Welcome back to Wednesday’s edition of NHL Rumours from the crew at Last Word on Hockey. Training camp is set to begin for a lot of teams within the next week. This means teams will be going full force to try to finalize their rosters to have their players at camp. Today we have NHL Rumours from the Philadelphia Flyers, Vancouver Canucks, Minnesota Wild and the Anaheim Ducks.
All NHL Rumours come from their original sources and are subject to change.
NHL Rumours
Philadelphia Flyers
Rumour: Sportsnet’s Rick Dhaliwal tweeted today that the agent for Flyers defenceman Ivan Provorov stated that the Flyers and Provorov were closer on a contract yesterday than they were weeks ago. He also stated that the Werenski deal has impacted the remaining defenceman.
Flyers RFA D Ivan Provorov agent Todd Diamond : We were closer yesterday than many weeks before. The Werenski deal will affect the remaining defenseman, things are starting to move in the right direction.
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) September 10, 2019
Analysis: This is great news for the Flyers as Provorov is arguably the club’s best and most important defenceman. Provorov may be looking at a short term bridge-deal much like Werenski’s. However, given that his production fell off last season compared to the two season’s prior, he may come in at a smaller AAV.
Good news for the Flyers, however, Provorov knows what he is capable of. Surely he would love to bet on himself and earn a larger contract in a couple of years. He also has a nice iron man streak going as he has yet to miss a game since entering the league three seasons ago. If Provorov can get back to the way he played in 2017-18, he will most certainly earn himself a nice long term contract with a hefty AAV.
Vancouver Canucks
Rumour: Yet another hit from Sportsnet Rick Dhaliwal. As he states that he was saying on the radio all week, Brock Boeser and the Canucks are nowhere near a deal and he is in jeopardy of missing the start of training camp. He states that the Canuck’s cap issues are causing the problems and the Boeser camp knows he can’t get a long-term deal at this point.
The #Canucks cap issues are causing problems, the Boeser camp knows they can not get long term deal, they are willing to do a short term deal (even 1-2 years) but the gap remains even on that. Things can change quick but it does not look good right now.
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) September 10, 2019
Analysis: Dhaliwal goes on to say that Boeser is willing to do a short-term deal as well, however, the two parties are just as far apart on a short-term deal as they are on a long-term deal. So where do they go from here? They can’t afford to have Boeser missing camp and have this dragging into the season. We saw the damage that did to William Nylander last season. We’re sure both the Canucks and Boeser do not want to be dealing with the same issues.
Boeser is also the second part of the dynamic duo along with Elias Pettersson who the Canucks relied on to provide most of the offence last season. Without Boeser, the Canucks are not as scary. Though they did upgrade the team in the off-season bringing in Micheal Ferland, J.T. Miller, Tyler Myers and Jordie Benn, it’s coming at the cost of Boeser at the moment. The Canucks will need to look to move out a contract or two to make this work with their sniper. Loui Eriksson and Chris Tanev are two names that come to mind. Boeser deserves money much as Nylander got with the Leafs last season, at the very least. This situation sounds like it could get worse before it gets any better for the Canucks.
Minnesota Wild
Rumour: The Athletic’s Michael Russo stated that Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin has informed them that the Wild have submitted a fair offer to restricted free agent Kevin Fiala. He is currently looking over the offer from his agents and trying to make a decision.
Kevin Fiala has received a contract proposal from the Wild, and GM Bill Guerin hopes it will get the restricted free agent forward into training camp by Thursday, when players are scheduled to report for physicals and meetings.https://t.co/zJNr0AulO3
— NHL.com (@NHLdotcom) September 10, 2019
Analysis: There’s no word on what the contract offer actually is, Guerin just states that it’s a fair offer. Evolving Wild predicts that Fiala will earn around $3.1 million per year on a two-year deal. This seems like a very fair number as Fiala has been just over a 0.5 point per game scoring of the past two years. Fiala has the abilities to be a 20 goal scorer in the NHL and has managed to hit that number once over his two years of being a full-time NHL player.
Much like Boeser who we just spoke about, Fiala and the Wild definitely don’t want him missing camp. As Guerin states ” If you miss camp, the chances of you having a good year aren’t very good.” Hopefully, for Fiala and the Wild, they are closer than a lot of the other RFA’s who are still left unsigned and they get a deal done before camp opens on Friday.
Anaheim Ducks
Rumour: The last of our NHL Rumours comes from Pierre LeBrun. He reported on Twitter that there is still no contract extension between the Ducks and Justin Faulk, which means there is still no trade. LeBrun also believes other teams interested have no upped their trade interest in Faulk. Teams who do not require Faulk to waive his no-trade clause like Anaheim did have also called.
At last check, still no contract extension between Justin Faulk and the Ducks which means still no trade between Carolina and Anaheim. This thing could go either way… other teams have since upped their trade interest in him. Ducks would require Faulk’s waiving of his NTC. 1/2
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) September 10, 2019
Analysis: Surprisingly there is no deal completed with Faulk and the Ducks. LeBrun reported on Twitter earlier in the day that Faulk needed an extension done before he would waive to go to Anaheim. The fact that it is taking longer is allowing other teams to swoop in and up their offers for Faulk. This could eventually end up nixing any deal in place with Anaheim.
Still ways away from any trade being imminent, and as I previously said Faulk would need to waive his NTC (understandably not a cake walk), but sources confirm that as the proposed deal currently stands, Ducks Ondrej Kase would be involved. Again, not done. @LukeDeCock was first.
— Sara Civ (@SaraCivian) September 10, 2019
According to Sara Civian as well as Luke DeCock who are both reporters out of Carolina, the deal could include Ondrej Kase. This would be a huge grab for the Hurricanes and would fill their need for more offensive production. Kase scored 11 goals and added nine assists for 20 points in 30 games last season. Kase missed most of the regular season due to injury but has been very productive offensively for the Ducks. The Hurricanes would also be saving over $2 million in the deal. This would help put them under the cap ceiling.
NHL Rumours Main Photo:
