Sunday NHL Rumor Roundup – February 2, 2025
The latest on Elias Pettersson and the Canucks, the Rangers’ plans after acquiring J.T. Miller, and the latest on the Flames, Blues and Stars in the Sunday NHL Rumor Roundup.
LATEST ON ELIAS PETTERSSON AND THE CANUCKS
SPORTSNET: Elliotte Friedman reports the speculation around Elias Pettersson can calm down after the Vancouver Canucks traded J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers on Friday. The Canucks are determined to see how things go for the 26-year-old center and hope that he returns to his high-scoring form.
Vancouver Canucks center Elias Pettersson (NHL Images).
Friedman also noted that the Canucks are eager to sign Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor to contract extensions. The pair were acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday and are eligible for unrestricted free-agent status on July 1.
THE ATHLETIC: Thomas Drance believes Pettersson is now off the trade block. However, he speculates the Canucks could revisit this in the offseason if Pettersson continues to struggle. His no-movement clause kicks in on July 1.
Drance also reports the Canucks are confident they can re-sign Pettersson and O’Connor and intend to open contract talks as soon as possible.
Following the Canucks moves on Friday, Drance believes their biggest priority is finding another credible first-line or top-six caliber center. He anticipates they’ll be shopping for an upgrade at center leading up to the March 7 trade deadline. Drance also thinks the club’s performance in the coming weeks will determine what they do by the deadline.
THE BUFFALO NEWS: Mike Harrington doubts the Sabres will end their pursuit of Pettersson following the Miller trade. He speculates the Canucks could hang onto him as they push for a playoff berth and look to move him around the draft in June.
Trade rumors linked Sabres center Dylan Cozens and defenseman Bowen Byram to the Canucks as a potential return for Pettersson. Harrington thinks Cozens might jump at the chance to play in Vancouver as it would be closer to his family in Whitehorse, Yukon. Trading BC native Bowen Byram would be more troublesome for the Sabres given his chemistry with defense partner Rasmus Dahlin.
Harrington also believes the Columbus Blue Jackets could be interested in Pettersson.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Pettersson’s performance and that of the Canucks over the remainder of this season will determine if he pops up as an offseason trade candidate.
WHAT NEXT FOR THE RANGERS AFTER ACQUIRING MILLER?
NEW YORK POST: Larry Brooks reports the Rangers are projected to have $16.5 million of trade deadline cap space following Friday’s acquisition of J.T. Miller.
Brooks believes Rangers GM Chris Drury isn’t done making roster changes. He believes those moves will be “of the short-term variety” and will be dictated by the club’s performance before the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament and leading up to the March 7 trade deadline.
FLAMES NOT SHOPPING ANDERSSON, KADRI AND WEEGAR
SPORTSNET: Elliotte Friedman reports the Calgary Flames are jockeying for a playoff spot, meaning they aren’t listening to trade offers for defensemen Rasmus Andersson and MacKenzie Weegar and center Nazem Kadri.
Kadri and Weegar are on long-term contracts but Andersson has a year left on his deal and will be eligible for UFA status at the end of 2025-26. The Flames are telling teams that they’re confident they can re-sign him.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kadri has a full no-movement clause until 2026-27 while Weegar has a full no-trade clause until 2027-28. Both maintained that they want to stay in Calgary and help the retooling Flames become a playoff contender.
Andersson has spent his entire NHL career with the Flames, but he has also said he wants to stay in the Stampede City.
UPDATE ON THE BLUES
THE ATHLETIC: Jeremy Rutherford looked at which members of the St. Louis Blues could be on the move after terminating Brandon Saad’s contract last week.
Blueliners Justin Faulk and Ryan Suter appear to be the most likely trade candidates. Rutherford doesn’t see them moving defenseman Cam Fowler and checking-line center Radek Faksa as he believes their current value to the Blues is higher than whatever return they might fetch in the trade market.
STARS COULD ATTEMPT TO RE-SIGN GRANLUND AND CECI
SPORTSNET: Elliotte Friedman reports Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill intends to speak with forward Mikael Granlund and defenseman Cody Ceci about contract extensions. The duo were acquired from the San Jose Sharks on Saturday and are UFA-eligible in July.
Cannucks need to stick with Skinny Pete if only to sometime in the future hear (regarding a Cannuck’s gail): “Pettersson assisted from Pettersson and Pettersson“
The NHL Cap goes to $95.5M next season and according to PuckPedia the Rangers have only 12 players signed and only $18.7M to sign 10 players. Drury has traded away 25 draft picks since becoming GM and Rangers after going 4 years without a 1st round pick, Drury has traded away 4 former 1st round picks
Filip Chytil, Vitaly Kravtsov, Nils Lundkvist and Kaapo Kakko
Not really the blueprint of success they are now one of the oldest teams in the NHL again and proven they scout and draft poorly and develop players worse.
Drury=Rutherford=Hextall
8787 Sweeney is not far behind! Let Krug and Debrusk walk for nothing as UFA s . Swung and missed on Zadorov and Lindholm so far, and his failure to draft,trade,or sign as a free agent a top 6 center in his 10 years on the job! People say the 2015 draft was not his fault because he had just been promoted! Neeley should take the hit for that !
Maddo305, your post got me curious about the NYR cap situation because, my initial thought was, surely Drury could not have painted himself in quite that bad a situation. Boy, was that the wrong initial impression!
As you point out, they are committed to these 12 players, with 2 new deals kicking in, at a otal cost off the cap of $76,804,500, leaving them with $18,655,000 with which to sign 11 to get them to the 23-man limit: 8F – Panarin ($11,642,857); Zibanejad ($8,500,000); J.T. Miller ($8,000,000); Kreider ($6.500,000); Trochek ($5.625,000); Lafreniere ($7,450,000); Carrick ($1,000,000); and Brodzinski ($787,500) — 3D – Fox ($9,500,000); Borgen ($4,100,000); Schneider ($2,200,000) — and 1 G (Shesterkin $11,500,000).
They have 7 RFAs needing new deals: Adam Edstrom coming off $846,607; Will Cuylle coming off $828,333; Arthur Kaliyev coming off $825,000; Matt Rempe coming off $820,000; LD K’Andre Miller coming off $3,872,000; LD Urho Vaakanainen coming off $1,100,000; and LD Zachary Jones coming off $812,500. That’s a total of $9,104,500 expiring cap.
Then there’s the 4 UFAs to either re-sign or find and pay suitable replacements: Reilly Smith coming off $3,750,000; Jimmy Vesey coming off $800,000; LD Ryan Lindgren coming off $4,500,000; and G Jonathan Quick coming off $1,275,000. That’s a total of $10,325,000 expiring cap.
Even having them re-upped at the same totals would still leave them about $774,000 short. And while most of those RFASs won’t be looking at huge increases based upon their production, they won’t be signing for the same basic totals either, and both Cuylle and K’Andre Miller will be seeking more modest increases. Same applies to some degree to the UFAs. It may be fine to say they just walk away from all 4 but they still need to find suitable replacements which, judging by their prospect pool, likely won’t come from there. So, more deals or UFA-shopping?
It’s going to be interesting watching that unfold on Broadway in the off-season.
I think only one of Miller/Lindgren resigned and the available LD spot will be taking over by Zac Jones next season. That frees up some cap money. Reilly Smith will not be re-signed (hopefully), saving some more cap, and one of Brodzinsky/Vesey/Othmann will take Smith’s place on a permanent basis on the 23-man roster. I hope they can sign Quick for 1 more year. If not Domingue can fit in. None of the RFA’s have excelled except, for Cuylle so I think the raises will be minimal. And of the UFA’s I think only Vesey and Quick stay so I think they will be OK with the cap
Panarin – Trocheck – Lafreniere
Cuylle – JT Miller – Kaliyev
Kreider – Zibanejad – Vesey
Edstrom – Carrick – Rempe
xtra – Brodzinski, Othmann
Vaakininen – Fox
Miller/Lundgren – Schneider
Jones – Bargen
7th d-man 1 of Ruhwedel/Robertson/Harpur/Mackey
Shesterkin – Quick
That’s 23 players that come in a few Million under the cap.
I think that leaves them about $3M under the cap allowing for a few raises.
Hopefully, Zinbanejad and Kreider will remember how to score by next season
Just my thoughts
Makes sense dov
This is kind of misleading. How many picks while Drury is GM where traded away before he took over? How many picks were acquired or swapped? Former 1st rounder Chytil was traded for 2 former 1st rounders. As far as development, there’s 13 players on current roster that were either drafted or acquired as prospects and played their 1st nhl games with NY
Well, bottom line – regardless of who holds the responsibility, Drury is the one who now has to sort it out. And that’s a helluva math problem!
Re; the Oilers and 2nd pairing d/man M.Pettersson
They maybe the Oil are running out of time, the Oil had 28 yr old Marcus Pettersson the Pens, now a Canuck at the Top of there d/man list……😳❓
I Hope Marcus Pettersson wait’s till after the playoffs befor he signs….I heard he always wanted to test the UFA Market July 1st….
Williew
We’ll give you Grzylcyck for free
You might – Dubas won’t
Well 8787 Dubas has pulled off a strong trade. And Wheeler the director of prospects America now ranks the Penguins farm system 20th in the NHL….That is mainly because of Dubas.
While they lack that true number one prospect. A mc David Bedard etc type..their depth is solid now
in 2 plus years their farm system has gone from 31 st to 20th while not in the top 10 big jump because of moves like the Guentzel trade, the Peterson trade and solid drafting
Defense
20 Pickering 19 Brunicke
Forwards
21 Koivunen 22 Ponomarev 19 Tanner Howe
20 Mc Groarty 22 Broz 25 Bemstrom
19 Lucsis playing well Ncaa
Goalies
20 Musharov Larsson 24
Mc Groarty Koivunen Howe Brunicke will stick in training camp
Broz Ponomarev
Musharov make no mistake is the goalie of the future no doubt best in the system
you add a couple of these strong youngsters next year and you have $29 million in cap space make a few good moves right there.. we are a playoff team next year
There is a strong probability that Petterssons struggles this season, besides Miller, stems from the tendinitis problem, either directly(he still has it) or from lack of training last summer and thereby not getting the training needed during the summer(he even alluded to it himself at training camp saying had and his trainer had been working around the injury during the summer). So Im not sure that he will get back to form just because Miller is gone, it might just take a summer of full training. This leaves Vancouver in kind of a pickle if he doesnt improve with Miller gone, at least no a lot. Of course I could be wrong and the problem with lack of training might just be wearing off as the sseason goes as did Miller.
Looks like the 4 nations tourney is almost acting like a 2 nd trade deadline this season, I like it! Miller returns to the Rangers but they still get spanked, Ranger fans have got to be exhausted with their team and Drurys moves. Most Jet fans agree we need to fill the 2C and get bigger and stronger on the blueline yet all they do is continue to put up victories. Enjoying the ride as long as we can, hopefully a different playoff result happens. Things are shaping up to be a thrilling offseason with huge cap increases now announced, players that are becoming free agents the next few years are gonna get bank! No football today so finally a heavy NHL schedule, enjoy the games everyone.
If Canucks mess the bed the next few games and slip too far behind, I can absolutely see Canucks throwing in the towel on Elias Pettersson before his NMC kicks in
Cozens is from Yukon but he spent most of his teen years in various hockey academy’s in Vancouver.
One notably coached by current Canucks Asst Coach Jaro Svejkovsky
Not sure where you’re pulling your information from, but NY has not gone 4 years without a 1st round draft pick?
2024 Emerson
2023 Perreault.
2022 none
2021 Othmann
2020 Laffrienere
There are only 11 teams younger than the Rangers as of today.
Basically, middle of the pack.
They have turned over a lot of picks and younger players. The only real loss was Kakko.
Kravstov was a total bust.
Lundkvist was a right handed d-man behind Fox, Trouba and Schneider. Trading him was the right call. Or he’d be stuck in the AHL.
Chytil shows flashes of brilliance, but between injuries and inconsistency, it wasn’t a bad trade. He’s 25 and has yet to show he can stay healthy or perform beyond his best 45 point season 2 years ago. He’s basically a 20+ point guy that can’t stay healthy. If he can’t realize his potential at 25, when will he?
They still have plenty of young players in the system. Berard, Othmann, Sykora, Perreault, Emerson, Forscetue, etc. the cupboards are far from bare.
No argument here about their ability to draft and develop forwards. They have more success with defenseman and goaltenders. Not sure why forwards are a problem?
I’m not overly concerned with their cap situation next year. I’d imagine one or both of Miller and Lindgren are gone, Smith gone.
Outside of Cullye , none of their rfa’s are in for big paydays. It won’t be easy, but I still think they’ll manage just fine.
C O your right on the mark / and with them possibly moving 1 big name ( Kreider or Zib ) they still will be in on signing a big time FA
Stampede city. Can’t wait to see to Rantanen and Cozens in a hat. Might as well add Makar to it.
Wonder what it would cost to get Faulk as rental. Maybe a good fit for Reilly??
Jeff,
Offer Army a 2nd rounder and I think you have a deal.
ps don’t ask Army to hold on to salary
IP