In just three days, thirty National Hockey League General Managers will gather on the floor at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida for the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.
And like every year, the rumour mill has kicked into high gear as that day approaches.
The Ottawa Senators once again find themselves at the centre of the conversation. With three NHL goalies on their depth chart, the Sens have become one of the most talked about teams leading up to June 26th and with good reason. While Bryan Murray has suggested that he’s willing to head into training camp with three goalies on one way deals, it’s pretty clear that is not his preference.
It’s reached a point where I would be shocked if something didn’t happen before or even during the opening round of the Entry Draft on Friday night.
In fact, this afternoon I was hearing rumours (although not exactly rock solid sources) suggest to me that the deal may be getting closer. And not only did they say it was close, they also mentioned that it could be a “big” deal. I can’t really confirm the validity of those rumours but it does sort of make sense with what we’ve heard from Bryan Murray to this point.
We know Murray is willing to add a piece or two if it means getting back the player he feels this team needs and we also know that in the last couple weeks, the offers haven’t quite been what the Senators were expecting.
The obvious wild card in all this seems to be Cam Talbot. There are as many as five or six teams that have shown interest in the Rangers back up. You would think the teams that miss out on Talbot turn their attention to Lehner and Anderson. And in our first real glimpse into the market for a young goalie, we heard earlier today that the Rangers turned down a pair of second round picks for their guy. Talbot is a few years older than Lehner but I would assume their value is pretty close on the trade market.
Still plenty of teams looking for goaltending help but people I spoke with today still consider the Edmonton Oilers as the team to watch when it comes to a deal with Ottawa.
It’s pretty easy to the potential for a bigger trade between those two teams too. Interested to see how the next few days play out.
-Mark Stone is in Las Vegas to pick up his Calder Trophy tomorrow night in Las Vegas (seriously, he better win) and he brought his agent along with him. Craig Oster, who represents both Stone as well as fellow RFA Mika Zibanejad, met with Bryan Murray and Pierre Dorion this afternoon in an effort to make a little progress on their contract negotiations. For what it’s worth, prior to today anyway, I had heard there actually hadn’t been a whole lot of conversation with Stone and his agent. Sounds like that changed this afternoon. Would be nice if the Senators could send Mark Stone home with a new contract to go with that Calder Trophy. And in case you missed it earlier, Ian Mendes had a terrific piece on Mark Stone over on TSN.ca today. Definitely worth a look.
-Some interesting news from the league this evening as it sounds like they are ready to give 3 on 3 overtime a chance as early as next season. RIP rest of the NHL that has to attempt to defend Erik Karlsson in a 3 on 3 situation. According to the report from Bob McKenzie, they’ll go straight to 3 on 3 for five minutes and then to the shootout. Can’t wait to see that new adjustment in action. The league is also looking to add Coaches challenges on goalie interference and off side calls.
-Murray spoke to the media last night and sort of hinted that he may have to take a little less than he had hoped in the goalie trade. Not overly surprising because as we know, Murray set the bar pretty high to begin with. The reality is the market is a little bit flooded with young goalies right now so team’s have multiple options. As was mentioned above, that doesn’t mean the Senators can’t add pieces on their end to create a larger deal.
