With the start of the NHL season less than a week away, this weekend marks one of the last chances for teams to perfect their lineups. Pre-season games will come to an end on Saturday and the final roster moves will likely be in place by the end of Sunday. This last-minute perfection has opened the door to plenty of NHL rumours. Today, we’ll cover NHL rumours surrounding the Edmonton Oilers, Colorado Avalanche, and Pittsburgh Penguins.
NHL Rumours
Edmonton Oilers
Rumour: Mark Spector, of Sportsnet, notes that the Oilers may have an internal fix to their lack of a third-line centre. After a summer of NHL rumours, Spector says that the fix may be to break up the dynamic duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Analysis: Spector’s idea of having McDavid centre the top line, Draisaitl centre the second line, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins centring the third may not be too far fetched. It has its positives and negatives. On one hand, it breaks up the duo of McDavid and Draisaitl, a duo that took the league by storm last year. They netted 116 and 105 points respectively with Draisaitl serving on McDavid’s wing. It was one of the sole bright spots on an Oilers team that saw a lot of stormy weather last year.
Moving Draisaitl back to his natural centre role could add a spark to the rest of the lineup, instead of accumulating all of the talents on one line. With 50 goals last year, Draisaitl proved he could hold his own. Having this skillset be the focus of a line, instead of handcuffed to McDavid, could create a much more well-rounded lineup. Nugent-Hopkins taking over the third-line role similarly adds depth.
This plan isn’t set in stone but general manager Ken Holland did note that a trade may be a bit out of the question. “I don’t see us spending any assets,” Holland told Spector. Spector also spoke with Oilers head coach Dave Tippet, who acknowledged the thought of breaking up Draisaitl and McDavid, noting the team’s lack of wingers instead of lack of centres. “In the past … you didn’t have enough wingers… So you turned some of those good centres to wings. Hopefully, the evolution of some of these wingers we have might [fix that].”
Colorado Avalanche
Rumour: With Patrik Laine finally signing, Mikko Rantanen remains one of the few notable restricted free agents without a deal. Chris Johnston reports that Rantanen is no longer skating with SC Bern of the National League in Switzerland. Johnston also mentions that contract talks between Rantanen and Colorado are heating up.
Unsigned RFA Mikko Rantanen is also on his way back to Helsinki after skating with SC Bern, and there's belief he and the #avs are making progress on an extension.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) September 27, 2019
Analysis: Rantanen remains unsigned, despite the $15 million in cap space Colorado has available. The team seems to be looking a gift horse in the mouth with their rumoured offers so far, with a recent offer supposedly ringing in at a cap hit of $8.75 million at most. Now, per Pierre LeBrun, the two sides are bickering over a cap hit of around $9 million.
Locking in Rantanen to a long-term deal with a cap hit of around $9.5 million seems like it’d be perfect for Colorado but they remain hard-headed. The winger was a part of a dangerous trio last season, becoming the perfect complement to star centre Nathan MacKinnon. He ended the year with 87 points in 74 games, a dazzling stat for a 22-year-old. There’s no doubt that he’s going to continue improving, as long as a deal can get done soon. With Rantanen’s agent, Mike Liut, matching Colorado’s stubbornness in contract talks, it seems that the team will have to give in sooner rather than later if they want to start the year with their star winger.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Rumour: While on TSN 1200, Darren Dreger mentioned that the Penguins are aggressively trying to trade away Jack Johnson but may need to throw in a sweetener to get a deal done.
INSIDER TRADING: #TSNHockey Insiders discuss…
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— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) September 25, 2019
Analysis: Johnson is entering the second year of a five-year contract, with a cap hit of $3.25 million. In return for the modest cap hit, Johnson provided Pittsburgh with an abysmal 2018-19 season. He netted a mere 13 points, with only one goal, and had an almost impressively-bad corsi-for of 45.8 percent. He was a liability for the Penguins, there’s no way around it. As a result, he saw the average ice time of his career. This isn’t saying much, though, as the 32-year-old still recorded just over 19 minutes a game.
As if Johnson’s 2018-19 season wasn’t bad enough, his pre-season has been even worse. He’s looked awful through the exhibition games, putting the puck in his own net more than he’s helped his team put it in the other net. It seems like Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford is finally fed up with Johnson’s poor play, supposedly actively shopping the defenceman around. Dreger notes that, with an adequate sweetener, the Penguins might be able to actually rid themselves of the defencive horror that is Johnson. Dealing him away would free up a good chunk of cap space for the team. This would be invaluable, as Pittsburgh currently sits just slightly above the salary cap limit.
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