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Insider Trading: Gallagher's future in Montreal has taken a sudden turn – TSN

Published

4 years ago

October 13, 2020

TSN Hockey Insiders Darren Dreger and Frank Seravalli join host Gino Reda to discuss whether or not Brendan Gallagher could be dealt, what the remaining free agent market looks like and how the Tampa Bay Lightning plan to navigate their way out of a cap crunch.

Is Gallagher’s future as a Montreal Canadien in doubt?

Montreal has thrown out over $55 million this off-season to improve up front. What does this mean for Brendan Gallagher?

Dreger: Veteran Brendan Gallagher is going into the final year of his contract with the Montreal Canadiens. Now up until, I would say, a month ago, if you would have questioned the future of Gallagher in Montreal, I would have said “No, no, no, he’s a long-term fit and probably the next captain for the Canadiens.” But contract negotiations haven’t gone as expected. Up until recently, there was good dialogue. But as you mention, the Canadiens acquired Josh Anderson. They signed Tyler Toffoli and all of a sudden now, Marc Bergevin is playing hardball with Brendan Gallagher’s camp. Now, granted he is going into the final year of his contract so Bergevin does have the better part of that year to figure it out. But I can tell you guys this has sparked trade speculation. Some openly and fairly wondering whether or now Bergevin now would consider trading Brendan Gallagher or use his services for the remainder of the year. No matter how it shakes down, there will be no shortage of teams or interest if Gallagher hits the market.

Seravalli: And you can put the Vancouver Canucks right at the very top of that list of teams that would be interested in Brendan Gallagher if and when he makes it to the block in Montreal to bring Gallagher home. Of course, he makes his off-season home there, starred for the Vancouver Giants, and more than that, the Canucks at large are interested in a winger. General manager Jim Benning after acquiring defenceman Nate Schmidt on Monday night from the Vegas Golden Knights is certainly perusing the market for both trade targets and also the free agent market to try and figure out how he can add some punch to his team on the wing. I think it all depends on cost. I think the Canucks, at this point, have some ability to move out some contracts, whether or not it’s Loui Eriksson or Brandon Sutter, who knows what happens with Jake Virtanen the restricted free agent. So, Jim Benning has some flexibility now and it all is going to depend on cost. And so they could go back in a budget item with a guy like Josh Leivo, but moving forward I think Benning would like to make one more splash if he can this off-season.

Where does the free agent market stand now?

About half of the players on TSN’s Top 100 pre-Free Agent Frenzy list are still available. We knew the flat cap was going to be a problem, but are things even tighter than we initially thought?

Dreger: It feels that way. Certainly, to those player agents who are still in the mud and likewise their clients, the players. I mean you’re right, most of the big-name guys are now off the board but I’ll give you an example how paralyzed the system is right now. I can give an example of a player who was making between $3 million and $4 million last year – a very good player – who has had teams offer a lot of one-year deals at $1 million or less. So, teams are value shopping if you want to put it that way which is being polite. They’re looking for a steal of a deal and that is not sitting well with the player agents or the players appreciably and understandably. To the point where there’s some grumbling and looking back in hindsight in what could have been included in the collective bargaining agreement. Why didn’t they pursue franchise exemption for a player so every team could have that one guy? Or looking at some of the other things like simply raising the cap floor. Not the ceiling, the cap floor. But most of this is predictable and the system is where it’s at most expected would get there.

Seravalli: And one player who has held firm on his value and his belief is Mike Hoffman. Who is somewhere probably between $5.5 million and $6.5 million on a one-year deal. A guy who averages 27 goals a season. He can be had on that one-year deal. The teams that are most interested at this point are the Boston Bruins, the Columbus Blue Jackets and also the Nashville Predators. But other teams like the Habs, like the Canucks could be in the mix if they’re able to move pieces.

Where might Tyler Johnson land?

With four years left at $5 million per season, what’s the latest on that front?

Seravalli: Well there’s been some increased flexibility with the Johnson camp and the Tampa Bay Lightning. He’s expanded his list of available teams that he would accept a trade to from five to eight. They’re willing to accept some other suggestions as well from the Lightning in order to best facilitate a move and help get the Lightning out of cap jail. But at this point, the Lightning are going to have to swallow hard here and be prepared to make a trade much like the Vegas Golden Knights did previously with Paul Stastny and Nate Schmidt. Perhaps even including a draft pick to move on from Tyler Johnson or one of a number of other players that they would consider doing so including Alex Killorn, Yanni Gourde, a number of players. But the real hang-up in Tampa Bay is that all of those players – with the exception of Killorn who has a modified no-trade – is that they hold all the cards like Johnson does with full no-trade moves.

What were the financials of the bubble?

It worked about as well as expected, but it didn’t come cheap, did it?

Seravalli: That’s right. At an estimated cost of $75 million to $90 million. The NHL believes a cost benefit analysis still is in their favour with the continuity and awarding a Stanley Cup. And also, the revenue that it brought in and preserved from last season.

Reda: And in terms of the re-start, the NHLPA has now assembled its players committee, they’re expected to begin discussions with the NHL in the next week or so.

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Flames re-sign defenceman Ilya Solovyov, centre Cole Schwindt

Published

11 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – The Calgary Flames have re-signed defenceman Ilya Solovyov and centre Cole Schwindt, the NHL club announced Wednesday.

Solovyov signed a two-year deal which is a two-way contract in year one and a one-way deal in year two and carries an average annual value of US$775,000 at the NHL level.

Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $800,000 at the NHL level.

The 24-year-old Solovyov, from Mogilev, Belarus, made his NHL debut last season and had three assists in 10 games for the Flames. He also had five goals and 10 assists in 51 games with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers and added one goal in six Calder Cup playoff games.

Schwindt, from Kitchener, Ont., made his Flames debut last season and appeared in four games with the club.

The 23-year-old also had 14 goals and 22 assists in 66 regular-season games with the Wranglers and added a team-leading four goals, including one game-winning goal, in the playoffs.

Schwindt was selected by Florida in the third round, 81st overall, at the 2019 NHL draft. He came to Calgary in July 2022 along with forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in the trade that sent star forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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Oman holds on to edge Nepal with one ball to spare in cricket thriller

Published

11 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

KING CITY, Ont. – Oman scored 10 runs in the final over to edge Nepal by one wicket with just one ball remaining in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play Wednesday.

Kaleemullah, the No. 11 batsman who goes by one name, hit a four with the penultimate ball as Oman finished at 223 for nine. Nepal had scored 220 for nine in its 50 overs.

Kaleemullah and No. 9 batsman Shakeel Ahmed each scored five in the final over off Sompal Kami. They finished with six and 17 runs, respectively.

Opener Latinder Singh led Oman with 41 runs.

Nepal’s Gulsan Jha was named man of the match after scoring 53 runs and recording a career-best five-wicket haul. The 18-year-old slammed five sixes and three-fours in his 35-ball knock, scoring 23 runs in the 46th over alone when he hit six, six, four, two, four and one off Aqib Ilyas.

Captain Rohit Paudel led Nepal with 60 runs.

The 19th-ranked Canadians, who opened the triangular series Monday with a 103-run win over No. 17 Nepal, face No. 16 Oman on Friday, Nepal on Sunday and Oman again on Sept. 26. All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.

The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Canada (5-4) stands second in the World League 2 table. The 14th-ranked Dutch top the table at 6-2.

Oman (2-2 with one no-result) stands sixth, ahead of Nepal (1-5).

Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.

Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.

The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024

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Vancouver Canucks will miss Demko, Joshua, others to start training camp

Published

11 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

PENTICTON, B.C. – Rick Tocchet has already warned his Vancouver Canucks players — the looming NHL season won’t be easy.

The team made strides last year, the head coach said Wednesday ahead of training camp. The bar has been raised for this year’s campaign.

“To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations and it’s going to be hard. We know that,” Tocchet said in Penticton, B.C., where the team will open its camp on Thursday.

“So that’s the next level. It starts day one (on Thursday). My thing is don’t waste a rep out there.”

The Canucks finished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.

Last fall, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks president of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn’t change this season, he said, despite last year’s success.

“The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,” he said.

“As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well.”

Some key players will be missing as Vancouver’s training camp begins, however.

Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that star goalie Thatcher Demko will not be on the ice when the team begins it’s pre-season preparation.

Allvin did not disclose the reason for Demko’s absence, but said the 28-year-old American has been making progress.

“He’s been in working extremely hard and he seems to be in a great mindset,” the GM said.

Demko missed several weeks of the regular season and much of Vancouver’s playoff run last spring with a knee injury.

The six-foot-four, 192-pound goalie has a career 213-116-81 regular-season record with a .912 save percentage, a 2.79 goals-against average and eight shutouts across seven seasons with the Canucks.

Allvin also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had “minor lower-body surgery.”

Vancouver previously announced winger Dakota Joshua won’t be present for the start of camp as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.

Tocchet said he’ll have no problem filling the holes, and plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.

“Nothing’s set in stone,” he said. “I think it’s important that you have different puzzles at different times.”

The coach added that he expects standout centre Elias Pettersson to begin on a line with Canucks newcomer Jake DeBrusk.

Vancouver inked DeBrusk, a former Boston Bruins forward, to a seven-year, US$38.5 million deal when the NHL’s free agent market opened on July 1.

The glare on Pettersson is expected to be bright once again as he enters the first year of a new eight-year, $92.8 million contract. The 25-year-old Swede struggled at times last season and put 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games.

Rutherford said he was impressed with how Pettersson looked when he returned to Vancouver ahead of camp.

“He seems to be a guy that’s more relaxed and more comfortable. And for obvious reasons,” said the president of hockey ops. “This is a guy that I believe has worked really hard this summer. He’s done everything he can to play as a top-line player. … The expectation for him is to be one of the top players on our team.”

A number of Canucks hit milestones last season, including Quinn Hughes, who led all NHL defencemen in scoring with 92 points and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top blue liner.

Several players could once again have career-best years for Vancouver, Tocchet said, but they’ll need to be consistent and not allow frustration to creep in when things go wrong.

“You’ve just got to drive yourself every day when you have a great year,” the coach said. “You’ve got to keep creating that environment where they can achieve those goals, whatever they are. And the main goal is winning. That’s really what it comes down to.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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