As another NHL season winds down, another is heating up.
We're just days away from the start of the NHL off-season depending if the Stanley Cup Final between the St.Louis Blues and Boston Bruins goes six or seven games.
With the NHL Draft and free agency approaching, free agent and trade rumours are starting to take shape.
TSN Hockey Insiders Darren Dreger and Pierre LeBrun are in St. Louis covering the cup and on Saturday afternoon, the hockey world received a couple of juicy trade rumours.
On Perry and Phaneuf being possible buyout candidates:
LeBrun: First of all, the Ducks are on the same page as Corey Perry’s camp as to how this might unfold. They have a lot of respect for this guy, former Hart Trophy winner and has done so much for that franchise, but he’s 34 and has a big contract, this is a team that is rebuilding and going young, so they probably will part ways. First, they are talking trades to a number of teams, they would obviously have to eat some of that contract; two more years on his deal at $8.625 million per. Now, if they can’t find a trade partner, certainly a buyout would be the other option here for Corey Perry, which would make him an unrestricted free agent. Still lots to play out, but it does appear that Corey Perry’s days might be numbered with the Anaheim Ducks.
Dion Phaneuf, also two more years on his deal and also 34-years-old and the Kings are talking to teams about him, if they can’t find a trade partner, he’s another possibility for a buyout. The Kings, like the Ducks, are going younger.
On the Oilers and Canucks swapping Milan Lucic for Loui Eriksson:
Dreger: There could be a fit and if you look at it from Edmonton’s perspective, the interest might come from their newly hired coach Dave Tippett who had Loui Eriksson in Dallas for three years, so there is a familiarity there. The Vancouver Canucks do see in Milan Lucic, in that they have a younger team, they have some smallish players if you look at Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson and now you have Quinn Hughes on the back end. Milan Lucic could add a little bit of bite, but for the Vancouver Canucks to consider that type of swap I think that there would have to be some type of sweetener coming from the Edmonton Oilers to take on the extra year.
On the Matt Duchene sweepstakes and which teams are pushing for Jason Zucker:
LeBrun: Matt Duchene will looking at that freshly signed contract in Buffalo from Jeff Skinner as bit of a market there and speaking of the Buffalo Sabres they hope not to be done. They are eying both a second line centre and top six winger on the marker either via trade or through free agency. One name I can throw at you is Jason Zucker who has almost been traded twice by Minnesota over the last six months. He’s a guy that Buffalo has kicked tires on.”
The players mentioned above have been in trade rumours for a considerable amount of time now. While nothing is guaranteed, where there's smoke, there's fire, and if the likes of Dreger and LeBrun are reporting on it, then don't be surprised to see these players find new teams.
