BS Meter on Newest NHL Commerce and Offseason Rumors

It is the playoffs.

Runs are lengthening. Upsets are taking place. Cinderellas are rising.

And within the cities whose groups have both been eradicated or did not qualify for the NHL’s postseason hijinks, rumors are flying.

Which suggests the B/R hockey workers’s BS senses are tingling.

Towards that finish, we took a take a look at a couple of of the most well liked options making the rounds nowadays and utilized our BS Meter litmus take a look at to gauge their voracity. Check out what we got here up with and be at liberty to drop a take of your personal (sizzling or in any other case) within the feedback.

This wasn’t the way in which it was presupposed to play out in New York.

The Rangers have been coming off a playoff closing 4 look final spring and had stocked the aggressive cabinet for a run not less than that deep in 2023.

And once they went to Newark and dealt with the host New Jersey Devils within the first two video games of their first-round collection, it could have been onerous to discover a nonbeliever.

However then the Devils received 4 of the following 5 to kick New York to the curb after simply seven video games, leaving normal supervisor Chris Drury with some choices to make a couple of roster bursting on the seams with wage.

Exhibit A: Artemi Panarin.

The 31-year-old winger has three years remaining on a deal paying higher than $11.6 million per season, however his latest playoff output—two assists in seven video games—after a 92-point common season has some implying that a big deal could be imminent.

It definitely would clear cap room for a workforce about to cope with 5 unrestricted free brokers and a handful of others due raises alongside their restricted statuses so it may’t be dismissed totally. However dealing away a man who’s been your main scorer throughout the final 4 years appears extra a knee-jerk answer than a prudent one.

BS Meter: BS, in all probability.

It is a story as previous as time.

A rumor or a narrative surfaces. The participant talked about within the rumor denies it.

And inside days or even weeks, the situation instructed happens.

Will that be the case because it pertains to Washington ahead Evgeny Kuznetsov? We’ll see.

However there does appear to be loads of smoke to sign a hearth.

Recommendations have been round for a couple of seasons that the 2010 first-round draft choose, now 30, was sad with the Capitals and had requested a commerce. His function on the workforce has modified and his manufacturing has step by step ebbed from a career-high 83 factors in 2017-18 to simply 55 factors in 81 video games this season, alongside an unpleasant -26 ranking.

A Russian tv station reported in March that Kuznetsov had renewed his request to depart D.C. (h/t Russian Machine By no means Breaks), alongside a report from The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir in a mailbag piece that the group is disillusioned with the participant’s 2022-23 efficiency and that “belief is damaged” between the events.

Add within the remark by Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Ideas podcast that divorce is a likely outcome and Kuznetsov’s conditional dismissal of the concept to NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti appears a hole response.

So the actual query is not if Kuznetsov and his $7.8 million price ticket will likely be on the transfer someday quickly, it is when?

BS Meter: Not BS

The Boston Bruins simply completed one of the best common season in NHL historical past.

They received extra video games and compiled extra factors than any workforce ever had and posted different statistics that instructed a run to a Stanley Cup was not solely doable, however nearly a lock.

Till it wasn’t.

Quick-forward seven video games into the playoffs and it was the Bruins trying dejected within the handshake line after blowing a 3-1 collection lead and dropping to the Florida Panthers.

And out of the blue, GM Don Sweeney was hustled right into a busy offseason.

Boston has 9 unrestricted free brokers and two extra due raises as unrestricted gamers, not a ton of wiggle room underneath the wage cap and exactly one draft choose within the first two rounds throughout the following three choice conferences from this summer season by 2025.

May it imply they blow the factor up? Possibly. However it will not be a complete demolition job.

Count on the Bruins to bid farewell to the likes of Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov after their short-term stays following commerce deadline offers. And maybe a mainstay alongside the traces of Taylor Corridor, with two years left on a deal paying him $6 million yearly could possibly be made expendable to permit for the signing of RFA goalie Jeremy Swayman.

Talking of goalies, even the concept of shipping Linus Ullmark out after his 40-win, sub-2.00 goals-against common season has been floated to each free the web for Swayman and take one other deal price $5 million for every of the following two seasons off the books.

And let’s not overlook Patrice Bergeron and David Krejčí, one or each of whom may retire after a mixed 2,326 regular-season video games in spoked-wheel sweaters.

BS Meter: Not totally BS

OK, of us. Fasten your seatbelts. This one’s going to bumpy.

A situation floated apparently second-hand by the New York Submit’s Larry Brooks on Twitter means that the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins could be well-served getting on each other’s family and friends telephone plans this summer season.

Brooks tweeted Tuesday that he’d been “introduced” a collection of occasions wherein Toronto GM Kyle Dubas would head to Pittsburgh to take the identical function with the Penguins after Ron Hextall was fired. He’d deliver coach Sheldon Keefe with him to exchange Mike Sullivan, who’s nonetheless underneath contract however has taken warmth for the workforce’s first playoff miss since 2006.

And Sullivan’s sudden unemployment could be short-lived, as a result of he’d then head to New York to take the Rangers’ teaching reins after they have been stripped from Gerard Gallant after two seasons and one huge playoff flop.

In fact, none of this might happen with out some monetary entanglement.

Sullivan is underneath contract to the Penguins by the top of the 2026-27 season because of an extension he signed final August. Keefe can also be dedicated to the Maple Leafs by the top of subsequent season after his received extension that was signed in October 2021.

Dubas, although, is within the closing yr of a five-year deal and is perhaps among the many least common males in Ontario if Toronto falls to the Florida Panthers after lastly getting over their first-round hump by eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning.

So, if any of that is doable or conceivable and even possible, it is his half, particularly if the early summer season comes and goes and not using a parade on Yonge Avenue.

BS Meter: BS and…possibly not BS

It has been a disappointing couple of seasons in Montreal.

The Canadiens have been the shock story of the NHL’s post-bubble playoffs in 2021, erasing the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and Vegas Golden Knights earlier than dropping to the Tampa Bay Lightning within the Stanley Cup Ultimate.

However any optimism that the mojo would proceed has lengthy since been snuffed.

Montreal has received simply 53 of 164 video games within the subsequent two common seasons, ending eighth within the Atlantic Division twice and failing to qualify for the playoffs.

They drafted first total final summer season and grabbed Slovakian winger Juraj Slafkovsky, however the 19-year-old’s debut season noticed him rating simply 10 factors in 39 video games.

They’re fifth on the board for this summer season’s draft in Nashville, which suggests they will not get Connor Bedard. However they are going to have an opportunity to land a stable expertise in what’s considered one of many deeper drafts lately. Towards that finish, Darren Dreger of TSN stated throughout a latest radio spot that the workforce may be looking to creep up a spot or two within the draft if they will handle a deal with out surrendering an excessive amount of in return.

“I feel they’re interested by shifting,” he stated. “I feel they’re extra interested by shifting up fairly than shifting down. … You need to lean in your newbie scouts and determine who the very best participant is that is more likely to be obtainable. For those who’re snug, then you do not wish to need to spend property to maneuver up.”

A transfer up could enable them an opportunity to select somebody aside from Matvei Michkov, who’s seen as a real expertise however is underneath contract to a workforce in Russia’s KHL till 2026 and would not be a slam dunk to be obtainable at the beginning of, and even throughout, the 2023-24 season. In the event that they keep at No. 5 and he is there, he’d be onerous to cross up whereas additionally being onerous to take.

There have additionally been options the Canadiens trade the pick to Winnipeg for Quebec-born winger Pierre-Luc Dubois.

With so many choices, count on one thing to occur someplace.

BS Meter: Not BS