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NHL Rumors: Wild, Oilers, Islanders, Maple Leafs, More – The Hockey Writers

Published

3 years ago

July 13, 2021

In today’s NHL rumors rundown, the Minnesota Wild have announced that they’ll be buying out the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter? What’s next for the team and for both players? Meanwhile, there is still mixed reaction in Edmonton after Oilers GM Ken Holland made a trade to land Duncan Keith but paid full price to do so. The New York Islanders are trying to trade Nick Leddy, the Vegas Golden Knights might be trying to move Reilly Smith and the Toronto Maples could look at trading Alex Kerfoot.

Wild to Buy Out Parise, Suter

Wild general manager Bill Guerin has made a huge decision for the franchise on Tuesday. He’s informed both Parise and Suter that their contracts will be bought out and each will become a free agent on July 28th. The move will save the Wild $10 million on the cap this season, but it will also require the team to take on $13 million in dead cap space in two years time and $15 million in three and four years from now.

NEWS: #mnwild General Manager Bill Guerin today announced the club will buy out the final four years of the contracts of forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter.
More information » https://t.co/hd3D1naoA0 https://t.co/04tHQ6T88p

Where each will end up isn’t known, but insiders are already connecting Parise to the New York Islanders. Rumors have surfaced the past couple of seasons that GM Lou Lamoriello would have been interested in acquiring Parise and reuniting with him (Parise played under Lamoriello in New Jersey).

Suter will have plenty of interest. He’s a veteran who played 22 minutes per game for Minnesota last season.

Oilers GM Taking Heat For Keith Trade, Not Confident About Larsson

The Oilers finalized a deal for the Duncan Keith, sending Caleb Jones and a conditional third-round pick to Chicago in the exchange. Where fans are really bothered is that Ken Holland absorbed all of Keith’s $5.5 million salary for the next two seasons, not using any leverage to save money on the trade.

The news of Suter’s availability will only frustrate Oilers fans more because this is a player that could have been just as useful without giving up any assets to acquire him and at a likely lower cap hit. Holland was quite defensive during his media available when asked if he could have pressure the Blackhawks more, saying, “What did you want me to do, get him for free?”

Holland suggests this wasn’t a numbers decision, arguing against the idea that analytics played a key role in his decision to add Keith. Instead, he looked at the “record book” and discussed what experience Keith brings and how he can help the team in a more limited role.

Holland also commented on how the Keith deal affects his negotiations with Adam Larsson and said, “I’m not pretty confident, but I’m not not confident.”

As per Jonathan Willis of The Athletic, the Islanders are shopping 30-year-old LD Nick Leddy. Willis writes, “He has one year left at a $5.5MM cap hit, and played 23 minutes per game for the conference finalists last year. It’s an expansion thing. ” Willis adds that the Islanders aren’t expecting a huge return because the team is needing to shed salary.

Nick Leddy (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Arthur Staple of The Athletic writes:

But two league sources indicated that the Islanders are shopping the 30-year-old defenseman this week so they would not have to leave him unprotected and potentially lose Leddy to Seattle for nothing…. but Leddy is still a useful top-four defenseman, so there almost certainly wouldn’t be any asset included in the deal, which is a plus.

source – ‘Is there interest in Vladimir Tarasenko? Could Nick Leddy be shopped? What we’re hearing about the Islanders as they enter the offseason’ – Arhtur Staple – The Athletic – 07/12/2021

Staple adds in that same article that two sources have indicated that Vladimir Tarasenko would indeed be open to an Islander trade. While his list of teams he’d accept a trade to isn’t small Tarasenko can control where he goes because of his full no-trade clause.

Rielly Smith on Move out of Vegas?

Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff suggests that Vegas Golden Knights winger Reilly Smith could be traded as the team tries to improve their depth at center. He is on Seravalli’s trade list at No. 6 this week. Smith has a year left on his contract with an annual average value of $5 million and posted 14 goals and 25 points in 53 games for the Golden Knights this past season.

Considering the Maple Leafs are likely to lose Kerfoot in the expansion draft, that he comes up as No. 20 on Seravalli’s trade list should not be a surprise. If Kerfoot is left exposed, he would be an attractive option. Seravalli wonders if the Leafs will try to trade him elsewhere before the expansion draft.

Seravalli writes:

“The trick is any return short of future assets would also require protection from Seattle. That may ultimately result in losing Kerfoot from the roster, plus whomever the Kraken decide to then take – which could be defenseman Travis Dermott. Like many teams, the Leafs are weighing that out at the moment.”

Jim Parsons is a senior THW freelance writer, part-time journalist and audio/video host who lives, eats, sleeps and breathes NHL news and rumors, while also writing features on the Edmonton Oilers. He’s been a trusted source for five-plus years at The Hockey Writers, but more than that, he’s on a mission to keep readers up to date with the latest NHL rumors and trade talk. Jim is a daily must for readers who want to be “in the know.”

Other content contributions include: NHLtradetalk.com, The Sportster and hosting weekly video casts, THW News and Rumors Rundown, plus Oilers Overtime.

For interview requests or to provide content info, follow Jim on Twitter or his social media accounts. They appear under his photo on articles like this one.

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Sports

Flames remain hot in pre-season, beat Canucks 4-2

Published

5 hours ago

September 28, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – Ryan Lomberg and Brayden Pachal each had a goal and assist on Saturday night to lead the Calgary Flames to a 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in NHL pre-season action.

Blake Coleman and Adam Klapka also scored for Calgary, which is 4-0-1 through five games.

Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Aatu Ratyu were the marksmen for Vancouver, which is 2-2 in exhibition play.

Dan Vladar, who stopped 17 of 19 shots in 40 minutes of action, got the win. Devin Cooley made nine stops in relief.

Artus Silovs, beaten four times on 24 shots, gave way to Nikita Tolopilo to start the third. Tolopilo had eight saves.

Calgary opened the scoring at 4:23 when Pachal’s rising wrist shot from the blue line through a maze of bodies eluded Silovs, who never saw it.

The Flames surged in front 2-0 three minutes later when Lomberg corralled a MacKenzie Weegar rebound in the slot and fired a shot just inside the goalpost.

Lomberg, 29, who broke into the NHL as a Flame in 2017-18, re-signed in the off-season in Calgary as a free agent after four years with the Florida Panthers, which was capped off by winning the Stanley Cup.

Vancouver got on the scoreboard at 8:35 of the second on a fortuitous bounce.

Lekkerimaki’s shot from the slot deflected off Flames defenceman Artem Grushnikov, went high into the air, and with seemingly nobody aware of where the puck went, it toppled over Vladar and landed in the Calgary net.

Since being drafted by Vancouver in the first round, in 2022, Lekkerimaki has spent the past two seasons in his native Sweden.

This will be the 20-year-old’s first season in North America and with three points (1 goal, 2 assists) in three games in the pre-season, he’s making a push for a job with the Canucks.

One of the players he is competing against is Raty, who after Calgary had taken a 3-1 lead, again got the Canucks back within one on a perfect shot after being set up on a 2-on-1 by Conor Garland.

Raty, a second-round pick in 2021, was acquired from the New York Islanders in the Bo Horvat trade. He’s spent most of the past two seasons in the AHL.

The Flames restored their two-goal cushion later in the second with Klapka firing a shot past Silovs for his third goal in as many pre-season games.

Klapka, who stands 6-foot-8, is looking to make the team’s fourth line. The 24-year-old has shown some offensive pop with three goals in as many pre-season games.

His physicality was also on display Saturday, throwing an open-ice hit in the first period on Nils Aman that sent the Canucks forward flying. In the third, a heavy hit on Akito Hirose send the defenceman careening into the sideboards. Hirose had to be helped off the ice.

UNEXPECTED OFFENCE

Known more for his physicality, Pachal has never had a multi-point game in his 62 career NHL regular-season games. The 24-year-old was in his fifth season with the Vegas Golden Knights organization when he was claimed off waivers by Calgary last February.

HUBERDEAU-MANTHA COMBO

Left-winger Jonathan Huberdeau played in his second pre-season game for Calgary and has been the case throughout camp, the right-winger was veteran Anthony Mantha, who the Flames signed to a one-year deal as a free agent. On this night, Yegor Sharangovich was at centre. In the first game, the two were centred by Martin Pospisil.

UP NEXT

Canucks: Visit the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Flames: Host the Seattle Kraken on Monday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2024.

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Oilers end pre-season skid with 5-4 win over Kraken

Published

5 hours ago

September 28, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – When the key to a win is work ethic, it is not surprising to see Mattias Ekholm rise to the occasion.

Ekholm had a goal and two assists as the Edmonton Oilers snapped a three-game skid with a 5-4 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Noah Philp, Vasily Podkolzin and Raphael Lavoie also scored for the Oilers, who improved to 2-3 in NHL pre-season play.

“They are a hard-working team, no matter who they have in the lineup, so we expected that,” said Oilers forward Derek Ryan, who picked up a couple of assists.

“There were points in the game where we were kind of matching that intensity and work ethic and things were going well for us. We let the work ethic dip a little bit and then the game gets away from us. It is a good message to the guys who were playing and the whole group that it starts with work.”

Jacob Melanson, Eduard Sale, John Hayden and Ben Meyers responded for the Kraken, who fell to 1-3 in exhibition action.

“I thought we were getting up the ice well, playing fast, playing north,” said Meyers. “I think we probably just gave up a little bit too much to win that game, but I thought offensively we played pretty well and we had our chance.”

The Oilers started the scoring just over three minutes into the opening period as both defenders tried to cover Connor McDavid on a two-on-one, but he made a nice backhand pass back to Nugent-Hopkins, who beat Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer upstairs blocker side.

Seattle tied the game nine minutes into the first after Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard made a couple of saves in tight before Melanson was able to poke it in from the crease.

Pickard left the game soon afterwards after teammate Noah Philp got angled into his own netminder, hitting him in the head. Pickard did not return to the game.

Olivier Rodrigue replaced Pickard in the Edmonton net and surrendered a power-play goal with six minutes to play in the first as Ryan Winterton lifted a deft pass over a defender across to Sale for the goal.

Edmonton knotted the game with 2:43 remaining in the first frame as Ekholm spotted Philp driving the net and completed a long saucer pass through a couple Kraken players to allow him to wrist it home.

Seattle made it 3-2 5:32 into the second period after Rodrigue attempted to direct a puck away from the net, only to have it hit Hayden and carom into his net.

With two minutes left in the middle period, the Kraken added to their lead as Meyers elected to shoot on a two-on-one opportunity, beating the Oilers’ goalie upstairs.

Edmonton got that goal back just 26 seconds later as Derek Ryan threaded the needle to a trailing Ekholm and he beat Grubauer to make it 4-3.

The Oilers tied the game six minutes into the third on a short-handed tally as Ryan made a great play to draw the defenders his way before sending it over to Podkolzin for the easy tap-in.

Edmonton avoided overtime with 2:53 remaining in the final frame as Lavoie battled hard to retrieve the puck before swinging out front and sending a shot through Grubauer’s legs.

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch has been impressed with Lavoie’s skills as a sniper.

“He’s got good hands and an even better shot,” he said. “He showed great skill on that goal.”

NOTES

The Oilers still had 41 players in camp — with four goalies, 13 defencemen and 24 forwards. … Seattle was down to 37 players at camp — 33 skaters and four goalies — after cutting eight players before Friday’s contest against Vancouver. … Edmonton had both of the players in camp who are on PTOs in the lineup on Saturday, forward Mike Hoffman and defenceman Travis Dermott. … Grubauer made his first appearance since last Sunday’s 6-1 loss to Calgary, during which he allowed four goals on 19 shots.

UP NEXT

Kraken: Visit the Calgary Flames on Monday.

Oilers: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Monday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2024.

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Dean scores first MLS goal as Fire tie visiting Toronto FC 1-1

Published

6 hours ago

September 28, 2024

Anne Joseph

CHICAGO (AP) — Jonathan Dean scored his first Major League Soccer goal in the 84th minute for the Chicago Fire on Saturday night in a 1-1 draw with Toronto FC.

Ariel Lassiter cut back to evade a defender and the played an arcing ball from the left corner of the area to the back post, where a charging Dean tapped in a one-touch finish from point-blank range to cap the scoring.

Prince Owusu converted from the penalty spot in first-half stoppage time to give Toronto (11-17-4) a 1-0 lead at halftime.

Chicago (7-16-9) has just one win and four losses in its last six games.

Chris Brady a save for the Fire.

Sean Johnson stopped two shots for Toronto.

—

AP MLS:

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