TSN’s Hockey Insiders with an update on Norris Trophy winning defenceman Zach Werenski, the Leafs preparing a pitch as Sergei Bobrovsky goes to market, the Jets and Connor Hellebuyck, Dylan Larkin and Vincent Trocheck and the latest on the Golden Knights clearing cap space.
GINO REDA: Here are the Insiders, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger.
Here’s what we know about Zach Werenski: he just won the Norris, he’s locked up for two more years at just over $9.5 million per year, and apparently he’s generating huge interest, Pierre.
PIERRE LeBRUN: He is. That trade market is starting to take shape. I don’t know if it’s starting to take shape fast enough for Werenski and his agent, Judd Moldaver, who I think would have liked this trade to have been done yesterday.
And remember, tomorrow’s not a trade deadline, it’s Free Agent Frenzy. This trade could take days, it could take weeks. It’s hard to say exactly depending on how this develops.
But here’s what we know. The Blue Jackets front office over the last few days have poured over the offers, have looked at the different scenarios. Tampa Bay is the team of choice for Werenski. Now, whether or not there’s a trade with Tampa Bay that can satisfy Columbus is another factor altogether. You know, does that require a third team getting involved?
We’ve talked about the Dallas Stars. Could Columbus go get Thomas Harley in a Werenski trade? That could be enticing.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, yes, they are in the mix. Matthew Knies would be part of any package that Columbus would look at. But again, I don’t know if the Leafs have enough assets to entice the Blue Jackets.
Philadelphia wants in badly on Werenski, and there are other teams. The bottom line is, Columbus does not want to make a futures deal. They want to make a hockey trade and that’s not easy to do.
After seven seasons and two Stanley Cups with the Florida Panthers, Sergei Bobrovsky is about to go to the open market. How did we get here and what’s next, C.J.?
CHRIS JOHNSTON: Well, we got here, in essence, because the Panthers opted to go in another direction. They had a long contract stalemate amid discussions with Bobrovsky, and even with Bobrovsky’s ask softening slightly in recent weeks, they went and got Jacob Markstrom. And that does put Bobrovsky out there on the free agent market.
I think it’s going to be an interesting contract one way or another. At one point in time, Bobrovsky was asking for a six-year deal, despite the fact he’ll be 38 years old when next season starts in Florida.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to be among the teams that see if there’s a fit there. I think what’s interesting from Toronto’s end of things here, we heard John Chayka when he went and got Darren Raddysh say they knew there was risk involved in that contract, but obviously the Leafs are in an aggressive remake, remodel frame of mind right now.
A Bobrovsky deal, if it’s a long-term one, would have some risk to it as well.
DARREN DREGER: I mean, for me, the goalie market is fascinating. You talk about Bobrovsky, where he might land, the Jacob Markstrom trade, sending him to the Panthers, and we went through an entire draft weekend wondering whether or not Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets would finally get moved, and likely move, to the Buffalo Sabres. Yet, here we are.
The pressure of the draft is behind us because those potential picks are no longer in play. Kevin Cheveldayoff, the general manager of the Jets, continues to sit and wait and look for the interest that is still out there, but not as aggressive as he and the Jets would like.
So, all parties who are interested in Hellebuyck continue to work at it. They’re trying to be as creative as they can be. Many of the teams that we speculated on remain kind of there as tire kickers, with the exception of the Panthers, and there’s some curiosity around the Carolina Hurricanes. Less so around the New Jersey Devils, there was that speculation when Markstrom got moved.
But it seems like Winnipeg is willing to continue to be patient.
REDA: There are a couple of centres looking for a change of scenery. What’s the latest on Dylan Larkin and Vincent Trocheck, Dregs?
DREGER: Yeah, and both of those guys are linked. It seems likely that if Larkin gets traded, then Trocheck, most likely, will be not that far behind.
I know a number of teams that have expressed some interest in Trocheck have circled back. To this point, Larkin has not been willing to expand his no-trade list, and it’s a limited list, as we know.
That puts the Detroit Red Wings in a real bind here. They know what they need to replace the talent of Larkin. They can’t go backwards in a deal like this.
So if a deal doesn’t materialize, if Larkin doesn’t expand his limited no-trade list, well, then that means that the Red Wings are expecting Larkin to show up in training camp. I don’t think that would be best case scenario for either the player or the team.
Maybe Trocheck and the New York Rangers will pull the trigger sooner rather than later. But again, these two veteran centres are linked in some capacities.
REDA: The salary cap is going up by $8.5 million this summer. That, combined with clearing out some cash, Vegas is ready to spend, C.J.?
JOHNSTON: It certainly looks like it. Tuesday’s deal to acquire Parker Wotherspoon for Kaedan Korczak, the net result of that for the Vegas Golden Knights is another $2.75 million in cap savings next season.
You couple that with the moves of Akira Schmid and Pavel Dorofeyev over the weekend, and all of a sudden we have the answer to the question we were wondering: where’s Vegas going to find the money to keep Rasmus Andersson? Because of course, the defenceman they acquired back in January is a pending UFA, long believed to be going back to Vegas.
On this day, sources do confirm everything is on track for him to sign an extension with the Golden Knights. They have more than enough cap room to accommodate that. Plus, they may have somewhere between $7 and $8 million beyond that to make some other moves.
So the Golden Knights, always a well-run team, are ready to load up. The Stanley Cup finalists trying to improve.
REDA: They are the Insiders, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger.
