What are the Hurricanes asking for Justin Faulk and what’s going on with Darnell Nurse and the other defensemen rumored to be in talks with the Oilers?
*Disclaimer* – Treat what you’re about to hear as water cooler banter. I’m the farthest thing from close to the organization. I just happen to know some folks who are close to the Oilers that have given me permission to publish what they tell me. You can believe it or not, I leave that up to you.
It sounds like the Hurricanes are being pretty stubborn with Justin Faulk. I’d previously said on numerous occasions that they want Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in return for their co-captain, an outrageous ask in my opinion, and from what I’ve heard from a couple of sources now is it sounds like they’re holding fast on that request. #Dumb
I get that Nuge hasn’t really lived up to the billing of a 1st overall pick production-wise but he’s about to explode onto the scene as McDavid’s left-winger and going to Carolina, he instantly becomes that teams no.1 centre and is possibly flanked by the Wonder Finns, Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen.
Don Waddell can’t be thinking a Nuge for Faulk deal is fair.
Martin Necas is going to be a fantastic winger in the NHL I reckon. Maybe toss him into the deal. Edmonton was considering trading up to get him in the 2017 draft, so there’s interest there.
That said, I’m probably overvaluing Nuge but I still don’t think Necas and Faulk would be enough.
On a completely different note, would a Zack Kassian for Trevor Van Riemsdyk trade be completely out of this world?
DEFENSEMEN
My source has no idea what’s going on with Darnell Nurse right now. So things have gone pretty quiet there. A bit disconcerting if you ask me.
The Oilers were talking to Alexei Emelin’s camp and things were close but it sounds like he MIGHT go elsewhere…
I like Emelin as a one-year stop-gap for the Oilers. He’s not a like-for-like replacement for Sekera mind you but he’s a huge SOB to play against and I’d like to see a bit more of that on the Oilers. Nashville saw fit to give him 1000 minutes TOI last year and I’d argue he didn’t hurt their playoff chances.
EKLUND’S LUCIC “RUMOR”
So the first thing that I thought of when I heard this rumor is how can Milan Lucic skate with arguably the fasting playing team in the NHL in Las Vegas…However, it was mentioned to me that McPhee, an old veteran of the once rough and tough Patrick Division, was none too pleased that his group was pushed around in the Cup Final by Tom Wilson and the Caps….and to a lesser extent the Jets prior to that. Lucic would be a perfect fit in some ways…
First off, it’s Eklund, so let’s not pretend this is anything more than fan fiction but I would like to talk about it anyhow because it’s the end of August and there’s not a whole lot to talk about hockey-wise unless you’re into the Erik Karlsson rumors.
It makes sense to an extent and Vegas has the cap space to pick him up but if McPhee was THAT concerned about his team getting pushed around, he should’ve instructed Gallant (on old-school tough guy in his day) let Reaves off his leash a bit more or let Brayden McNabb or Derek Engelland do what they do well.
As if Lucic is going to get traded to the Golden Knights. An inter-division trade that could come back to bite Chiarelli in the ass doesn’t sound like something the Oilers GM would be too interested in. Lucic, on the other hand, would probably love it as it would move him close to LA where he has a house.
I do get that there are GMs out there that still subscribe to having a tougher player on their team but every year these sort of players lose jobs to little whippersnappers who can fly and dangle.
I hear every day that Chiarelli is looking to find a player to replace Andrej Sekera but I don’t think anything substantial is going to happen any time soon. If a trade does take place it’ll be in late September or early October when teams are finalizing their rosters and salary caps are getting sorted out. Generally, a time when GMs are a bit more open to trades.
So we wait…
https://twitter.com/oilersfan1991/status/1033285598147047425
Thoughts? Leave them in the comments below!
