TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joins Gino Reda to discuss the latest with the Red Wings and Simon Edvinsson, where things stand with Connor Hellebuyck and his suspension, the surprise timing of Travis Green’s extension in Ottawa and the level of panic for the winless Kings.
GINO REDA: Dylan Larkin, Simon Edvinsson, Connor Hellebuyck - all major stories going into the NHL season. We’re almost into the month of November and they are all still major stories.
Here’s our Insider, Pierre LeBrun, with details on those stories and more. Pierre, let’s begin in Detroit. Is there any news on the Edvinsson front?
PIERRE LeBRUN: Yeah, where I would say there’s news is that I can confirm that Edvinsson and his agent, J.P. Barry, met face-to face with Red Wings GM Shawn Horcoff over the weekend, sort of all laying their cards on the table.
I don’t sense that obviously there was any resolution to come out of it, but those types of meetings are important when something like this drags out. Certainly, I think that the player probably still views, given how long this has dragged out, that a trade is probably the best scenario for him. But I would stop short of saying there was a formal trade request.
As Horcoff told the Detroit media last week, point blank, he still hopes at the end of all this to sign Edvinsson, despite obviously working trade scenarios with other teams. Keep in mind that December 1st looms for restricted free agents to sign, or else they can’t play in the NHL this year.
That’s a pressure point for everyone involved which is why you kind of have to keep all options on the table here with Edvinsson. In the meantime, certainly those trade conversations keep happening. And you have to ask yourself this, what’s the cost for a young under-25 defenceman, top-four guy like Edvinsson in a trade conversation?
I think the three trade comparables I would bring up that are probably the best examples of what teams need to look at here is the Mikhail Sergachev trade, the Noah Dobson trade, and the more recent Bowen Byram trade.
Those were all significant trades involving young, top-four defencemen, and that’s what teams are getting into here if Detroit, in the end, decides to trade Edvinsson and they still haven’t fully resolved themselves to the fact they will do that.
But I think the longer this goes, that’s obviously a possibility. So lots going on, lots of conversations, still unresolved.
REDA: Pierre, I want to use the phrase you just used a second ago: What’s the cost?
We know the cost of Hellebuyck right now is well over $800,000 in salary. We know that his suspension ends Friday, so at that point he’s going to start getting paid.
But do we know much else? Is he really going to just show up and say, ‘Hey guys, I’m here, I’m willing to skate and start earning my cash,’ or does he stay at home? Do the Jets tell him to stay at home because you’re a distraction?
Where do we go from here, Pierre? Do we have any idea?
LeBRUN: Gino, that’s why you’re a wise man. Those are all the pertinent questions right there. And the reality on this day, having checked into it again, is that no one involved knows for sure what will happen Friday here on three days out. There’s still a lot of balls up in the air here.
The most ideal scenario for everyone involved, for the Jets, for the player, for the NHL Players’ Association, and for the league is that he’s traded. That he’s traded by Friday, and that this is all over and done with.
But until the Jets have something on the table, again, that they view as their asking price, they have been really consistent with their conversations with teams that they’re not giving this guy away.
I know that sounds like a broken record, but the Jets have been super consistent with that. I don’t blame them. So, what happens if he’s not traded by Friday? Which is obviously possible, that he will not be traded by Friday. That’s where it gets interesting.
One of the discussions – I think the NHLPA would have to be okay with this, and I think in the end they probably would be - is do the Jets just decide to pay Hellebuyck to stay away? Because again, no one really thinks Hellebuyck wants to come back and play for the Jets either.
So a lot of moving parts, a lot of different people involved. There will be lawyers, as they say, and every day is a new day on this file. It’s pretty fascinating stuff.
REDA: Listen, you’re an Insider, so there’s very little news that catches you off guard. But would you agree that the Travis Green contract extension may have been a little bit surprising?
Not because they want him back - they love him, he’s doing a great job - but because he still had term on his contract. So why extend him?
LeBRUN: Yeah, it did catch me off guard. And as you know, I pay close attention to coaches’ contracts. It’s kind of one of my little nerdy things, I guess, and he was not on my radar.
He wasn’t on my radar because his existing deal before yesterday wasn’t set to expire until June 30th, 2028. He had this year and next on his deal.
Normally, coaches get extended either a year out - like we saw with Martin St. Louis and John Hynes and Ryan Warsofsky last month - or within the last year of their deal, at some point in the last 12 months.
Right now, there are guys like Scott Arniel in Winnipeg and Joel Quenneville in Anaheim who are actually working on their expiring year of their contract.
Here comes Green getting extended two years out, so it is unusual.
The last time that it happened, I believe, and I double checked this, but Mike Sullivan, years ago, signed a new extension with the Penguins two-and-a-half years out from the expiry of his current deal. So it has happened, but it’s rare.
Why did the Senators do this? I think the number one reason is this: the same way that they really doubled down on their core when they extended Drake Batherson, for example, and they want all these core guys signed - Green is a huge part of what’s happened here. He’s changed the culture of this team.
Steve Staios and the Senators view Green as just an important part as the core in terms of where this is going, the next step for this team to go deeper in the playoffs and to punch their window here the next five years.
So why wait another year to get into this conversation with Green? Let’s solidify that and have his contract kind of parallel a lot of the core guys, and that’s what the Senators did.
REDA: Alright, fair enough. Pierre, there’s only one team left in the entire NHL that does not have a win in regulation time, and that’s the Los Angeles Kings. Zero in the win column so far.
What’s the panic level? What’s the sense of urgency in LA, or is there any?
LeBRUN: Oh, and they start a five-game road trip tonight, Gino, in the Eastern Conference.
No panic from making a few calls the last couple of days there on the Kings, but definitely a level of urgency.
They’re near last place in offence, near last place defensively. They’ve got a bad power play going right now and they’re having a hard time killing penalties. So, where to start?
But I will tell you internally that probably the biggest level of concern for the Kings right now is they can’t score. I know other people focus on goaltending, the Kings are actually more concerned about the lack of offence so far. They think it will come. But they need it to come.
You can dig a hole that you get in trouble with in a hurry here in a tight National Hockey League. So that’s number one.
Of course, general manager Ken Holland is making his calls. He always does, looking to see what’s out there. He would love, of course, given his history, to get in on Dylan Larkin.
But to this date, my understanding is the Kings are not on Larkin’s list of 10 teams. You can’t get into something you’re not invited to.
There are other smaller things that Kings have batted around. I’m told they’ve talked about Patrik Laine, for example, who remains unsigned. Could he help their power play? I don’t know if they’ll end up going that route, but certainly he’d be a cheap option, you wouldn’t have to spend a lot of money on him.
But also the guy they really miss is Kevin Fiala. He hasn’t played since he broke his leg, unfortunately, at the Olympics in Milan last year. He’s had setbacks, he had a follow-up surgery.
But, light at the end of the tunnel, Fiala is supposed to start skating with his teammates within the next couple weeks, I’m told. Getting him back at some point would be huge for a Kings team that needs to score.
REDA: That’s the early version of Insider Trading.
The full version of IT with Pierre, C.J., and Dregs is coming up on the early edition of SportsCentre.