Welcome to another edition of ! As the 2023-24 regular season has ended, teams are already strategizing for the postseason and the next season. The teams who missed the playoffs keenly evaluate what changes must be made to elevate their game. Trades and free agency will be the key methods they employ to pave their path to success. What could these changes mean for the teams and their future performanceassistant captain toronto maple leafs? Let’s dive in.
This Sunday edition of NHL Rumors will examine the Vegas Golden Knights, Chicago Blackhawks, and the Vancouver Canucks.
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NHL rumors in this edition include:
How will the Golden Knights create cap space to sign Jonathan Marchessault? Will the Blackhawks go after a true veteran player like Matt Duchene? Do the Canucks have their eye on adding Martin Necas?
Rumor: Per – Lyle Richardson – bleacherreport.com. The Vegas club has just $897,516 with 20 active roster players under contract. To keep Marchessault in Vegas, they will need to move some contracts.
The Athletic’s Jesse Granger suggested a defenseman such as Zach Whitecloud or Shea Theodore could become a trade candidate. There’s also the possibility that Robin Lehner will remain on LTIR along with his $5 million cap hit. It is estimated that renewing Marchessault’s contract will take about $7.22 million for a four-year deal. Whitecloud has a $2.75 million cap allocation through the 27-28 season. Theodore attracts a $5.2 million contract expiring after next season.
Adin Hill‘s contract, which is good for $4.9 million through next season, may also be considered. GM Kelly McCrimmon has many options.
If Marchessault wants to stay in Vegas (he is one of four remaining original expansion team members), he could accept a lower contract in the $6-$6.5 million range. That may take the tight hold off of McCrimmon’s purse to work things out.
Theodore is the likely trade candidate, considering the team acquired Noah Hanifin and his $7.35 million contract for the next eight years. Theodore and Hanifin have very similar playing styles and abilities. Their biggest strength is their skating, which helps with breakouts and transitions. Hanifin replaced Theodore on the top power-play unit down the stretch, and it performed better.
We should know by the summer which direction the Golden Knights will take. Losing a player like Marchessault would definitely hurt their offensive firepower. He collected an average of 0.81 points per game over his seven years in Sin City. Tough to replace that.
Rumor: Per – Rob Couch – thehockeynews.com. Duchene would bring leadership and much-needed scoring, and Chicago will start to see more winning.
The Stars have five restricted free agents, and seven unrestricted free agents (besides Duchene) and only $15.9 million to pay everyone. Just considering the ageless wonder of Joe Pavelski ($5.5M) and enough cap space needed to retain Duchene is reduced significantly. Pavelski continues to perform with 27 goals and 40 assists while playing in all 82 regular season games this year.
Duchene has a very reasonable $3 million cap hit, but with the numbers he produced this season (25-G, 40-A) he could command much more.
Enter the Blackhawks who have tons of cap space with $33.8 million to spend and it’s obvious that he would be able to receive more money and a longer term. He still has speed and that could take some pressure off of the Hawks’ superstar Connor Bedard. Duchene can play either center or wing, and assuredly would add some veteran presence to the Hawks’ young lineup. Sounds like a perfect fit.
Rumor – Per Elliotte Friedman – sportsnet.ca. The Canucks like Necas and he could become a Canuck soon.
Necas is set to become a restricted free agent this summer, and with the Hurricanes cap situation, he might be the odd man out. While the Canucks have their own in-house free-agent decisions to make, Friedman does reference what GM Patrik Allivin said during his exit interview.queen’s university hockey jersey
“I think the Canucks like the player. I think Carolina is going to have some options here. You heard Patrik Allvin yesterday talking about what they were looking at,” Friedman said. “Necas, from a pure hockey point of view, forgetting the contract for a second because Vancouver has some hoops to jump through, [but] I can see that fit. I think it is something that the Canucks are at least looking at.”
The Canucks would need to make some cap space adjustments to acquire Necas, but they urgently need a top-six forward in their lineup. That becomes especially true if Elias Lindholm moves on elsewhere. They were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in seven games failing to advance to the Western Conference Finalice hockey jersey kids. One can be certain that to get to the Cup Final next season, adding someone like Necas must be on their radar.
That concludes this edition of NHL rumors. Be sure to catch our next article, and thanks for reading!
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