TSN’s Hockey Insiders have the latest on Russia being barred from this year’s World Juniors in Alberta by Prime Minister Mark Carney, where Nikita Kucherov is on his short-list for trade destinations, the struggling Jets, Dylan Larkin and Simon Edvinsson and more.
JAMES DUTHIE: Your Insiders - Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger.
It was last Friday that the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the IIHF must allow Russia back in international hockey tournaments. But since then, a bunch of countries have said they’re not playing if Russia is playing.
Now our Prime Minister, CJ, is saying that they will definitely not be at the World Juniors in Alberta.
CHRIS JOHNSTON: Yeah, Mark Carney could not have been more equivocal with his answer on Tuesday night.
It was surprising, even to those that have been intimately involved in these discussions over the last four days, because it was not clear until those words came out of the Prime Minister’s mouth that this is exactly where it was going at this point in time.
Let’s go back to Friday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturns a IIHF ban. Since then, we’ve seen multiple countries say that they will not play against Russia in an international event, but they still fall under the Court of Arbitration for Sport umbrella.
The government is obviously a different matter entirely, and the World Junior tournament in Edmonton and Red Deer starting on Dec. 26th is going to be the first event after this decision. So, the fact the government has said Russia won’t be there is pretty significant.
We’ll still digest exactly what this means, but I can tell you that Hockey Canada had discussions throughout the weekend and in the last few days with the federal government and other key stakeholders trying to get an understanding what would happen with visas, who would foot the bill for the extra cost, perhaps with security with the Russian athletes there, but all that becomes moot if the Canadian government isn’t going to let the Russians into the country.
DUTHIE: Meanwhile, the best Russian hockey player in the National Hockey League, Nikita Kucherov, is still maintaining he’s done in Tampa, even though Tampa says they aren’t going to trade him.
Is there a list yet of where he wants to go, assuming they get to that point, Pierre?
PIERRE LeBRUN: It’s very premature to be talking about a shortlist of interest for Kucherov, and there’s some obvious reasons for this.
One is that Kucherov was so focused on making this very difficult decision, he hasn’t even sat down and done a deep dive on where exactly he thinks his NHL career will eventually continue. And so I’m told that no, there is no shortlist right now.
Of course, we know that teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens, and listen, 20-plus teams are doing their due diligence on what it would take to get Kucherov.
But there is a lot of time here, especially because Julien BriseBois, the GM of the Lightning, not only said in a statement he has no intention of trading him, he told Kucherov face-to-face in a meeting Friday in Nashville that he does not intend on trading him.
So, this smells more like a July 1 situation than a March 1 situation. In that context, Kucherov has a lot of time to do a deep dive on the list of teams that he wants to come up with.
DUTHIE: Just a crazy start to the season in the NHL. Kucherov, before that we had Connor Hellebuyck.
The Winnipeg Jets, by the way, haven’t won since Hellebuyck was traded. Of course, they lost a bunch before Hellebuyck was traded.
It’s a mess right now. How deep is the level of concern there, Dregs?
DARREN DREGER: Well, it’s very deep. There’s no sense of firing, so Scott Arniel, at least for the moment, is safe. But that could change with another loss. The losses continue to mount. So if things don’t change on the scoresheet, then change in some form is inevitable.
General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff is open to the idea of making another trade - Nino Niederreiter’s name is out there in some capacity - but the belief within this organization is that the fix is also there within the club.
And so they’ve got to come out, they’ve got to play better as a group defensively than they have. They’ve got to find a way to overall execute better in all three zones. The belief inside the room is still there, but if the losses continue to mount, then change has to come.
DUTHIE: You have Dylan Larkin, who played second fiddle to Hellebuyck as far as big names out there wanting to be traded. Hellebuyck gets moved, and now Larkin takes a backseat to Kucherov on the big names wanting to be traded.
Anything new out of Detroit, Pierre?
LeBRUN: Here’s where I’d say the situation is at right now - it’s a bit of a game of poker in that the Red Wings have told Larkin’s camp they feel like they’ve exhausted every option here with these 10 teams on his list. They’re just not there with a trade that makes sense for them.
But they would like to go deeper in talks with six to eight other teams outside his list, where the Red Wings believe there’s more fertile ground to find the kind of package they need.
Those six to eight teams that aren’t on the list include the likes of Montreal, Boston, L.A., and Buffalo, as we talked about. But Larkin’s camp, led by agent Pat Brisson, has told the Red Wings again, I’m told over the last few days, no.
They gave them 10 teams, which was more than the three teams they gave at the beginning, you can work with those 10 teams. So a line drawn in the sand right now, someone has to blink for Larkin to get traded.
DREGER: Yeah, and I can tell you that Detroit still sees a glimmer of hope, maybe a slight possibility, that Simon Edvinsson can be re-signed by the club.
I don’t see that at all. What I see is a growing frustration with both Edvinsson and Larkin from the teams that have expressed interest in these players that Shawn Horcoff, the interim general manager, isn’t willing to negotiate up off those existing offers that have been tabled again on both of these players.
The Red Wings keep looking for the perfect package. Maybe it’s outside the list of teams on Larkin. Perhaps it’s outside the level of interest in Edvinsson. But the waiting game appears to be a dangerous one.
DUTHIE: And the Bruins seem to be one of those teams mentioned with both Edvinsson and Larkin right now.
They appear to be legitimate, reasons to buy at this point. 11-4-1, great start to lead the Atlantic.