TSN’s Hockey Insiders on Darren Dreger’s takeaways from his 1x1s in Winnipeg, the latest on Quinn Hughes and Pavel Zacha, how cut-resistant socks helped Jake McCabe, Team Canada’s next GM, and the IIHF set to elect its new president.
Gino Reda: With the insiders, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger. Dregs, you’re joining us from Winnipeg, where one of the biggest stories in the league right now continues to unfold. What are you hearing around there as the Jets get set to open up their regular season without Connor Hellebuyck?
Darren Dreger: Look, there’s a sense of excitement because regular season hockey is about to return to Winnipeg. That excitement can be found in the dressing room of the Winnipeg Jets as well. To a man, they are looking forward to getting back onto the ice on Friday against the Boston Bruins. But look, there is no black cloud hanging over Canada Life Centre because the Connor Hellebuyck situation remains unresolved.
The players vow to a man that this is not going to be a distraction. They know what the task is at hand. They know what they have to do, but this is a different team as well. It’s not the veteran-laden team that it once was. It’s much younger, but they say that they are faster; they’re more defensively in tune, and above all else, they’re most definitely confident in the goaltending that they have in Stu Skinner and Clay Stevenson. So nothing but optimism right now, even though they’re labeled as underdogs going into game one.
Reda: Another big story around the league surrounds the future of one of the game’s best players, Quinn Hughes. What’s the level of anxiety surrounding Minnesota’s efforts to lock him up with an extension, Pierre?
Pierre LeBrun: Listen, I think the Wild continue to be patient. I think they feel they still have a lot of time to figure this out. But let’s be real, GM Bill Guerin, had you told him three months ago that Quinn Hughes still would not be extended as the puck drops under a season, I think he would have been surprised and disappointed, quite frankly, is my guess.
Now, the reason this is not done yet is that Quinn Hughes, as it’s explained to me, is in no rush to make this decision. He could absolutely still extend at some point with the Wild, but he’s just not there right now or he’s ready to give his agent the green light to keep going in negotiations. There have been multiple conversations between the Wild and Pat Brisson, the agent for Quinn Hughes, but nothing gets done for real until the player himself says, “okay, I’m in that place.” Until that happens, yeah, there’s anxiety in the Twin Cities. There should be.
Chris Johnston: It might not be the same amount of anxiety, I would term it, in Boston, but there is a similar situation playing out and that’s with centre Pavel Zacha, who is also due to become an unrestricted free agent after this season and enters his final year of his contract without an extension in place. I think in a perfect world, sure, the Bruins would love to have him signed to a new deal. There have been some discussions about that. But getting to the right number has proven to be a challenge, and it’s a challenge, quite frankly as teams, agents and players are wrestling with around the league as we see contracts skyrocket in the going value for players only going up.
So this will be an interesting one to wait out because if Zacha isn’t signed at some point during the season, he could very well find himself on the trade board, on a trade bait list as one of the few centres that could play in the top six that could be available. Of course, that’s getting ahead of ourselves a little bit because Boston would like to keep the player, but it’s a bit of a dance that begins.
Right now my sense is Zacha is in no rush to get anything done as he focuses on playing his game.
Reda: Dregs, the Leafs got quite the scare in their home opener, but it looks like they dodged a bullet.
Dreger: Yeah, cut resistant protection. By the way of a sock, Jake McCabe, veteran defenseman for the Toronto Maple Leafs wears on a regular basis. Now, you can see here this hit by Jake Evans, finds Evans’ skate going down towards the ankle of Jake McCabe and McCabe automatically looks at his foot. He knows something isn’t right. Now I’m told that he did suffer a minor injury. He left the game, came back into the game, a scrape or a small cut. But if he was not wearing that protection, the belief is that his injury could have been much more severe.
Reda: Man, that just looks so bad. We’re happy he’s OK. Hockey Canada has got a huge decision to make. who’s going to be the next GM to lead the country in the upcoming best on best events. Who do you figure the leading candidates are right now, Pierre?
LeBrun: Yeah, the leading candidates are part of the group that worked with Doug Armstrong under the Olympic management team. Doug Armstrong, of course, as you know, Gino, stepped down in March after being the GM for the Olympics. So those candidates would include the likes of Kyle Dubas, Julien BriseBois, Don Sweeney, and the veteran three-time GM award winner Jim Nill.
Scott Salmon, Hockey Canada executive, is slated to meet with those four candidates in and around the Nov. 10 GM meetings in Toronto to pick their brain, see what their interest level is, and at some point make a decision from there who will be the next GM. Now here’s the other undecided question right now for Hockey Canada. Do they name a GM for both the World Cup of Hockey in February 2028 and the 2030 Winter Olympics or is it a one-off? Is it just the World Cup of Hockey and then another decision made on the GM for the Olympics? That remains undecided.
So is who will be the head coach. Not guarantee that John Cooper will be back behind the bench. That will be up to the new GM of Team Canada. Of course Cooper will be in the mix. How could he not be. But hey, Rod Brind’Amour just won a Stanley Cup. Paul Maurice won back-to-back cups. There are certainly more than a few choices to lead Team Canada behind the bench.
Johnston: And meanwhile, major international hockey news is pending on Friday with an election of a new president of the International Ice Hockey Federation in Tenerife. That’s a decision that’s going to come down between Germany’s Franz Reindel and Petr Briza of Czechia. And that’s something that has a lot of implications back here in North America, especially as the NHL looks to expand its reach in having more international events.
There’s still a deal to be reached for the 2030 Olympics formally to send the NHL players back there. And even whether the IIHF at all will be involved in the 2028 World Cup in terms of sanctioning that among the items that are to be dealt with in short order after that president is put in place.
Reda: They are the insiders, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger.
