NHL Rumor Mill – April 14, 2026
Check out the latest on the Red Wings, Islanders, and Kraken in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
MLIVE.COM: Ansar Khan looked at what led to the latest collapse by the Detroit Red Wings, and how they can remedy it.
Topping the list is the Red Wings’ need for an elite scoring forward. Khan believes they should be aggressive in this summer’s trade market. He suggested pursuing a center such as Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues or Elias Pettersson of the Vancouver Canucks.
Should the Detroit Red Wings pursue St. Louis Blues center Robert Thomas? (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Red Wings have over $30 million in projected salary-cap space for 2026-27 with 18 active roster players under contract. Defenseman Simon Edvinsson is their only core player in need of a contract. He’s a restricted free agent coming off his entry-level contract.
The Wings have sufficient cap space to re-sign Edvinsson, add a scoring forward, and still have enough to fill out the roster.
Thomas and Pettersson were linked to the Red Wings in the rumor mill before last month’s trade deadline. Of the two, Thomas would be the more desirable. He’s been a more reliable point producer over the past three seasons and carries a more affordable contract than Pettersson. However, Pettersson might be more willing to accept a trade given his struggles in Vancouver.
Khan believes they must upgrade their bottom-six forwards. He also recommends finding a reliable second-line center.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Acquiring a first-line center such as Thomas could resolve that need for a second-line center. They could drop team captain Dylan Larkin into that role.
DETROIT HOCKEY NOW: Bob Duff believes the Red Wings must move away from signing free agent veterans as they’ve done in recent years. He feels they should give more playing time to their promising youngsters.
Duff believes goaltender Sebastian Cossa, defenseman William Wallinder, and forward Amadeus Lombardi are locks to start next season with the Red Wings because they are no longer exempt from waivers after this season. He would also like to see youngsters such as Axel Sandin-Pellikka, Emmitt Finnie, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Nate Danielson, and Curtis Mazur given more opportunities.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Those decisions rest with Red Wings management. Whether it’ll be Steve Yzerman or someone else remains to be seen.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Adam Proteau offered up his post-mortem of the New York Islanders following their recent elimination from playoff contention.
Proteau singled out their popgun offense as the main factor that prevented them from clinching a postseason berth. They have the eighth-fewest goals-per-game average (2.81), with only three players (Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat, and rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer) having more than 42 points.
The Islanders have $14.3 million in projected cap space for next season. If GM Mathieu Darche re-signs captain Anders Lee, they won’t have enough to be major players in the free-agent market. Proteau believes Darche will have to make trades to improve their scoring punch for next season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Proteau pointed out that the Islanders have promising young talent in their system, and they have their own first-round picks in each of the next three drafts. While that bodes well for their long-term future, Darche might have to use some of those picks and prospects as trade chips to address his club’s more immediate needs.
THE SEATTLE TIMES: Matt Calkins believes the Kraken have little choice but to stage a rebuild. Five years after their inaugural season, they reached the playoffs in their second season, but have struggled to return to the postseason.
Meanwhile, the Kraken are being overshadowed by the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, the improving Seattle Mariners, and the possibility of a returning NBA franchise. The Kraken lack a star player, and they’re among the NHL’s lowest-scoring teams, which forces them to play a less-exciting defensive style.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Calkins noted that Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke has called for an organization-wide audit while Ron Francis recently stepped down as team president.
General manager Jason Botterill has only been in his job for a year, but he was Francis’ right-hand man from 2021 until last year. He was also the Buffalo Sabres GM from 2017 to 2020, so he has plenty of experience. It remains to be seen if Leiweke will entrust Botterill with a rebuild.
The Kraken aren’t a horrible team. In fact, their defensive style kept them in the playoff hunt for most of this season before fading down the stretch. Like the Islanders, their lack of scoring punch is their Achilles heel.
With over $28.7 million in projected cap space for 2026-27 and 21 active roster players signed, the Kraken have the room to add to their roster. They could re-sign recently-acquired winger Bobby McMann to a new contract, but they’ll still need to shop around to find more scoring.
The lack of depth in the free-agent market could see them turn to the trade market for an offensive star. They have the trade capital to get it done, with two first-round picks in the next two drafts and a prospect pipeline ranked seventh overall by The Athletic. There’s enough there to use some for trade chips without sacrificing most of their future.
Elias Pettersson and “elite scoring” don’t belong in the same sentence.
11.6 is a lot to pay for a 50 point scorer that has no speed, doesn’t check, doesn’t hit and looks completely uninterested in the moments he’s not sulking.
Bad move for Detroit.
Would he be a decent value at $5.8M, though? I think that’s the relevant question for most teams.
Nobody should be paying the 11.6.
Exactly, but a 1st and a very good prospect and an NHLer(salary) might be a bit of an over pay. It’s a gamble.
Butbwhybwouldnabrebuildntrsm eat 1/2, unless you were going to get an unreal return.
Even at $5.8m, I wouldn’t touch Pettersson; he’s giving you essentially Patrick Kane numbers and play at twice the cost, albeit younger and with a faint hope that there is still upside.
Everyone has their opinions, but really get annoyed by just ‘he sucks or he is a superstar’ without actual backup.
IA:
Elias Pettersson (forward, Vancouver Canucks) is recognized for an elite, often overlooked two-way game, acting as a key defensive contributor through high-volume blocked shots, skilled stick work to interrupt passes, and consistent net-front battles. He frequently takes on difficult matchups and has earned praise for his effectiveness on the penalty kill.
He showed up after signing his contract out of shape, pissed off teammates, apparently may be a bit of a nut case. Not the first
He is not bad defensively. Needs to get offence going though. As a Canuck fan, it doesnt help that their team sucks. 506 pts in 543 games is NOT bad, not worth 11mil maybe, but….
PLUS you dont get 102 pts by accident. Put him on a good team and the background is there for him to be good 2 way player with 80-100 pts. Is that worth 11?
Last 4 yrs ranked #41in pts. (last 2 really crappy years)
Ranked around D Larkin, N Hischier, M Tkachuk, Ovechkin. huh? who would have thunk? https://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/seasons/last-4-nhl-seasons-players-stats.html
Management screwed it up terribly, trading Horvat, Miller (both for underwhelming returns) and keeping EP. Plus making the issue with Miller and EP public, screwed up what they would get for a return. All Mgmt should be turfed.
Pettersson has had two down years on a down team, but he’s just below a pt per game player for his career. He’s slightly below DeBrincat’s numbers, but if you remove this season for both, they’re about the same. I agree he’s definitely not worth $11m, but I bet a swede team up with Raymond and someone like Nygard would put up good numbers.
I don’t think he’s a bankable “star,” but he’s still a top tier player and adding him to the current line up in a trade similar to what brought over DeBrincat would be worth it. I’d prefer that then giving up the farm to get Thomas. The Wings may not need a “star” if their team is deeper with players who can all rise to that level on any given night.
Habs draw Tampa in the first round, I like the matchup.
Habs won the season series with them and served notice that them can beat them in the alley and on the ice.
Cooper tried the rough-housing since the Habs out-skated them previously and got a surprise push-back.
It’s the kind of series a young team needs to see that they have arrived to the dance and my bet is Tampa was hoping to avoid this matchup.
Habsfan30
I dont know who wins…but give me 7 games like that one last week and I will be happy.
add in the Martin St.Louis connection, aging superstars vs a few exploding into stardom… it is shaping up to be a series that has it all.
For the first time, Yzerman heads into the off-season not having to worry about hanging onto draft picks. He also has more prospects that are available to move. He’ll have to overpay, but so will any team that wants to land elite players. Something else to consider, with a full season of Justin Faulk on the roster, it’s not a stretch to think Detroit would improve by 8-10 points. That gets them into the playoffs easily. Detroit doesn’t have to revamp their entire roster and certainly doesn’t need to panic.
Good call Ed, but the competition in the Atlantic has improved as well. Y will have to find more 5 on 5 scoring and shore up the bottom 6. Resigning Peron and JVR is OK, but other new faces will be needed as well. With the arms-race in mind, more will have to be done to surpass the others.
Agree, Johnny Z.
Furthermore, NO one can truthfully say they foresaw these more monumental of several collapses that took top teams right out out of playoff contention in the space of one season:
Winnipeg 116 to 82
Washington 111 to 93
Toronto 108 to 78
Florida 98 to 82
In order for Detroit to finally get it it right and back into contention, some team in the current top 8 will therefore have to experience that sort of turnaround. If I had to pick one, on the basis of aging and prospect pool, that would be Pittsburgh … again. They certainly defied the odds this season … can they do it again?
And I should add, we could have a clearer picture following whatever summer moves are made … not only by Pittsburgh and Detroit, but other teams who just got in – such as Boston and Ottawa – and teams like Washington, Columbus and Islanders who didn’t miss by much.
And who knows, those totally unexpected
Winnipeg, Florida and Toronto collapses could be repeated by others … both East and West.
George, I agree with you except on Pittsburgh falling. Dubas has an amazing amount of draft capital and cap space that can be converted to a star player or players next year! And any star player seeing that and their climb this year would rather waive for the Penns and Sid than Detroit.
That will only grow when they beat the Flyers in the 1st round!
Off topic. With playoffs set, I’m looking at draft order. Shocked Florida won last night, but it will still take a miracle for them to fall out of top 10, which would mean losing their protected 1st rd pick. Tkachuk hasn’t played since last Monday. Left team for birth of child but haven seen any news of a birth or expected due date. Apparently it was big news when he announced she was even pregnant. I’m sure there’s valid reason he’s not playing. Just like they had valid reason to put off surgery all summer to start season on ltir. Just bad luck that soooo many guys out of lineup. Current roster on puckpedia shows 34 players. Is that a record? Feel like they’ve made a mockery of rules over last few seasons.
Ottawa got in trouble for less.
That’s for sure Slick62. Especially when you consider that the player involved in the Ottawa screw-up re “no trade” clause, Dadonov, was a notoriously inconsistent talent at best … who was eventually dealt anyway – 3 more times to Montreal, Dallas and New Jersey.
The ONLY reason Ottawa suffered the severe penalty of losing a 1st round pick was because Vegas, the darling of the Commish, had tried to deal him to bottom-feeding Anaheim in exchange for John Moore and Ryan Kesler at the NHL trade deadline on March 21, 2022, in order to alleviate salary cap constraints caused by the acquisition of Jack Eichel.
They eventually dealt him to Montreal for Shea Weber … again solely to diddle the salary cap – which the Commish ostensibly introduced to promote parity, and probably without proper analysis to determine possible loop-holes. Which the likes of Vegas didn’t take long to discover and utilize.
One NHL analyst proposes a league-changing move that could alter the face of two teams.
Dylan Larkin (5x$8.7M) to the Devils
Nico Hischier (sign and trade, 8x$11.5M) to the Red Wings
Somebody adds, both teams shake up their leadership groups and core after repeated disappointments. Wings get 2.5 years younger, Devils save ~$3M in cap.
I don’t see Larkin waiving, and Detroit still needs a 2nd line C. But this is definitely an interesting move!
Jack Hughes is the problem the Devils have. He misses 1/4 of each season.
Swapping Larkin for Nico is not helping them if Hughes still misses 20 games next season.
I dont know if you need to bubble wrap him but it’s now 6 out of 7 seasons.
Pkg him and Luke up and send them over to Guerin in Minny is where my head may be at.
Your best players have to be the ones you can count on.
I have seen more than one post about Ottawa swapping Brady for Hischier.
But I do not see a reason to shake up the Sens THAT much when they are playing better together all the time…
Probably people posting scenarios just to have something post.
Yeah, I agree theSaint. In fact when that came up a few days back my reaction was, with Ottawa set at C with Stutzle, Cozens and Pinto – and Halliday possibly full-time as the 4th line C, why would Ottawa deal a top LW for another C … and then be required to go searching for a top LW replacement?
Makes absolutely NO sense.
I believe that that trade is bad for Wings. Larkin while older has better numbers and makes less, so why would Wings make this trade, just to mix up chemistry?
Yes, I agree! It would be better to keep Larkin and offer a boatload of assets for Hirschier!
2027 and 28 1sts, Danielson, Postava, Compher at 1/2 salary For Nico signed to 8 x 11.5
I doubt Matt Calkins has been to a Kraken game all year. The reality the rebuild has been going on years. 2026 will be the third year in a row they will be picking in the top 10.