NHL Rumor Mill – January 22, 2026
Could Auston Matthews consider moving on if the Leafs miss the playoffs? Would Dougie Hamilton be a good fit in Toronto? Could the Penguins attempt to acquire Jason Robertson and re-sign Evgeni Malkin? Will the Blues trade Robert Thomas? Check out the latest in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
THE LATEST MAPLE LEAFS SPECULATION
TORONTO STAR: Nick Kypreos wonders what Auston Matthews will be thinking if the Maple Leafs miss the playoffs this season. The 28-year-old superstar center has two seasons left on his contract.
Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews (NHL Images).
Kypreos believes Matthews will need assurances that the Maple Leafs are capable of building a contender. He pointed out that other elite NHL players, such as Matthew Tkachuk in 2022 and Quinn Hughes last month, forced a change of scenery, and wondered if Matthews might do the same at some point if the Leafs are no longer playoff contenders going forward.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Matthews isn’t going anywhere this season, but it’s fair to raise the question about his future if the Maple Leafs missed the playoffs. Even if they squeak in but endure another early elimination, that will spark speculation about whether he’ll finish his contract in Toronto.
Kypreos also addressed whether Dougie Hamilton would be a good fit with the Maple Leafs. The 32-year-old New Jersey Devils defenseman has surfaced in the rumor mill after his agent recently indicated that the blueliner was willing to be flexible with his 10-team trade list.
“Aside from the high acquisition cost and a few warts in his game, the Devils defenseman does check many boxes the Leafs desperately need on their blueline for a playoff push.”
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Warts aside, the acquisition cost is the biggest stumbling block in the path of a trade here. Hamilton carries an average annual value of $9 million through 2027-28. It’ll likely take a sweetener to convince the Devils to retain any part of that cap hit.
The Leafs have limited cap room and trade capital. They could face difficulty trying to outbid other clubs.
Meanwhile, Kevin McGran noted the logjam in the Maple Leafs crease with Anthony Stolarz due to return soon from injury, joining Joseph Woll and Dennis Hildeby.
McGran believes Hildeby will likely return to their AHL affiliate because he’s waiver-exempt. If Stolarz regains last season’s solid form, the Leafs could be tempted to use one of those three goalies as a trade chip to shore up the defense.
COULD THE PENGUINS PURSUE JASON ROBERTSON AND RE-SIGN EVGENI MALKIN?
THE ATHLETIC: Josh Yohe speculated recently that the Pittsburgh Penguins might go the trade route this summer to bring in a young NHL star forward.
He believes the Penguins love Jason Robertson. The 26-year-old Dallas Stars winger is slated to become a restricted free agent with arbitration rights on July 1. He will draw lots of attention if the Stars make him available in the trade market, suggesting the Penguins have the salary-cap space and the tradeable assets to make a solid pitch. He also doesn’t see them attempting to go the offer sheet route as the compensation required would be over the top.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas will probably be in touch with the Stars if they decide to trade Robertson this summer. And yes, it would be in the summer because the Stars are all-in this season to win the Stanley Cup, and that includes having Robertson in the lineup.
The Penguins would be well-situated to outbid most teams. The question is whether Robertson would be committed to joining them on a long-term deal. He could opt to go to arbitration, sign a one-year deal, and test the unrestricted free-agent market in 2027. That would crush his value in next season’s trade market, making him enticing only to Stanley Cup contenders seeking a postseason rental.
Yohe also reported that long-time Penguins star Evgeni Malkin is willing to sign a one-year contract and accept a pay cut to stay in Pittsburgh.
Malkin, 39, realizes this could be his final NHL season, but he’s not ready to retire yet. He’s not interested in playing for another team.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Dubas indicated last fall that he would meet with the Malkin camp during the upcoming Olympic break to discuss his future. Despite missing 15 games with an upper-body injury, he’s third among their scorers this season with 37 points in 34 games. It won’t be surprising if he ends up with that one-year deal at a reduced price.
COULD THE BLUES PEDDLE ROBERT THOMAS?
THE ATHLETIC: With St. Louis Blues center Robert Thomas surfacing in recent trade speculation, Jeremy Rutherford and Shayna Goldman looked at his potential value in the trade market.
Thomas, 26, is in the third season of an eight-year contract with a AAV of $8.125 million. Rutherford and Goldman believe he’ll fetch more than the asking price of a comparable center on an expiring contract.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: You’ll need a subscription to see their detailed breakdown of comparables, cost, and whether it would be worthwhile for the Blues to trade Thomas. In my opinion, he could fetch three assets containing at least a first-round pick and a top prospect or a promising young NHL player.
with Luke Hughes out for (possibly) the rest of the season (dislocated shoulder) I don’t think they will trade Hamilton, who is needed to run their PP. Nemec isn’t ready to take that over.
the whole point of trading Hamilton was to free up cap space, potentially to sign Quinn Hughes after next season. For this season, Luke Hughes is now on LTIR and the team can exceed the cap by up to $9M, so the need to trade Hamilton’s cap hit is lessened.
More likely that Hamilton is traded in the off-season, maybe by the draft
don’t see DAL trading Robertson by this deadline, as he is key for them going far in the playoffs. more likely he also gets traded around the draft
RE:Dougie….. with the Devils not looking like a contender why not let Nemec run the PP and move Hamilton? have that extra cap space ready
I think this is correct, unless Dougie demands a trade because he is “insulted”. Dougie has 6 points in his last 5 games, amazing what a motivator that benching was. He is owed a $7.4 million bonus on 7/1, after that his salary for the next 2 years is 6.3 million.
There was also an interesting article over at Puckpedia. It was about the option the agent might pursue, because after the benching he said he had some creative ideas. Basically, the Devs trade Dougie, new team gets him for this year’s playoff run. Pay bonus and then mutually agree to terminate contract. Dougie would get more then $6.3 million over next two years and $9 million cap disappears. Everyone happy. Although I posit it would take an owner to sign off on that bonus.
“mutually agree to terminate contract. Dougie would get more then $6.3 million over next two years and $9 million cap disappears.”
“Mutually agree to terminate contract” means Dougie gets ZIP. Maybe they draw up a new contract for $6.3M x 2?????
Luke is not on season ending LTIR, wo they only get a little over $3M in cap relief.
Dougie would get more on the open market for the next two years, he will not get “zip”.
Yes, well, they have to draw up another contract. As I said above. It is not automatic upon termination as you imply.
My understanding with the new LTIR rules is that they can only exceed the cap by Hughes full amount if they put him on season ending LTIR (which includes playoffs).
Devils are only 4 pts out of the last WildCard so will be interesting to see if they truly shut down Hughes for the rest of the year.
foleyd, on the surface, while being just 4 points back of a WC slot doesn’t seem like much of a hurdle, it’s very different being 4 back at, say, the 25-30 game mark and upwards of 10 games into the second half, and with 3 teams to climb over to get there.
Of those 3 teams, Boston – the current 8th spot holder – is one of the hottest teams in the league over their past 10 at 8-2-0, Toronto is 1 point back and Philadelphia 3 and all are playing at a higher % pace than NJ, while right behind there with them is Washington, and just back of them Florid a and Ottawa 5 back of Boston and each with a game in hand on NJ and both playing at a higher % pace.
And NJ has to rise above all without their best D.
Unless the bottom really falls out on the Leafs, I don’t see them trading Matthews anytime soon. No chance of them getting anywhere near equal value for him and they’re certainly not ready for a rebuild yet. They took a hit with Marners departure and they wouldn’t want to set themselves back any further at this point. Maybe the summer of 2027 if they’ve fallen further or are trading water and it doesn’t seem as if he’ll re-sign
Agree re Matthews Howard. First of all, with a NMC he isn’t going anywhere he doesn’t want to be at this stage of his career, and as far as potentially likely (and contender) destinations go, that $13,250,000 per cap hit is a major stumbling block, even with a rising cap limit.
How would a team in that category absorb it without the Leafs taking back a significant contract … which a contending team may not be prepared to relinquish if it would end up weakening them in another area. Nor would the Leafs want expensive crap.
And as Lyle points out, “the Leafs have limited cap room and trade capital … (and) could face difficulty trying to outbid other clubs.”
For example, depending upon deferrals and past trade conditions, they won’t be picking in the 1st round until 2028-29. In the meantime, they have 12 players 30 and up: Domi 30, Stecher, Benning, Rielly and Laughton 31, Stolarz, Mermis and McCabe 32, Ekman-Larsson and Jarnkrok 34, Tavares 35 and Tanev 36.
Some are obviously very tradeable, but I don’t see any who will garner them anything substantial.
So, bottom line, while I agree with Lyle’s post above that Matthews isn’t going anywhere, the very real possibility exists that they don’t make the playoffs unless they make some sort of roster-changing move to compensate for the lost Marner points, because who they’ve brought in since his loss are not about to do it.
As I posted yesterday, at or near their current pace the top 4 teams in the Eastern Conference look to be Tampa (110), Carolina (110), Detroit (105) and Montreal (103). The following 4 spots – down to the second WC slot – look to be grabbed by NYI (99), Buffalo (99), Pittsburgh (97) and Boston (95).
All that is based upon those teams finishing off their schedules at or near their current % pace – which is not out of the question since they’ve been established over well more than half the season.
Barring sudden increases in their % pace, which likely would only occur through NOTABLE trades, none among Toronto (94), Philadelphia (92), Washington & New Jersey (both 89), and Florida (91) will make it (although Florida could be an exception with Tkachuk and a couple of their other injuries back in the fold).
Gents, the Leafs may well not get fair market value moving Matthews.
But what if he wants out? I’m not trolling Leaf fans here, but were I Matthews I would at least be asking myself what the future holds in Toronto: What does the immediate future look like? How likely is a serious playoff run? How do we fix things?
I’m not Matthews but I might be getting tired of being the new point person for the tea’s criticism. I bet he’s checked in to see how Marner is doing …
Pittsburgh would have the cap space and assets to get a deal done. Just sayin.
All bets are off if he actually wants out, but I don’t see it, whatever was wrong is gone and he seems to have his groove back and looks happy again.
I would buy and sell if i was them. I was all in on trying to sign Patrick Kane if he was available and am all in on Panarin, with an extension. They have a 2 year window and then they can rebuid til the cows come home.
Deal for Panarin with heavy salary retained for one year, if it costs you Cowan so be it.. His celing seems to be a 3rd line energy winger.
There are no big name UFAS coming so get what you can now.
Move McMann for picks- if wants to come back and sign as a UFA in the summer re assess in summer.
If you can get Hamilton with salary retained and ship out Stolarz and a Joshua do that too
Laughton seems to be that guy on this roster, so much heart..but come deadline time if you are out- you deal him too and tell him you would love to have him back July 1.
Easier said that done but they have options…window is now-
As for Thomas, the Blues would be crazy to trade him. His numbers are down this year because his team has been struggling. He’s a legitimate number 1 center at an affordable cap hit. They may get good picks and prospects but not a true number 1 center who can step in to replace him. Unless they’re ready to rebuild which I doubt they are.
Howard I agree with you on Thomas. Boston lost Bergeron and Krecji the same year and with all due respect to Lindholm and Zacha they are not 1st line centers. It isn t easy replacing a first line center,that young on a good contract!
HF30: From yesterday I saw your kind words re where I have been, too late to acknowledge then.
I went to the Temple of Apollo, in Delphi – and yes I am serious.
Perhaps I was caught up in the moment but I’m sure I heard in the winds and the whispers there very good news for Habs fans.
Bruins fans, a message from a different location: Abandon Hope.
😁😜🤣
I kind of wonder if Kent Hughes wouldn’t try to put a pitch together for Robertson. He’s the guy I wanted MTL to draft in 2017@ 25th overall.
Honestly though Kent Hughes could go off the board at the deadline and acquire Andre Burakovsky from Chicago. He’s a 2 time cup champ, having a really good season. Those 2 cups: Washington, 2018, Colorado, 2022. He’d look great with Suzuki and Caufield.
Craig, Caufield and Slafkovsky play left wing on the Canadiens’ top-two lines. Robertson isn’t a fit. As for Burakovsky, it’s unlikely he’s available because he’s a good fit alongside Bedard.
I’m a Tampa fan. The Bolts are doing well this season. 25 non-goalies have played serious minutes, and three more have seen a game or 2.
They are hard against the cap, and probably can’t make a serious move. But quality depth seems to be a dynamic all it’s own. This may be a year, with an intense few weeks after the Olympics leading to the intensity of the playoffs, when depth is important — “that guy” that you break the bank for is usually a mistake if the team doesn’t get to at least the conference finals. Maybe the Leafs should bring in a good grinding fourth line. I don’t want to face a Matthews in the finals where superstars often shine, but so far haven’t had to.
Richard
I think your bolts are cream of the crop in the east. God help the rest of us when they get healthy
Mrbruin4,The bolts may be the cream of the crop in the east, but I feel Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota out west are better
Colorado … maybe … but the gap is closing, and that’s with Tampa’s schedule including far more games against tougher Eastern Conference teams all of which, but one, is playing .500 or better. Unlike the West where Colorado plays the bulk of its games and where there are 5 teams under .500 and one of those under .400!
Dallas and Minnesota? Not even close to Tampa who will only get that much stronger with the return of Hedman and their other injured players.