NHL Rumour Roundup: Latest buzz around Capitals, Blues, Canadiens

The NHL is back in full swing following the 4 Nations Face-Off, and that means the rumour mill is heating up again, too.

With the March 7 trade deadline less than two weeks away, here’s a collection of news and notes from around the league making headlines right now.

What does Washington’s success mean for deadline approach?

The Washington Capitals have been flying all season, the group galvanized by Alex Ovechkin’s countdown to goal-scoring history and sitting comfortably atop not just the Metropolitan Division but the entire Eastern Conference.

Their healthy lead in the standings, combined with Ovechkin’s hunt for history — he’s now just 13 goals shy of passing Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record after a hat trick Sunday against Edmonton — is going to make Washington’s stretch run a really fun one to watch. But what does their contender status mean for the team’s trade deadline dealings?

In Monday’s edition of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman cautioned against the club making many moves for fear of messing with chemistry, citing a 2010 run cut short due to too much deadline activity interrupting the roster’s flow.

“A third-liner, Scott Laughton-type, I could see that,” said Friedman. “But I would be very, very careful about messing with what they have.”

Laughton has a year left on his deal with the Flyers, but his name has been around the deadline rumour mill plenty as a depth forward with an affordable cap hit ($3 million through 2025-26). Another argument in favour of keeping the tinkering to a minimum is the Capitals’ approach in 2018, when they won it all after mostly standing pat at the deadline. The biggest deal they did that year was sending a third-round pick to Chicago for defenceman Michal Kempny, which worked out really well. Kempny slotted in seamlessly onto the blue line and helped the club hoist the Cup.

Another reason we could see a quiet deadline for the Capitals is the fact that their biggest boost is already in the system — forward Ryan Leonard, star of both the USNTDP and Boston College, will make the jump into the NHL once his NCAA career wraps this spring. His skillset and big-game experience at the world juniors has him projected as someone who can make an immediate impact upon signing with and making his debut in Washington.

Deadline chatter could get loud in St. Louis

While the rumour mill around the Capitals could be pretty quiet, St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong expects things to get pretty noisy thanks to all the uncertainty around the roster and whether this is a group Armstrong will build around, or if he’ll opt to sell.

“As we say every year, the players will tell us what we’re going to do,” Armstrong told Blues reporter Andy Strickland during a pre-game sit-down on the team’s broadcast on Sunday. “Right now, we have a massive uphill battle. I think we really dropped the ball coming out of Christmas. (Head coach Jim Montgomery) had done a nice job getting the guys in a good spot and then we didn’t take advantage of a really positive schedule in January. Now everyone has to live with the white noise around us until mid-March, but we’ve created that for ourselves.”

More than one team is looking at reuniting the Schenns

Some of the noise in St. Louis is focused on the club’s captain, Brayden Schenn — though, trade interest also includes his brother, Luke, in Nashville. As Friedman reported during his “Saturday Headlines” segment on Hockey Night in Canada, “teams have talked about uniting the Schenn brothers.”

The key word here is “teams” — as in, more than one.

“I think a couple have discussed it,” Friedman said during Monday’s podcast, revisiting the subject.

It would take a lot of logistics to make not just one trade happen, but two. The brothers share an agent, which would streamline talks a little, but it would take some cap maneuvering on the part of the club acquiring them — Brayden still has three more seasons on his contract at $6.5 million a year, while Luke has one more at $2.75 million.

Both Schenns bring Stanley Cup-winning experience and veteran leadership, as well as more than a little sandpaper to their respective skillsets.

But … are both Schenns actually available?

“Nashville’s trying to get younger, faster. You could see them, if it creates some flexibility for them, you could see them saying, ‘Yeah, we’ll do that,’” said Friedman. “I think it’s a harder one for St. Louis. He’s their captain. It’s not that it’s impossible, but they’ve set a really high price on him.

“I don’t know what the likelihood of this is — it might be impossible,” added Friedman. “But I was told there were two teams, legitimately, at least, that have thought about it — or asked about it.”

Canadiens considering a package deal?

The Montreal Canadiens are in position to sell at the deadline, but without a true top trade chip in play, it’ll be hard to see them landing the kind of return that can help them as they continue their rebuild.

But as Arpon Basu of The Athletic reported on Monday, a package deal including forwards Jake Evans and Joel Armia “could bring back something significant.” The Canadiens’ goal, writes Basu, is “to add a third first-round pick in the upcoming draft.” Basu points out that a first-rounder seems to be the going rate for a pair of forwards, as we’ve seen in recent deals between the Canucks and Penguins, and the Stars and Sharks. Armia and Evans would bring instant chemistry and penalty-kill know-how to a contender, making them an intriguing duo.

Hurricanes in holding pattern on Rantanen — and other teams could be, too

The blockbuster deal that saw the Colorado Avalanche trade pending UFA Mikko Rantanen to Carolina at the end of January caught Rantanen completely by surprise, and he hasn’t had much time to soak up his new surroundings. Of the six games he played for the Hurricanes before breaking for the 4 Nations Face-Off, just two were home matchups, giving him little time and space to acclimate to life in Raleigh.

Although the team has made it clear it wants to keep him long-term, Rantanen has indicated he wants to take a little bit of time before deciding his future. That’s understandable, but also makes things a bit complicated for the Hurricanes’ deadline outlook. And other clubs are watching closely.

“I don’t want to say Rantanen is holding up the trade deadline, because I don’t believe that’s true,” said Friedman. “But I do think that there are teams that are looking at it and saying, ‘Maybe we don’t make our biggest move until we know for sure what his situation is.’”

Friedman believes the offer on the table is an eight-year contract worth somewhere between $12.5 million and $14 million per year. Recent rumours have suggested that if Rantanen knows he doesn’t want to stay with the Hurricanes, the club could flip him before the deadline as a true rental. It could also keep him as its own true rental, going all-in for the Stanley Cup after several years of contending, or simply take the chance that Rantanen will feel comfortable signing after the deadline.

“I think this is now purely a matter of Rantanen to make his decision, one way or the other,” said Friedman.

Jones’ trade request not driven by team

News out of Chicago last week, thanks to Blackhawks reporter Ben Pope, saw Seth Jones declare his interest in being traded to a team that gives him an opportunity to win.

“He hasn’t given a list of teams or anything like that, from what I understand,” Friedman said on Monday’s podcast. “I think he said he prefers a contender. And I think the Blackhawks have also indicated that if it doesn’t work, I don’t think they’ve got a problem with keeping him. This sounds like it’s more Jones-driven than Blackhawks-driven.”

Here’s the thing about that: There are teams with cap space available to accommodate Jones’ $9.5-million cap hit — and the four remaining years of that deal. But those clubs aren’t contenders.

One interesting case brought up by Friedman, based on standings and salary cap and not actual speculation around the rumour mill, is Jones’ old club, the Columbus Blue Jackets. The team is playing meaningful hockey sitting just outside of the second wild-card spot. Jones spent six years there before being dealt to Chicago, and a return would see him fit in well both in the lineup and in the books.

“I would be curious, does he think that qualifies as a contender?” said Friedman.

All eyes on Tkachuk’s injury status in Florida

One club that fits the bill in terms of a contender? The Florida Panthers. Friedman makes it clear in Monday’s podcast that he isn’t reporting any discussions between Jones’ camp and the Panthers, but suggested the fit — in terms of Florida’s need for a right-shot, puck-moving defender — is really intriguing. And he’s right.

Here’s where things get … unclear: Cap-wise, there’s a lot riding on the still-to-be-determined status of Matthew Tkachuk, who suffered an injury during the 4 Nations Face-Off that is believed to be long-term. During a Florida radio show Monday morning, head coach Paul Maurice said the team is still waiting for a definitive timeline but did say “he’s playing for us this year.”

Whether that means a return just ahead of the finale of the regular season or a long-term IR stint and a return during the playoffs is still very much up in the air. But if Tkachuk is ruled out for the remainder of the regular season? Well, that makes things interesting, giving the Panthers room to play on the trade market and potentially be in play for Jones.

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