The Toronto Maple Leafs are running out of time to sign restricted free agent William Nylander and as each day passes, general manager Kyle Dubas may be more and more inclined to look to deal Nylander before they lose him for the season.
In Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada segment, Elliotte Friedman said that if/when the Maple Leafs decide to move Nylander, expect the Carolina Hurricanes to be ready to make a deal.
“When the time does come — if the time does come that Toronto decides they are going to deal [Nylander] — Carolina has made it very clear that they are all in,” said Friedman.
Carolina has a number of key assets that might interest Toronto, including defensemen Justin Faulk and Brett Pesce. Nylander would be another key piece for the Hurricanes to build up their forward core that already includes Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov.
- The Philadelphia Flyers lost one of their goalies Saturday when Michal Neuvirth was sent back home to Philadelphia for medical reasons. Now, Sam Carchidi of Philly.com writes that Brian Elliott left practice early today after he collided with teammate Travis Konecny. The injury-prone goalie left holding his head, but there is no update, nor is it known if he can play in Monday’s game against Arizona. If not, Calvin Pickard will fill in for him and the team may have to recall Alex Lyon from Lehigh Valley of the AHL. The 33-year-old Elliott has been adequate at best so far in 10 appearances this year. He has a 3.10 GAA and an .893 save percentage.
- The Athletic’s Joe Smith (subscription required) reports that Tampa Bay Lightning head coach said defenseman Victor Hedman, who has been out since Oct. 26 when he collided with Vegas’ Ryan Reaves will be out on Tuesday, but could be ready to return later this week.
- With lots of mailbag questions about Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask, NBC Sports Joe Hagerty writes that he doubts the team would be able to trade the struggling Rask in any upcoming deal. The 31-year-old Rask, who has been outplayed by free agent Jaroslav Halak so far this season, has a 3.15 GAA and a .902 save percentage in six appearances. However, his contract ($7MM AAV for two more years after this one), but more particularly his no-trade clause will prevent Boston from moving him. While many teams might want to give Rask a new opportunity, Haggerty writes he doesn’t believe that Rask has any interest in leaving Boston and wouldn’t be willing to waive his no-trade clause.
Would love to be free of KaaKaa Rask. Sadly, the Bruins would need a solid return package in trade to FINALLY show him the door while taking his inclination for CHOKING HABITS with him….. I don’t HATE the guy on a personal level, seems like a good enough dude, but he has NEVER been clutch enough and almost assuredly WON’T EVER win the Bruins a Stanley Cup in net. He quite simply CAN’T STEAL games in net to save his life. Really glad they signed a fellow Taurus in Halak to take the place and ability of Dobby IF we were going to lose him anyway. Which of course we did, for less than 100K, extremely petty on the BARFalo Jacobs family’s part. Halak has looked great in net, hope the Bruins front office are keeping their options open, b/c if Boston can upgrade in net for cheap while keeping Halak and losing Rask’s insane salary cap hit, I’d say they should JUMP AT IT.
Bruins fans like me KNEW what Rask was long before Haggery the doucher jumped on the band wagon.
Next big move for Willie Ny & co-agent Papa Mike will be to insist on being treated as a UFA, instead of the RFA that he really is AND to state he has a no-move clause so he can’t be traded without EXTRA compensation… Remember, ya heard it here first!