NHL Trade Rumors Roundup 2/7/20
Our daily trek around the NHL rumor mill brings you more rumblings from the U.S. to Canada. Let’s dive right in and see what fun awaits us as we continue to the February 24th, Trade Deadline.
Canucks Looking to Beef Up
The NJ Devils will be sellers at the deadline, and one player drawing interest is power forward Wayne Simmonds. The 31 year old UFA rental has respectable numbers with 5 goals and 19 points on a downright awful hockey club this season. He’d be a perfect fit in Vancouver who are looking to beef up for the playoffs. The Devils can’t expect more than a 2nd round pick in return, but that franchise is thinking about building around Jack Hughes now for the foreseeable future. Pierre Lebrun recently noted that the Canucks were considering signing him this summer before NJ did.
P.K. Subban Traded Again?
I am hearing some rumblings out of NJ that after this disastrous season the Devils may consider trading Subban for a monster package of picks, prospects or young NHL players. The future in NJ is all around Jack Hughes and keeping the 30 year old Subban isn’t a bad idea, but the return could be immense. And while he comes with a 9M cap hit, his base salary next season is just $2M (+6M signing bonus) which means it could open him up to a number of small market teams as well.
Leafs targeting Dumba and Manson
With Morgan Rielly and now Cody Ceci out with injury the Leafs are scouring the market for a defenseman. The Toronto Sun is speculating that either Minnesota’s Matt Dumba or Anaheim’s Josh Manson are possible targets. After acquiring a cheap backup and a depth forward, Kyle Dubas could use Andreas Johnsson or Kasperi Kapanen to make a deal work.
New York Nonsense
Pierre Lebrun reported yesterday that the Rangers and Chris Kreider are going to talk contract in the next coming days. I spoke with a team source and was told this is just part of the process and the first step of many. This happened with Kevin Hayes last year as well and the Rangers still moved him at the deadline. I do expect the same here, but I also expect an attempt to sign him in the offseason.
However, the biggest news coming out of NY is from Larry Brooks as he not only speculates about buying out Henrik Lundqvist but trading Jacob Trouba before his NMC kicks in. I wrote about the insanity of a buyout here and discussing Trouba makes no sense at all to me.
Last note out of NY is on RFA Tony DeAngelo who spoke with Lohud on his future. His responses were standard but in conclusion he felt pretty confident he would remain a Ranger this summer.
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