Sunday NHL Rumor Roundup – November 3, 2024
Check out the latest on the Rangers, Islanders and Maple Leafs in the Sunday NHL Rumor Roundup.
THE ATHLETIC: Arthur Staple recently looked at what New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury could do to free up salary-cap space for next season.
Goaltender Igor Shesterkin still needs a new contract. So does defenseman K’Andre Miller, Kaapo Kakko and Will Cuylle. He’ll also have to decide about pending unrestricted free agents Ryan Lindgren, Reilly Smith and Jonathan Quick.
New York Rangers captain Jacob Trouba (NHL Images).
Staple believes all arrows point to Jacob Trouba getting moved in an offseason trade. He’ll have a year remaining on his contract with an average annual value of $8 million. Drury could move the 30-year-old defenseman without having to retain salary or include major assets to get a deal done.
Drury doesn’t have many cost-cutting trade options outside of Trouba. Center Mika Zibanejad’s hefty contract is almost untradeable and they’d only get $700K in savings next season if he were bought out. Chris Kreider would draw interest but moving him and Trouba could be too much for the Rangers.
Staple also suggested a wild-card move like trading the 24-year-old Miller. He’d fetch a significant return and his absence could be offset by the maturing Braden Schneider and the promising Vincent Mancini.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Drury’s ill-fated attempt to trade Trouba in late June signaled this season will be the blueliner’s last with the Rangers. He’s now got a 15-team no-trade list which gives Drury some flexibility and potential trade partners.
Trading away Miller would be a risky move despite the promising return. Drury must ensure that Schneider and Mancini have matured enough to replace Trouba and Miller.
SPORTSNET: Elliotte Friedman reports the New York Islanders are believed to be seeking help for their injury-battered defense corps. Bluelines Adam Pelech, Mike Reilly and Alexander Romanov are sidelined with Pelech (upper body) out for four-to-six weeks. All three are left-hand shots.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Reilly and Romanov are day-to-day and are expected to return to action soon. Nevertheless, Pelech’s lengthy absence could be difficult to address from within. They’ve called up Grant Hutton and Samuel Bolduc from their AHL affiliate.
They could also be in the market for a scoring forward. Their offense was among the league’s lowest before Mathew Barzal was sidelined for four to six weeks by an upper-body injury. They’ve placed him on long-term injury reserve to give themselves some cap relief to accommodate adding Hutton and Bolduc.
Friedman reports the Toronto Maple Leafs have two players (Jani Hakanpaa and Connor Dewar) on conditioning stints with their AHL affiliate. They have about a week to address their impending roster crunch when everyone is healthy to return.
The Leafs acquired defenseman Matt Benning when they shipped Timothy Liljegren to the San Jose Sharks last week. They’ve let teams know they want to do right by Benning and made him available in the trade market.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The cost of moving Liljegren and his $3 million average annual value through next season was taking on Benning’s $1.25 million AAV. He’s an affordable veteran right-shot blueliner and should draw some interest around the league.
Miller is a lefty, Mancini and Schneider are righties. So neither are truly suitable replacements.
I’d prefer Jones over Miller anyway. But they could keep Jones, Miller and Mancini and move Trouba and let Lindgren walk away.
I like Lindgren, but he is way too injury prone.
I also don’t believe Miller would fetch a good return, the guy is god awful defensively and grossly inconsistent offensively.
Miller should be switched to right wing, which is where he looks like he wants to play, and usually where he’s at when surrendering odd man rushes the other way.
Agreed Miller’s stock is not high right now even playing on the top pair with Fox.
This Ranger group will probably stay intact until the summer with one last attempt at glory..
As a Ranger fan I am more than ready to send Mika Zib away but as all stated a buyout doesnt help much and he has a full nmc.
Chytil has had a good start and doesn’t look at all tentative. If he can stay healthy, Rangers could look to trade Trochek. His mmm expires after season and he’ll have a 12 team ntc.
Mancini has been a pleasant surprise. He will replace Trouba. Miller shouldn’t cost too much to keep. Definitely agree on Lindgren not worth re signing. Actually wouldn’t mind if they could get something for him at deadline, but I think Drury is all in on this team making another deep run. Getting by next season will be tight, but Panarin only has the one year left on his contract.
The Islanders problem with acquiring anybody is their cap space. They need to get rid of players like Engvall and Wahlstrom to clear up some space. Also Lou being so loyal and resigning Martin is laughable. As far as a LHD goes, St Louis is supposedly looking to get rid of Nick Leddy by the deadline. He has played for the Islanders before, only has a 3.5M cap hit this year and a 3M next year. Would St Louis take Engvall or Wahlstrom for forward?
I see no problem with the following Ranger d-corp next season
Lindgren – Fox
Miller – Schneider
Jones – Mancini
7-9 are Robertson, Ruhwedel, Harpur
Trouba can be traded and his cap used, together with the increase in total cap for the needed contract extensions.
This is a good young defense that needs to continue to develop together.
Weary of the Islanders’persistent mediocrity, I’d like Lou to be replaced by a shrewd GM to launch a painful but necessary rebuild to overhaul our pathetic prospect pool.
Mark Allan, with their mounting injury list (Barzal, Reilly, Pelech, Romanov, Duclair (in and out) ), their prospect pool ranked near the bottom, siting 24th in pp %, and 31st in pk%, they are really going to be put to the test over the next few weeks.
Not sure the Rangers won t have to retain money in a trade for Trouba! They are going to need some sweetener in order to trade him
Lou needs to be creative and move some pieces to prepare for a high pick and ufa action
Valarmov back to the Avs would be a start?
he has forwards that play wing and center. i could see brock bringing back something for the future
Lou is who assembled this aging, slow, injury prone roster. With a nearly non-existent prospect pool, I don’t think anyone is desperate enough to trade for one of Lou’s old men and send anything worthwhile back. It’s becoming painfully obvious that the game has passed Lou by and the Isles need to bring in a GM who will do what it takes to revamp the roster and prospect pool.
But not too soon since Lou’s clean cut old men and the Pennsylvania teams are giving my Blue Jackets a real shot at 5th in the Metro and an outside shot at the playoffs.
This site purportedly shows the Top 50 players in some team’s system not yet in the NHL
https://www.espn.com/nhl/insider/story/_/id/41961178/nhl-2024-25-prospects-rankings-top-players-scouting-analytics
Leading the way with 4 each are Minnesota and Chicago, 3 each for San Jose, Detroit and Columbus, 2 each for Winnipeg, Washington, Seattle, Nashville, Carolina, New Jersey, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Montreal, Utah, and 1 each for Colorado, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, Vegas, NYI, Anaheim, NYR and Calgary.
Not having one listed are Boston, Tampa, Florida, L.A., and Dallas.
Take it all with the proverbial grain of salt, however, as it’s likely as subjective as Hell in the final analysis. They even forgot to list # 16 – LOL.
I sent them an e-mail asking who was # 16 and they keep e-mailing me asking me to “rate” the response to my question. I keep replying that I can’t “rate” what I haven’t received. LOL
Drury has to trade Trouba and everyone knows it. If he wants to trade him he will have to retain or send a sweetener and my guess its a sweetener since NYR needs the cap space.
I dont see how they trade Mika with that NMC since he obviously likes it is NY, so that isnt happening
Following yet another solid game last night against Seattle – a 3 – 0 shutout for Forsberg – the night after they lost 2-1 to NYR despite outshooting them 42 to 18 – you have to wonder if Staios is not contemplating some increasingly obvious moves.
The roster they’ve been going with has seemingly developed into one that embraces the two-way game as they continue to be among the top echelon in goal-scoring, while steadily lowering the goals against through defensive play and goaltending both.
The lines being employed have
Tkachuk – Stutzle – Greig at # 1
Giroux – Norris – Batherson at # 2
Gregor – Ostapchuk – Amadio at # 3
Cousins – Gaudette – MacEwen at # 4
The D pairings have been
Sanderson – Hamonic
Chabot – Jensen
Kleven – Bernard-Docker
With Forsberg and Ulmark as the 2 goalies, that means they’ve been going with a 20-man roster – and doing well.
So, is it time to start contemplating the moving out – when they return from IR – RD Artem Zub (3gp 0g 0a 0 pts +1 and a $4.6 mil cap hit) and C Shane Pinto (6gp 1g 2a 3 pts -3 and a $3,750,000 cap hit?
The returns they might get could bring in more solid depth among the bottom 6 F and 3-6 D pairings, perhaps even opening up some cap space.
I’d include LW David Perron as well (5gp 0g 0a 0pts -4 and a $4 mil cap hit – he isn’t injured but away for personal reasons – but he is one who could be useful in a “sandpaper”-type role down the line.
If I’m Rangers I’d trade the goalie for a younger goalie with promise and sign a vet.