NHL Rumor Mill – March 25, 2026
The Penguins have no intention of trading Erik Karlsson, plus the latest on Rangers center Mika Zibanejad in today’s NHL Rumor Mill
THE PENGUINS WON’T PEDDLE ERIK KARLSSON THIS SUMMER
TSN: Pierre LeBrun reports Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas has no intention of trading Erik Karlsson this summer.
Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson (NHL Images).
The 35-year-old defenseman has one year remaining on his contract. The Penguins are carrying $10 million of his $11.5 million annual cap hit. He is owed a $6 million signing bonus on July 1, and just $1.5 million in remaining salary after that.
That’s partly why Karlsson recently surfaced in trade rumors regarding the Penguins’ offseason plans. His improved performance this season has LeBrun believing there would be clubs interested in the puck-moving rearguard this summer.
However, Dubas told LeBrun that he’s not happy that Karlsson’s name is out there. He praised the veteran blueliner’s performance this season, saying the Penguins consider him part of their retooling process, and they don’t want to trade him this summer.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It’s understandable why Dubas wants to retain Karlsson. His performance this season is among the reasons the Penguins have exceeded expectations and are currently jockeying for a playoff berth in the Metropolitan Division.
If Karlsson’s play drops off next season, they can try to shop him at next year’s trade deadline or let him depart as an unrestricted free agent next summer.
COULD THE RANGERS ATTEMPT TO MOVE MIKA ZIBANEJAD THIS SUMMER?
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Adam Proteau noted that Mika Zibanejad was honored by the New York Rangers earlier this week for playing in his 1,000th career NHL regular-season game. He wonders if the 32-year-old center’s next milestone will be celebrated with another team.
Proteau pointed out that Zibanejad has improved this season, with 30 goals and 67 points in 70 games. He’s still an effective top-six forward, but in the second half of his career, he’ll have to be traded from the rebuilding Rangers if he hopes to win the Stanley Cup.
Rangers GM Chris Drury didn’t attempt to move Zibanejad at the March trade deadline. However, Proteau suspects he could revisit that matter during the offseason. He has a full no-movement clause, but perhaps he’d consider waiving it to join a Stanley Cup contender.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Zibanejad is signed through 2029-30 with an average annual value of $8.5 million. His full NMC remains until that season, when it becomes a no-movement clause for waivers and a modified no-trade clause.
The market for Zibanejad probably wasn’t that good last summer because of his age, the drop-off in his production, and the remaining years of his contract. However, his turnaround this season on a much-worse Rangers club might improve his value now.
It was rumored last year that Drury wanted to move Zibanejad, but he refused to waive his NMC. Maybe it’ll be different this year after the Rangers failed to bounce back from last season’s disappointing performance.
I’m sure the Bruins lost on purpose last night. Their worried more about Toronto sneaking into the top 5 and losing their pick from Toronto than making the playoffs this year.
Players don’t care about that
A list of management teams who infuriates fans the most (in no particular order): NYR, Leafs, Nucks, Wings, Oil, Kings and maybe the Sens too…who else is there?
Some you can seriously question their actions or lack of, evaluation of players, both in the system or not and my favorite, asset management.
Ten games left. Thank god.
Pretty sure almost every team the fans are infuriated with, very few either have a perfect record or fans that don’t care enough to be upset.
Anaheim- Fans probably upset they took Trouba at full cost and traded Zegras.
Boston- Don’t have a number 1 centre and haven’t addressed.
Buffalo- On the tipping point of being happy for a short period of time, probably won’t last.
Calgary- rebuilding, upset they don’t have more.
Carolina- couldn’t resign Rantanen, don’t have a game breaker, needed one for a long time.
Chicago- it’s Chicago
Colorado- fans are probably happy currently. Some probably upset over Girard for Kulak.
Columbus- Chinakov
Dallas- will they be able to get to the finals without changing much of their team.
Detroit- fans begging for Stevie Y to do something bigger.
Edmonton- We all know.
Florida- not making the playoffs
LA- signing Ceci and Dumoulin
Minnesota – if these fans aren’t happy, then I don’t know what to do for them.
Montreal- fans should be happy but need to tread carefully.
Nashville- old, signed long term.
NJ- Seem to fall apart every year.
NYI- probably upset over Dobson
NYR- well.
Ottawa- will they ever live up to their potential?
Philly- Can they get a goalie? What do they do now?
Pittsburgh- happy for the moment, probably not a long term thing.
SJ- happy but miss the playoffs
Seattle- can they ever get the team they need to make the playoffs.
St.Louis- rebuild or not?
Tampa- happy after a few years of wtf is going on
Toronto- uh.
Utah- Josh Doan is missed.
Vancouver- may never be happy again.
Vegas- nervous on what the future looks like.
Washington- Sort of happy? What do they have for the future, a few decent players but it’ll be scary soon.
Winnipeg- what happened?
Pretty good, Travis.
Travis, that is a well-thought-out synopsis of the frustrations/concerns of the various fan bases.
As an Ottawa follower I’d address your comment (“will they ever live up to their potential”) in much the same way I addressed some of the Bruins’ fans concerns in the Headlines thread – i..e., despite actually raising their % pace substantially over the second half (so far) as compared to their first half, they still find themselves in a playoff dog-fight simply because so many of the previous bottom dwellers in the Eastern Conference have become extremely competitive.
Toronto is another adversely affected by that increased competitive nature of the East due primarily to an inability to counter the loss of a 100-point F, combined with the long-term loss of one of their primary defensive D-men. Where Ottawa is concerned, after being on the outside looking in for 8 seasons, they actually started to reach their potential last season when they broke through with a strong 96 points, just 2 b/o the eventual Cup winner. This season, a combination of the increased competitiveness and a sudden unexpected problem with the goaltending (a “head” issue affecting their # 1 long-term and the collapse of their anticipated back-up from within the organization – Merilainen), had them scrambling around the nether regions for most of the season. Now, with Ullmark seemingly back in form, and the late-season veteran signee, Reimer, giving them very good back-up, they’re very much back in the mix.
But they also have 12 games left with mostly highly-placed teams so no one had better take anything for granted. This will go right to the wire.
Nice take and you have a point. Any fan base could have a beef but I’m more talking about teams that are underperforming or under achieving when they shouldn’t by now or just simply should be better but aren’t and you can look directly at management as the root cause.
Like Vancouver is a great example. One that I think has all the potential to cause the franchise to move. A team that no matter where you look, it’s bad…aka being Leafy AF.
I guess when you split up the league in thirds, tops being cup contenders/playoff bound, middle being transitional or progressing teams and finally the last third, lost in the wilderness teams. Usually teams that are in the top third stay there for extended periods. To see one, two or more top teams drop out to the bottom third in a season is wild, IMO. Vancouver did it not too long ago, NYR, did it, Winnipeg did it, in case you haven’t heard, Leafs did it, Florida (easy when half your team is injured) gone through it but I’m betting it being an off year for them but as for the rest, they have poor foundations build by incompetence.