Geno Reda is joined by TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger to talk about the Winnipeg Jets’ recent woes, where things stand with Dylan Larkin’s trade demand, and the reaction around the league from Nikita Kucherov’s trade request on the early edition of Insider Trading.
Geno Reda: Is a shakeup coming in Winnipeg? Could the Habs end up being part of a Larkin deal? What’s the latest on Kucherov? Details on these stories and a lot more with our insider Darren Dreger.
The Jets are winless in nine. There’s obviously a long list of reasons for the slide, and management has tried to be patient through this. At what point does desperation force a change, and what could that look like?
Darren Dreger: There’s always a point for every team in the National Hockey League, and every team in the NHL goes through stretches like this.
I know “winless in nine” sounds like an enormous number, and it is. Scott Arniel after the 7-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Raliegh on Sunday described the overall game as frustrating but also an embarrassment.
You can’t have too many more of those before the general manager or above is going to have to get involved. But they’re not there yet.
So, even though there are calls for a coaching change, mostly from the fan base, and the media talking about it, as they probably should locally, I don’t believe that removing Arniel as head coach is on the radar just yet.
But they’ve got a tough one against the Montreal Canadiens tonight. If you look at the Eastern gauntlet that they’ve just been through, they played Tampa Bay and Florida back-to-back, then they got into Carolina, where the defending Stanley Cup champions had the better part of two days of rest.
So, they ran into some real tricky times here, and some of it is also self-imposed.
You look at the Jets’ defensive game that hasn’t been good enough. That has put added pressure on the goaltending, which is a bigger problem.
They also haven’t executed. Even though they got some zone time, they haven’t been able to execute on their chances.
So that, and add the fact that [No. 1 defenceman] Josh Morrissey has been on the sidelines. He’s a pivotal part of the attack of the Jets, and that speaks to where they’re at.
It can’t continue for very much longer.
Reda: There’s so much going on and on so many different levels there right now.
Let’s go to Detroit where Dylan Larkin is sitting home waiting for a trade. The Red Wings’ scouting staff is working hard trying to get something done. It almost seems like they’re spotted every night on the road in a different press box in a different NHL building.
They’re working hard to try to get something done.
Dreger: Yeah, the pro-scouting department for the Red Wings is logging some serious Air Miles, there’s no doubt about that.
I know that the director of pro scouting, Kris Draper, was in Boston for the Bruins versus Vegas Golden Knight game. We believe that the Bruins are no different than the Montreal Canadiens and would like to get on to Larkin’s list.
But I’m telling you as we have this conversation that his list remains status quo. It is an unchanged 10-team list.
The Red Wings would have you believe that there is no offer that has been made from that group of 10 teams that they’re willing to work with because the offers haven’t been good enough. Even though there have been continuous conversations with interim general manager Shawn Horcoff and the other general managers involved, it hasn’t gotten to a place yet through negotiations and conversations where they found a sweet spot among that list of 10 that they can advance on.
That’s why guys like Draper, and the pro scouts for the Red Wings continue to go into Boston. They recently covered the Canadiens and their travels, and I believe that the scouting staff will be in Toronto where the Utah Mammoth are there to take on the Maple Leafs tonight.
So, if you’re Don Sweeney in Boston or Kent Hughes of the Canadiens, you’re very eager to get involved. They believe that they have the pieces that can encourage Larking to their cities, but that hasn’t happened yet.
There hasn’t been an official engagement where the Red Wings have gone to CAA to say ,“Okay, this a deal that we feel that we can make but it’s a team that isn’t on Dylan’s list. Is he willing to do that?”
They haven’t gotten to that place yet because CAA, Pat Brisson and company who represent Larkin, believe that there are deals to be made from the list of 10 teams that Larkin has submitted.
Reda: Yeah, but now the waters have become a little bit more muddied because there are some more pretty talented guys available.
Four days after word got out that Nikita Kucherov wants out of the Tampa Bay, teams are still trying to come to grips with what this could mean for them.
He’s the reigning MVP, this is crazy. What kind of chatter is this causing around the league right now?
Dreger: It’s causing a lot of chatter, but most general managers and hockey executives are surfing a wave of disbelieve. That’s what it is dating back to Friday night.
I can tell you I got countless texts from hockey executives asking if this is real. People thought that the reporting was coming from fiction and being fabricated. It’s 100 per cent real, as we learned from Kucherov himself.
So yes, of course, teams are calling Julien BriseBois, the GM of the Lightning, but he remains in a firm position. They’re not interested in trading Kucherov, at least not just yet.
And we can see the Lightning as being a contending team, but is that going to stay that way up until the midway mark of the regular season? What if there’s a dip after Christmas? Is BriseBois going to reconsider that position?
It seems unthinkable that the Lightning would allow a player of this status, of this magnitude, of this level of resume to walk away from the organization for nothing.
You want to talk about own-rentals? We do this every single year with coveted free agents where teams are in a precarious spot and in the playoff mix and say, “Maybe we’re not a contender, but we don’t know that we’re not a contender and we’re not getting enough in return to consider trading the asset. We’re going to keep him and we’re going to roll the dice and we’re going to be able to sign and extend that player at the end of the year.”
If the Kucherov is used as an own rental, it would go down in history as the most significant own rental of all time.
I think if we’re still talking about this in February, that’s when the BriseBois’ seat turns from hot to white hot as he tries to make a call.
Reda: I love the distinction you made; it’s huge. It’s not “no,” it’s “not yet.” So, with that, it gives us lots to talk about.
That’s the early edition of Insider Trading, the full version with Chris Johnston and Pierre LeBrun is coming up on the early edition of SportsCentre.