NHL Rumor Mill – September 19, 2024
Check out the latest on Jeremy Swayman and Mitch Marner plus the latest on the Canucks and the Canadiens in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
LATEST ON SWAYMAN’S NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE BRUINS
BOSTON HOCKEY NOW: Christopher Hurley reports Bruins general manager Don Sweeney responded to a report by “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcaster Paul Bissonnette regarding his contract negotiations with goaltender Jeremy Swayman.
Bissonnette claimed the Bruins GM ignored calls from Swayman. “I think it’s bullshit that somebody says I wouldn’t return a call for three weeks,” said Sweeney.
Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman (NHL Images).
Sweeney declined to go into detail regarding the negotiations with the Swayman camp. “I have respect for the position that Jeremy and his camp have taken,” he said. “And we continue to try and find common ground.”
The Bruins GM said he’s disappointed but remains optimistic that a deal can be reached before Dec. 1. He also scoffed at reports claiming he refused to offer Swayman an eight-year contract or was unwilling to compromise with the netminder.
“That’s far from the truth,” said Sweeney, adding that there’s been constant dialogue and communication between the two sides.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Dec. 1 is the deadline for Swayman to be under contract or he’ll be forbidden to play for the rest of this season. That’s not a scenario either side wants. It would cost Swayman a year of his playing prime while robbing the Bruins of their promising starter.
The last notable standoff involving a restricted free agent was in 2018 when last-second negotiations led to an agreement between William Nylander and the Toronto Maple Leafs before the 5 pm ET deadline on Dec. 1.
It’ll be interesting to see how long this saga goes. It could drag on for weeks or a breakthrough could happen within days.
MARNER DECLINES TO DISCUSS CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS.
SPORTSNET: Mitch Marner met with the media on Wednesday but indicated he wouldn’t discuss his contract situation. The 27-year-old winger is in the final season of his deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs and can become an unrestricted free agent next July.
Leafs GM Brad Treliving has also declined to publicly discuss Marner’s contract status until there’s news to announce.
THE ATHLETIC: Jonas Siegel believes Marner and the Leafs are holding contract talks despite their public unwillingness to discuss it with the media. He cited Marner’s agent Darren Ferris releasing a statement earlier this week indicating he preferred to keep “ongoing negotiations” confidential.
TORONTO STAR: Rosie DiManno believes Marner’s contract situation could fester if it remains unresolved during the coming season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Marner and Treliving won’t discuss this with the media, but the latter abhors a vacuum, leaving this situation ripe for speculation the longer this goes.
CANUCKS UNCERTAIN IF THEY’LL NEED TO ADD A GOALIE
THE PROVINCE: Patrick Johnston reports Vancouver Canucks GM Patrik Allvin doesn’t know when sidelined starting goaltender Thatcher Demko will return to action. It could be a talking point that dogs the club for weeks or months.
Allvin was asked if he would need to add another goaltender before the start of the season. “I don’t know,” he replied, adding he’ll see how Demko comes along rehabbing his injury and how well their young netminders perform over the next two weeks in training camp.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Adding a goaltender won’t be easy. There are few available in the trade market while the free agent market has been mostly picked clean.
The Canucks reached out to former Predators backup Kevin Lankinen. It’s rumored they offered him a one-year deal for less than $1 million but he’s seeking more than that.
LATEST ON THE CANADIENS
RDS.CA: Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang laughed off a rumor from earlier this summer claiming he requested a trade to the Montreal Canadiens.
“People were talking about that? They weren’t talking to me!”, replied Letang.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Assuming Letang wanted a trade to Montreal, I doubt the rebuilding Canadiens would be interested in a 37-year-old defenseman who’s past his prime carrying an annual cap hit of $6.1 million through 2027-28.
TVA SPORTS: Eric Fichaud doesn’t expect Cayden Primeau to finish the season with the Canadiens. The 25-year-old netminder will serve as Samuel Montembeault’s backup this season.
Fichard believes the Canadiens need a more experienced veteran backing up Montembeault.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Canadiens had that with Jake Allen and they shipped him to the New Jersey Devils at the March trade deadline. They wouldn’t have made that move if they didn’t have faith in Primeau. They spent most of last season carrying three goalies because they didn’t want to risk losing Primeau to another club via waivers.
Eric Fichaud appears to be as poor a pundit as he was a goalie. As Lyle points out, the Habs would not have traded Allen if they didn’t have Faith in the Montembeault Primeau tandem. One of them will eventually be moved once Fowler is ready but I expect that’ll be their duo till then.
As for the BS Letang talk, why are we still dealing with that?
What Howard said.
Re: “SPECTOR’S NOTE: Marner and Treliving won’t discuss this with the media, but the latter abhors a vacuum, leaving this situation ripe for speculation the longer this goes.”
And no media – anywhere – abhors a vacuum more than that of the GTA.
The longer the Marner situation drags on the more intense will the speculations/suggestions/criticisms become … to the point of utter team distraction.
The new majority owner Rogers might stifle that to some degree over outlets they own and control, but you can bet those owned and controlled by Bell or other independents won’t be silenced.
I guess you could be right but if you were to keep in mind that both management and player want to stay, where exactly is the friction coming from? Outside sources?
What we do know is that with all of Farris’ clients he always makes the threat to take his players to UFA and usually gets his clients top dollar… if he was your agent, you’ll love him for that. But for us fans and media blowhards it makes good nuggets of crap you can feed fan bases around the league.
Btw, does bell media own the sun papers? If so, they will continue to majority write crap regardless.
Heh – no Ron – the Sun papers are owned by PostMedia.
A decade ago the Sun Media Corporation, a subsidiary of Quebecor Media, was the overall owner In late 2014 Quebecor sold the English-language papers of Sun Media to Postmedia.
A list of Postmedia’s print assets can be seen here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmedia_Network
Context is important, most people couldn’t care less about contract negotiations or baseless punditry.
That goes for Fichaud’s nonsense , Marner’s contract and spittin chiclets attempts to stir the pot.
My personal opinion on Habs goalie situation is simple Montembeault and Primeau are there to carry the load and we’ll see how it goes.
There are a number of goalies playing at different levels in different countries and MAYBE one will work out in the future.
I wish there wasn’t a bandwagon for Fowler as really he’s just another promising kid, the type manr franches, including Montreal have touted over the years, most of who fell flat.
Let the kid play, rise or fall on the way, let’s remember while the Habs have a history of great goaltenders, most came out of nowhere, hello Rogie, Ken and Patrick.
I like the way Johnny Z thinks!!
Sign Lankonen. And let’s roll.
Swayman can spend the season in the Swiss league. Great chocolate.
with Swanson’s possible holdout and Demko’s knee, it would be wise for the B’s and ‘Nucks to add some more experience in goal, to be ready for opening night. I know it won’t be easy. But with Silov being injured recently it should be code red for the Canucks.
Apparently, they haven’t given up yet on trying to convince UFA Kevin Lankonen to sign – of they can figure out how to fit him in under the cap
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canucks-sign-lankinen-salary-cap
The 6′ 2″ 190 lb 29 y.o Finn has posted decent stats over 112 NHL games, his first 2 seasons with a struggling Chicago team before going to Nashville as a UFA the past 2 seasons as a back-up where he posted very good numbers.
The longer the Boston impasse drags on, and if one or more teams suffer goalie injuries through camp/pre-season, his stock will only rise.
Maybe Boston could sign Lankenen for 2 x $2M and trade Swayman and be done with the headache. They would also have over $5M in cap space for another big move!
The Bruins still see themselves as a serious Stanley Cup contenders. They will not trade their “headache” and sign a career backup.
As I mentioned in yesterdays thread a Swayman offer sheet from Utah or Calgary is doable.
Trade wise. Is Marner a huge over pay for Swayman? What else is coming back from Boston. Lohrei too?
Yes yes Marner is in no hurry to move but if you could convince him that the winning culture in Boston would be a good fit for him. ?? Maybe.
I also think Korpisalo in Boston’s system will be better. Ottawa is just a trainwreck defensively.
Dark G, you won’t get me disagreeing with the contention that Ottawa’s whole defensive structure was a train wreck last season.
But when it comes to Korpisalo, his most glaring problem was inconsistency – not the defense in front of him. He’d play a stellar game against Toronto, or Montreal, or Boston … and then let in 5 goals on 15 shots by an Anaheim, San Jose or Chicago. It seems he played poorest when the team concentrated on keeping the shots against down. All season long.
Even Boston’s vaunted defensive structure will allow 15 shots here and there along the way.
By the way, just noticed that Ottawa brought in a 3rd p.t.o. in 35 y/o goalie Dustin Tokarski who, dating back to his first NHL appearance in 2009-10, has played 80 NHL games with Tampa, Montreal, Anaheim, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh, with whom he played 4 games in 2022-23.
Why is anyone’s guess. Their goalie depth as is shows Ullmark, Forsberg, Sogaard, Merilainen, Reidler and Nikitin,
Unless there is already some concern over a goalie one day into camp!
I think Merileinen is hurt. Just another body to eat pucks is my guess. He didn’t play or was pulled in one of the rookie games. Those rookie games should have been low scoring affairs. They weren’t. It was a tad concerning.
Well, if you consider that half the roster compiled by Ottawa consisted of undrafted players, probably 90% of whom haven’t been invited to the main camp nor will they ever likely see an NHL game, the results were predictable.
The Pittsburgh and New Jersey line-ups, in comparison, consisted almost entirely of drafted players.
This is not about today’s headlines, but the topic of whether non state tax team has an advantage has been a topic. The Atlantic did a poll of players on whether this should be addressed. 62% said no.
One player said this:
“It is an advantage,” said one player from a Canadian team. “If you make $6 million in New York City or $6 million in Florida, I mean, it’s different. But there was a time where everybody wanted to go to Chicago, and it’s not a great tax city. And same with Pittsburgh.”
“Look in the past who was winning Stanley Cups: Pittsburgh, Washington, Detroit,” another player said. “So I don’t think it’s a big advantage. Everything equals up. And what do you do if you get traded and stuff like that?”
Bruins will stick to their # and wait it out. Will give them a chance to see what Bussi can do Don’t see bruins paying more the Saros signed for
Mrbruin4, just saw that Boston has signed a p.t.o with Kasimir Kaskisuo a 6′ 3″ 195 lb goalie never drafted who came out of the U. Of Minnesota-Duluth and who turned pro with the Toronto Marlies in 2015-16. He has 2 NHL gp – one with Toronto in 2019-20 and 1 with Nashville in 2020-21. This past season he played in Laval of the AHL – 13gp.
Not suggesting he is being brought in to see if he can make the Bruins, of course, but perhaps to fill in somewhere in the organization if the decision is to start with a Korpisalo-Bussi tandem.
Edmonton also signed another p.t.o today, this time with 26 y/o C Jasper Weatherby who was drafted in Rd 4 102nd overall in 2018 by San Jose. He has 50 NHL gp all with San Jose – 5g 6a 11 pts minus 14.
That makes 51 players on p.t.o.’s with 22 teams.
Well, just like that Detroit went from having $18 mil in cap space to $198,194 following the re-signings of Raymond, Berggren and now Seider – 7 years $59.85 mil or $8,550,000 per for a full 23-man roster
And San Jose signed a p.t.o. with 35 y/o G Aaron Dell who last played with them in the NHL 2 seasons back – 4 games
And just in case anyone still thinks NHL salaries are getting out of hand, consider this
https://www.essence.com/entertainment/sports/dak-prescott-nfl-highest-paid-player/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
To put it in perspective, that’s almost 3 times the entire amount each of the 32 NHL teams can spend on their entire roster!
George
I agree he has chance to be depth signing for bruins no question about it
JohnnyZ, done with the headache? If that’s a headache imagine the migraine they would suffer with out Swayman!?
He has great #’s, but still an unproven #1 because he has not started over 50 times,and could he withstand 55- 65 starts and then ride him in the playoffs???
His pay demands need to be trimmed to under $8M.
May be there’s still bad blond between Swayman and Sweeney…
What if Marner signs in Pittsburgh next summer?
For how much? And for how long?
May be as long as Sid is playing or for the max possible 7 years @ $12.0?
I asked that very thing (not in exact words) a few days back when someone though he and Sid training together implied Sid was looking to go to Toronto.
People need to accept the possibility that Atlanta is getting another team.
It will succeed, with the right owners and location of the new arena. Downtown ATL is a poor location for an ice hockey team, when the fanbase is in the burbs. Braves proved that getting out of the city is the answer.
I agree. The fact they had two kicks at the can should not be a factor if the right owner comes along and there is commitment for a new suitably-located arena.
Same with Arizona for that matter.
Agreed George.
The Flames left 43 years ago and the Thrashers were a mess from day one.
There’s a ton of spending money and northerners in the ATL market.
For sure … and Metro Atlanta – or the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell metropolitan statistical area – has a population of over 6.3 million as per a 2023 estimate. That places the area as # 6 in the American list of largest metro areas.
Re Swayman and the Bruins,
I said in a coment 2 weeks back i dont think JS will be at the Bruins opening camp on the 18th…
At this stage, I think Swayman has a ( Bad Taste )
in his mouth with boston from last years arbatration hearings and now Boston have draged this thing out all year……..⁉️
i think it could be a 1 year deal…
See what NYR pay there goaltender $$ and do a
re-negotiation
Im surprised No team has offer sheeted Swayman,
3 teams that have have $10.M to $24M in cap space
CBJ has $24.M
Ducks have $22.M
Utah have $9.9M…🤔
Compensation
offer range……..$6,871,374 – $9,161,834
1X 1st-round pick,
1X 2nd-round pick,
1X 3rd-round pick
if a team went in at $9,160,834…..
Sounds like Boston dont want to go over $8.M..❓
Red Wing’s need a tender but they just signed
d/man Moritz Seider 7yrs X 8.550M❗️ so they are out also.
The Ducks and BJ’s do not have a 2nd round pick in 2025, they would have to trade to get it back first.
casper,
the best thing about Kaskisuo is his social media presence, he and his wife (Whitney) are quite busy and kind of funny.
He’s a career minor leaguer with a good attitude.
San Jose signed another p.t.o, 25 y/o RD Joey Keane -taked in Rd 3 88th overall in 2018 by NYR – past 2 seasons with Moscow-Spartak in the KHL.
2 games in the NHL – both with Carolina