 1980s Oilers and Islanders etc.
By next decade, most teams will have multiple players making 10+ million a year, does that mean no one will win a Cup?
Hi Stars fan
First was:
Crosby :made $12 M in 15/16 (2016 Cup) and just shy of $11 M the following year (‘17 Cup)
2nd:
Ovi made $10 M the following year (‘18 Cup)
If you want to get technical ; Toews and Kane had already signed on (July of ‘14) to make $13.8 M EACH for the 15/16 season; so although not earning that in June of ‘15 for their last Cup; at the time of that cup ; Blackhawks had 2 players under contract that would be paid almost $14 M EACH; the next season
In yesterday’s Draisaitl thread Tim Thurmeier and mikeP posted thoughts this morning on the Oilers budding cap crunch, expressing hope that Bouchard might be convinced to take a 2-year bridge in the $6.5 mil range to offset the crunch for a while at least, as well as find some way to get rid of the Nurse $9,250,000 albatross.
Heading into this season, their top 5 cap hits consist of McDavid’s $12.5 mil, Draisaitl’s $8.5 mil, Nurse’s $9.25 mil, Ekholm’s $6 mil and Hyman’s $5.5 mil for a total of $41,750,000 and, with the cap set at $88,000,000 that represents 47.4% of the cap.
Here’s how that compares to some of the other cup contenders for 2024-25
Toronto – 61.5%
Florida 51.3%
Dallas 50%
*Boston 48.3%
Vegas 48.2%
Edmonton 47.4%
Nashville 43.2%
Carolina 38.8%
* The Boston calculation is based upon a hypothetical $7.5 mil settlement by Swayman.
For the following season of 2025-26 the cap is loosely projected to be $92 million but there are too many unknown factors to be calculating cap % for the top 5 – e.g. UFA status for Tavares and Marner, Bouchard, Marchand etc.
I posted the above a lot earlier than it appeared and so, thinking perhaps there might have been a glitch, did a bit of editing of the comparing list of teams to read
“Here’s how that compares to some of the other cup contenders for 2024-25 and what % of the cap is devoted to the other 18 roster spots
Toronto 61.5% – 38.5%
Tampa 51.6% – 48.4%
Florida 51.3% – 48.7%
Colorado 51.3% – 48.7%
NYR 50.2% – 49.8%
Dallas 50% – 50%
*Boston 48.3% – 51.7%
Vegas 48.2% – 51.8%
Edmonton 47.4% – 52.6%
Vancouver 47% – 53%
Nashville 43.2% – 56.8%
Winnipeg 40.9% – 59.1%
Carolina 38.8% – 61/2%
At the risk of overstating the obvious, the best teams have the best players at the top of their lineups. The best players get paid.
A point that chrisms has made on here multiple times, is that try to win early when you draft top end guys, before they get the big contracts mid career.
Toronto is the constant example used, but they went overboard with guys that are good, and added a guy in Tavares that was redundant to Matthews and Kadri.
The other teams at or around 50% are & have been the best teams over the last 5 years.
Re your last sentence, Ray, that sure seems to be the case. I was struck by the fact Dallas came out 50-50. I had them going all the way this past spring and they looked good over the first 2 series, but unfortunately for them couldn’t figure out the Oilers.
Be interesting to see if adjustments made in the off season will work this time around.