TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joins Gino Reda to discuss the latest on Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s injury and whether it puts more pressure on the Maple Leafs to seek help on the blueline, the Oilers’ trade targets and where the Panthers go from here as they sit five points out of a wild-card spot.
Gino Reda: Oliver Ekman-Larsson is the Leafs’ leading scorer on the blueline. He’s been one of the teams’ most consistent D men this season and now, he’s a big question mark.
To speak to that and more, our Insider Pierre LeBrun.
Pierre, OEL left last night’s game in the first period with a lower-body injury and did not come back. Two questions – Any updates on the timeline for his return, and, if it’s not a short-term issue, since they were already looking, does this intensify their hunt for help on the blueline?
Pierre LeBrun: Let’s dive in. First of all, on Ekman-Larsson, he will miss some time, no official timeline yet obviously, they’re running more tests on him, there should be more of an official update on him when the Leafs are back at it Friday.
As Chris Johnston tweeted, Brandon Carlo, who did finish the game, looks like he tweaked something, so there should be more on him as well on Friday. So, it adds to a situation where we know Chris Tanev remains out. No firm timeline on when he may return, it at all. Although knowing Chris Tanev, I know he does want and hope to return before the end of the season.
Already Leafs GM Brad Treliving, as we’ve talked about before on Insider Trading, has been sizing up the market on defence looking at his options. We mentioned, for example, potential interest in Luke Schenn of the Winnipeg Jets, I think that’s still there. You know, I mentioned last week that Toronto is a team to keep an eye on with Dougie Hamilton. I don’t know if the Leafs can make that work and where that’s headed with Dougie Hamilton, but I think that Toronto is on the list of teams that Dougie Hamilton has approved, among many other teams obviously on his list.
So, let’s see where it goes trade wise, but I think it does put more pressure on the Leafs to figure that out. Because they’re back in the playoff race now, but they’re banged up on the blueline.
I would say this. The bigger story for me is the Olympics. I mean, OEL could not have been more excited than he was when he got the call from Sweden that he has headed to Milan. What I was told on this day is that this injury should not knock him out of the Olympics. Now again, they’re going to run more tests, but I was told that it should not be long-term as far as him missing his Olympic opportunity.
So that’s the good news. But for Sweden, you know, just to quickly recap, already they’ve lost Jonas Brodin, their top match-up defenceman, their top shutdown guy. That is brutal. They’re waiting for Victor Hedman, who hopes to play a game or two before the Olympic break. Obviously, they need him but that’s not 100 per cent. Erik Karlsson is on the mend, which is good, but the long story short, the Swedes also have injuries up front, no one’s been hit harder by injuries and injury news than Sweden right now.
Reda: Speaking of The Winter Olympic Games, the Olympic trade freeze is now less than two weeks away. Teams are solidifying their gameplans, and now the Oilers have a pretty good idea of what they’re targeting, Pierre?
LeBrun: Yeah, so they held their pro meetings last week in Edmonton. And it’s obviously at those meetings where every team in the league starts to size up their plan of attack for the trade deadline.
In terms of Edmonton, what I’m told is they came out of those meetings with a very concrete plan in terms of going out and targeting a top-nine forward. Now, where it gets interesting is do they end up trading for a centre, or a winger?
And the reason that isn’t 100 per cent is because the internal debate involves asking, is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins better at centre for the Oilers, or on the wing? Guess what, there is no bad answer. He’s really good at both, and when he’s playing wing with Connor McDavid, he’s been unreal. But when he’s a third-line centre behind McDavid and Draisaitl, who can beat that in the NHL? The bottom line is this. There are more wingers that are going to be available on the market than there are going to be centres. So that might be a self-fulfilling prophecy where perhaps the Oilers go out and trade for a winger.
Because there are so many teams still in the race, so much parity and so few sellers, I don’t think anything is imminent for Edmonton. I think they need the market to continue to play out, but that’s where they hope to upgrade because they like their blueline, they’ve made their goalie trade, top-line forward is where GM Stan Bowman hopes to add before March 6.
Reda: The Oilers’ nemesis – the Panthers – back-to-back Stanley Cups, three straight trips to the Cup Final, Florida has defied the odds for quite the run here. But we’re now almost into February, and the Panthers are still five points out of a playoff spot. Where do you think Bill Zito goes from here?
LeBrun: Yeah, five points out. And if you look at the standings, about eight teams right now are fighting for those last two wild-card spots in the East. So, it’s not just being five out, it’s a real tough position to be in.
And you know, a month ago it looked like the Cup champs were back as you remember they were in a playoff spot. But it’s not been as good since, they’ve regressed again. And they’ve just been hit so hard by key injuries. It’s unreal. I mean, just to survive where they are without Aleksander Barkov has been a story in itself. They finally got Matthew Tkachuk back, but now Seth Jones is out of the Olympics for Team USA. He’s out at least another month, so that’s been damaging to them.
Here’s the thing. I think in a perfect world, Bill Zito, the GM of the Panthers would have probably gotten to the Olympic break, come out of it and looked at what they needed. I don’t know that he can afford that now. The season is really on the line. So my sense of things from talking to other people around the league is Bill Zito has been pretty active phoning around and trying to understand what’s out there to upgrade his team.
And I don’t think it’s a specific area he’s trying to address. I think it’s, generally, what can I do to upgrade my team before Feb. 4. So, keep an eye on Florida. They’ve made a lot of good trades the last few years and they’re trying to make another one.
Reda: They’ve got a great track record over the last couple years. Alright, that the early edition of Insider Trading, the full version with Pierre, Chris Johnston and Darren Dreger is coming up on the early edition of SportsCentre.
