Geno Reda is joined by TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston to discuss the pressure Shawn Horcoff is under in Detroit, where Kucherov’s situation stands in Tampa, and the plans for the struggling San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks on the early edition of Insider Trading.
Geno Reda: Is Shawn Horcoff hamstrung as he tries to right the ship with the Detroit Red Wings? What’s next for the Tampa Bay Lightning as the dust settles on Nikita Kucherov’s situation? And things are heating up behind closed doors with the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks.
With these details and more here’s our insider Chris Johnston.
The Wings threw [interim general manager] Shawn Horcoff into a brutal situation. But despite that, can you imagine the scrutiny he’s facing just to get these deals, right?
Chris Johnston: Absolutely and I think that’s an important dynamic to consider when we’re looking at:
What’s going to happen next with Dylan Larkin?
Why is this situation dragging on as long as it has even after he’s left the team?
Why is Simon Edvinsson still unsigned as a restricted free agent?
I think the fact that you have a general manager with an interim tag has played a role here. Certainly, in my conversations around the league to this point, there is a sense that this has been an aspect.
It’s not that Horcoff is doing a bad job, it’s that he’s in a spot where he’s auditioning for his job. He wants the full-time role eventually in Detroit and that means there’s extra amount of pressure to get it right.
When you’re talking about dealing a player that was your former captain in Larkin and potentially considering a trade for a young 23-year-old defenceman that could be a No.1 or No. 2 guy sliding in on their next team. I think that has, in some ways, held things back in Larkin’s spot.
Right now, it remains where it’s been. The 10 teams Horcoff feels has to work with, there’s not a good enough deal to make there. He believes that there’s better deals to be found from other teams, but Larkin will not expand that list.
As for Edvinsson, Dec. 1 remains an important date. He has to have a contract by that point and time which will put a little bit of pressure on the player and the team as it gets a little closer. So, I think that’s a little more likely to see some form of resolution when it comes to his situation.
Reda: Speaking of intense spotlights, it’s been almost a week since Kucherov shocked the NHL by saying he wants out of Tampa. The Lightning immediately responded by saying, “No shot, we’re not moving him.”
We’re about a week into it and both sides have had a little bit of time to process the situation. Where are we now?
Johnston: It’s almost as if a bomb went off last Friday when first Kucherov made a trade request, and it became public. Now it’s like everyone wants to return to the shelter and pretend it didn’t happen.
There’s a real sense, at this point of time, that this is going to be something that ends up being an off-season type of move. Though it was framed as a trade request, it really was more of “We’re not going to re-sign here. We’re done talking about what an extension could look like.”
Kucherov remains under contract with the Lightning and he’s not 100 per cent not going to take the tact that Connor Hellebuyck and Dylan Larkin before him have done by leaving the team.
Now they’ve got to put everything back together. You’ve seen the Lightning players be very complementary of Kucherov. They’re saying all the right things. They’ve been teammates for a long time, and he’s been a huge part of the continued success they’ve had in Tampa. But it is sort of an unusual set of circumstances.
For his part, Kucherov has five assists in the two games they’ve played since all this went public. There are not any on-ice signs, by any means, that this is going to affect his play.
But as big of a story has been, I think everyone involved now expects it to kind of recede into the background and not be on the front burner. The sense around the league is that the Lightning were very serious in the statement they made that they’re not looking to trade him.
I don’t anticipate that’s something is going to happen unless something really goes off the table. At this point in time, I don’t think that going to happen. I think he’s going to play out the year in Tampa and this will be something we’ll be talking about heading into the off-season.
Reda: We usually like to wait until U.S. Thanksgiving before we start to ask what’s going on with this team or that team and are they a disappointment. But there’s a couple of Western Conference teams that are really struggling through the first month of the season already.
The Blackhawks are toiling at the bottom of the league, and the Sharks are not nearly as low in the standings but way below the pre-season expectations.
What are you hearing about those two markets?
Johnston: Neither of them can afford to be patient and it shouldn’t surprise you that they’re two of the teams most out there looking for trade solutions. They’re trying to bring in other players to see if that can help.
The Sharks are big-game hunting. They’ve been very much in on Edvinsson and those discussions in Detroit. A lot of teams, I’ll call them on the sidelines, think that Edvinsson makes the most sense to end up as a Shark. But those conversations obviously haven’t progressed to a point where Detroit has anything they can pull the trigger on.
But San Jose, amid this disappointing start, had a players-only meeting after a tough loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night. They’re looking for help from their front office. I think that it could be coming down the pike here, especially if their struggles continue.
The Blackhawks are in an even tougher spot. They’ve had 12 losses in 16 games to start the year.
They’ve been on the trade market looking to add some help up front. They’ve been looking to see if they can get something to augment the forward group. But they’ve really dug themselves a hole.
Let’s not forget that these teams have been finishing at the bottom of the standings, which is how they’ve accumulated the Celebrinis, the Bedards, and all the players that they have. But they don’t intend to be there right now.
The Blackhawks thought they would be contending for a playoff spot this year and they’re right back in the basement where they’ve been for a long time.
So, I don’t think either GM, be it Kyle Davidson in Chicago or Mike Grier in San Jose, can afford to be patient too much longer because we’re getting into the meat of the season now.
Reda: There’s a lot going on. That’s the early edition of Insider Trading. The full IT with Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger is coming up on the early edition of SportsCentre.