Gino Reda: Marnermania set to hit the Toronto Maple Leafs again, the Madison Square Garden crowd rips into the home side, and the Calgary Flames are fielding trade calls on at least three key players.
With the details here’s our insider Darren Dreger. After nine seasons with the Maple Leafs, tonight Mitch Marner faces them for the first time since the breakup. How do you see this playing out?
Darren Dreger: Well obviously this one has been on the calendar since the beginning of the year. The Vegas Golden Knights and Maple Leafs are going to say all the right things, they’re going to say ‘this is just another game on the regular-season schedule,’ but it’s not that.
Certainly not for Marner or his buddies who still play for the Maple Leafs. Of course they’re going to focus, they’re going to play the game they need to play to help their teams win, but there’s some nervous anticipation, especially from Marner’s perspective heading into this.
Now what helps is the fact that Marner and the Golden Knights played on Wednesday night in an overtime win against the Los Angeles Kings, so he doesn’t have a whole lot of time to dwell on his time spent with Auston Matthews and his buddies on the Maple Leafs.
It is more about winning, but undoubtedly this one is going to be different for the Marner family.
Now I say that, but let’s be honest here: He’s got an arena full of support in Vegas tonight on TSN, he’s not going to have that next week in Toronto when the Golden Knights return and he plays in front of that hometown crowd for the first time.
Reda: Speaking of hostile environments, the boos at MSG started early last night and morphed into ‘Fire Drury’ chants - and who can blame them? The Rangers gave up eight and got crushed by the visiting Senators, they’re now dead last in the Eastern Conference; where do the Rangers go from here now, Dregs?
Dreger: Well there’s a whirlwind of speculation around what Chris Drury, the general manager of the New York Rangers might do. That is a nasty building when things aren’t going well, and the Dolan family that owns the Rangers is part of it.
They can hear it, and undoubtedly there’s an emotional impact on what Drury might be able to do moving forward.
Lots of speculation around Artemi Panarin, we know he’s got the expiring contract, but he also has a no-move clause, so what direction is Panarin willing to go in?
There’s been some speculation and talk that the Panarin camp has historically engaged in what an extension might look like with the Rangers, and the belief is that it doesn’t look good from Panarin’s perspective, so we do have to wait a little bit longer to see how this plays out.
Is he willing, if there is no extension that is willing to be negotiated, is he willing to present a list? And how short is that list?
You always look at the normal teams; the Florida Panthers, the Dallas Stars, the Golden Knights, maybe there’s a couple of other teams that would express interest in the star that Panarin is, but if he doesn’t present that list, and he decides that there is an extension or isn’t an extension that works for him, he could absolutely walk into free agency and the Rangers get nothing in return. That would be worst-case scenario for Drury and the team.
Reda: Speaking of bodies that could be on the move, our early Trade Bait list is out today, the Flames have got three players: Rasmus Andersson, Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman, in the top 10. Sounds like Craig Conroy’s going to get super busy, Dregs.
Dreger: Good busy though. When you look at it from a Flames’ perspective, this isn’t a tear-down, full-on rebuild, but they do know that they need to get younger.
And when you’re looking at Andersson, doesn’t it feel like his name’s been out there for a long time? A year, maybe even more than that? The interest in Andersson, the talented defenceman, has been consistent, and it’s going to continue to develop.
So it does definitely seem like he is priority one, and if Conroy is able to get what he needs from Andersson via trade, and gets what he needs from Kadri if, in fact, Kadri is traded, then I think he’s in a position where he can back off a little bit.
I’m curious to see the name of Coleman out there - I know that teams are calling Conroy and asking about Coleman, it’s because of his winning resume.
This guy’s won Stanley Cups, but it’s also the type of player he is and the type of man he is. But those are characteristics and attributes that the Flames need. You can’t trade everybody, you’ve got to have a backbone to the culture side of your team, and Coleman is definitely that.
So I would downplay the speculation around Coleman - anything is possible but I would say his place on that trade list in terms of how high he is is a little misplaced at this point. It’s unlikely he gets dealt.
Reda: Flames are currently 30th in the league. The only teams below them are the Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks.
