Insider Trading: Don't expect big Oilers move in wake of Kane injury
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Host Gino Reda is joined by TSN Hockey Insiders Pierre LeBrun, Darren Dreger, and Chris Johnston to discuss what safety measures could come out of Evander Kane’s injury, what’s in store for Borje Salming during Hall of Fame weekend, the future of the World Cup of Hockey, and more on Insider Trading.i
The medical staff was amazing after Edmonton Oilers forward Evander Kane’s injury, but did this event have the hockey community wondering what else could be done?
Darren Dreger: Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like the National Hockey League is any closer to making any sort of added protection mandatory. What I can tell you is that the NHL has an protection sub-committee and they do talk with the NHL and NHLPA where they’ve pushed more information about what’s available.
At least five different companies supply a Kevlar-based wrist sleeve. If you go back to 2019 when then Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ilya Mikheyev’s wrist was cut, he wasn’t wearing a sleeve. Well, he wears it now with the Vancouver Canucks. Evander Kane wasn’t wearing a wrist sleeve but it’s very likely Kane will be wearing a sleeve when he returns in the new year.
A good number of NHL players wear the Kevlar sock and maybe that’s a response to the Erik Karlsson injury when he was with the Ottawa Senators. Unfortunately, there’s no movement to make any of this available protection mandatory in the NHL.
Pierre LeBrun: In the meantime, Oilers fans are wondering what they are going to do without Kane after that scary injury. Specifically, could Oilers general manager Ken Holland go out and replace him? That’s going to happen for a number of reasons. First, that [type of] player is not available but more specifically it’s a CBA reason. Kane is going to come back in February or March if all goes well and they need that cap number on the books for him to come back so they can’t go out and spend those cap savings.
It's no different than the Colorado Avalanche living without captain Gabriel Landeskog and winger Valeri Nichushkin right now. When you get an injury this early in the season that’s this significant, it’s the worst timing of all for a team that’s close to the cap. Edmonton has to rely on their depth and obviously they’ve recalled forwards Mattias Janmark and Klim Kostin.
What do the Toronto Maple Leafs have planned for the legendary Borje Salming?
Chris Johnston: This has the makings to be a really memorable weekend in Toronto for Borje Salming and his family. They are making the trip over from Sweden and I’m told they have arrived safely in the city. Depending on how Salming is feeling [the former Maple Leafs defenceman announced in August that he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease], the Maple Leafs and the Hockey Hall of Fame are both looking to honour him over the weekend.
On Friday, the Hall of Fame will have honoured members at the Leafs game prior to their matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins. As usual, Salming will be a part of that, health permitting. On Saturday, the Leafs are hoping to have Salming back again prior to their game against the Vancouver Canucks and honour him completely on his own.
As I said, it all depends on how Salming is feeling throughout this weekend but there’s a lot being planned to honour the man now that he’s made his way to Toronto.
Anaheim Ducks forward Trevor Zegras made a special play on Wednesday and the referees spoiled the moment. They got it right but is it time to try to figure out a way around this party spoiler?
Darren Dreger: I would say it is because the NHL is constantly reminding us that they’re trying to grow the game. We know that Zegras, based on his skillset, is a big part of selling hockey to the fringe fan.
The NHL got it right, it wasn’t called on the ice but the call was made on a coach’s challenge. The idea of tweaking this rule is pretty much a hard “no” by the NHL decision-makers, although some I’ve talked to wondered about maybe talking about the idea of a “time clause”. So if the goal is scored in 20 or 30 seconds after the puck has crossed the blue line and the offensive team has entered the zone, then it’s a good goal. I think this is going be a difficult sell.
For the record, Zegras scored 29 seconds after Anaheim gained the zone.
What is happening with Martin Brodeur’s post-career climb in the NHL management ranks?
Pierre LeBrun: It’s been an interesting path for him post-playing career. You may remember he got his feet wet in hockey operations as an assistant general manager with the St. Louis Blues under Doug Armstrong. But he eventually found that life on the road and all the scouting is a little too time consuming in terms of raising a young son and wanting to spend more time at home. It’s one of the reasons that he transitioned to the business job with the New Jersey Devils.
But now the time is right. I spoke with Marty Brodeur after they made the announcement to name him executive vice-president of hockey operations. He feels he can commit more time to the grind of what this job is going to need. He’s 100 per cent hockey operations, [and has] no more business responsibilities with the Devils.
One thing Brodeur wanted to stress to me was that he reports to Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald. This isn’t Brodeur coming in and being president of hockey operations. He’s working under Fitzgerald as Brodeur continues to learn this craft.
Let’s also be honest, he has a pretty good relationship with the owners in New Jersey.
As hockey’s leadership from around the world gather at the Hockey Hall of Fame this week, they have an important topic to discuss.
Chris Johnston: That would be the World Cup of Hockey and whether it can be held in February of 2024 as has been planned and discussed for some time now. I’m told there’s already been multiple discussions about pushing it back and not having it at that point in time.
With IIHF president Luc Tardif in Toronto this weekend, there will be another meeting where some resolution is expected to come quite quickly in the near future and we’ll get some clarity on when that tournament may be held.