The Capitals will have T.J. Oshie back and ready for next season. After a broken collarbone ended his postseason prematurely, the winger told reporters including J.J. Regan of NBC Sports Washington that he has fully recovered and will be ready for training camp. He also suggested that there would have been a chance that he could have suited up in the Stanley Cup Final if Washington would have made it there. The 32-year-old was on pace for a 30-goal season last year and with the team losing some of its secondary scoring with the departures of Brett Connolly (free agency) and Andre Burakovsky (trade), they’ll be counting on Oshie to produce at a similar level this season.
More from the East:
- The Rangers are close to rounding out their coaching staff with AHL Hartford. After hiring Kris Knoblauch as head coach and Gord Murphy as an assistant, New York is set to turn to David Cunniff to serve as the other assistant with the Wolf Pack, reports Rick Carpinello of The Athletic (subscription required). Cunniff is a veteran coach at the minor league level, spending the last 17 years as an assistant or associate coach in the AHL. He most recently has been with Minnesota’s affiliate in Iowa where he spent two years as an assistant and the last two seasons as their associate bench boss.
- While there was a previous report that defenseman Jake Gardiner had a verbal deal in place with a team, Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun notes that the unrestricted free agent continues to hold off on signing elsewhere in the hopes that he could return to the Maple Leafs. Right now, Toronto’s focus is solely on RFA winger Mitch Marner which certainly makes Gardiner’s patience somewhat of a risky strategy as it doesn’t appear Marner’s situation is getting resolved anytime soon. On the other hand, the team knows that Marner is going to take up pretty much all of their remaining cap room so Toronto would need to find a trade involving someone making a sizable salary for a reunion to be possible.
I understand why gardiner is doing what he’s doing but that’s kinda sad waiting around for marner’s scraps. He’s a good player with some overblown mistakes but waiting to see where your buddy goes to college never works out well. See “Superbad”. Do what’s best for you kid, maple leafs ain’t sittin around waiting for you. Especially with a bad back.
I understand what you saying, but the analogy isn’t great. Gardiner has already been enrolled at TMLU and just would prefer to stay there. Maybe this is a guy who is actually willing to take considerably less than he could get elsewhere to play somewhere familiar and maybe win there??? Maybe not, but it is possible.
I understand that both of you are of the understanding that Lance Hornby is spitting nothing but truth, but the real truth is that the guy is just trying to sell some damn papers. This site doesn’t vet the veracity of hockey facts, just the mentions of rumours. You could believe that Jake is delaying signing his best contractual offer because he really wants…something in Toronto. Or you could believe that’s just a story to grab attention in the offseason.
I wouldn’t say considerably less. Not signed into almost September, he’s maxing out around 1.3 mil
Marner will be going to school in Switzerland.
Gerald! You’re not suggesting….ZURICH!
yep, and all the hot swiss chocolate and marsh-mellows he can drink, I don’t see Marner signing, Dubas is stepping up in proving a point where he had Nylander debacle to look back on.