Which Team is a Better Fit for Nugent-Hopkins, Boston or San Jose?

Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation from all of the internet’s best sites including Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, The Athletic, TSN and more!

From Spector’s Hockey

WHAT NEXT FOR THE BRUINS?

ESPN.COM: Emily Kaplan reports the Boston Bruins must decide on the futures of goaltender Tuukka Rask and center David Krejci. Rask is a polarizing figure among Bruins fans but remains among the NHL’s best goaltenders. It’s unclear what the 34-year-old Rask intends to do but the emergence of Jeremy Swayman makes the club feel better about its’ future plans.

Kaplan also believes the Bruins should attempt to re-sign trade-deadline acquisitions Taylor Hall and Mike Reilly. Hall’s been campaigning to remain a Bruins since his arrival in Boston.

BLH’s Thoughts: If you had a choice between Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and David Krejci, who would you choose if both were demanding the same amount of money? I mean, at some point the Bruins have to turn the team over here and bring in some “younger” players, no? Wouldn’t reuniting Taylor Hall and The Nuge intrigue Bruins management at all?

That’s the kind of scenario that goes on in my head on a daily basis…

COULD THE FLYERS LAND SETH JONES?

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Sam Carchidi was asked by a reader if the Flyers could acquire Jones, or Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton, or Calgary Flames winger Johnny Gaudreau.

Carchidi believes Gaudreau would help the Flyers’ offensive attack. However, he believes their top priority should be acquiring a right-shot defenseman such as Jones or Hamilton.

While Hamilton would be a perfect fit, Carchidi believes he’ll re-sign with the Hurricanes. Jones would be a great consolation prize, but the Flyers will need assurances he’ll re-sign with them before acquiring him.

BLH’s Thoughts: Carchidi knows what he’s talking about. A Seth Jones or Dougie Hamilton would take the Flyers another rung up the ladder for sure and for the sake of Carter Hart’s future, give the man some help!

The problem is Philly’s vets aren’t getting any younger (Giroux, JVR, Voracek) and that makes me think said ladder is a short one.

LATEST ON THE SHARKS

NBC SPORTS BAY AREA: Marcus White suggested five players from teams eliminated from the opening round of the playoffs as target targets for the San Jose Sharks. They are Toronto’s Mitch Marner or William Nylander, Washington’s Lars Eller, Minnesota’s Cam Talbot, and Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

White suggested offering up a package including a winger such as Timo Meier ($6 million cap hit) and Kevin Labanc ($4.725 million) for Marner or Nylander. The Capitals’ limited cap space could make them receptive to an offer of draft picks for Eller.

(LINK)

BLH’s Thoughts: That proposed trade made me laugh at first but if the Leafs wanted to replace Zach Hyman, Meier would be a pretty good winger to do that. Also, it’d be kinda funny to see the Sharks add another massive unmovable contract.

Are the SoCal teams really going to try and make a go of it this summer? These teams need a reset badly and of the three Cali teams, the Sharks have yet to embrace the rebuild like Anaheim and LA have. They need to get on it and pronto or face a very dark future…

Would RNH be a 2nd liner in San Jose since Bob Boughner has Timo Meier on his first line with Logan Couture? That’d be a tough sell for Nuge, no? Then again, if he is looking for a big payday, maybe playing out the rest of his career on the beach wouldn’t be so bad…

Now, instead of adding to the forwards, why not sort out the netminding first? Martin Jones has lost what little mojo he ever had and Doug Wilson should try to find him a new home. He could then see what Tuukka Rask is doing or call Freddy Andersen and gauge his interests in returning to the Golden State.

From NHLRumors.com

The Canucks Never Offered Toffoli a Contract!

Taj: Rick Dhaliwal said on CHEK that Tyler Toffoli had instructed his agent last year to get a deal done with the Vancouver Canucks but he never got an offer from the Canucks.

(LINK)

BLH’s Thoughts: Ouch! How Jim Benning survived that shitty summer and then a debacle of a season is beyond me. Now his team’s owner is trusting him to re-sign his two best players without f*cking it up?! Woof! Let’s see how this one plays out…

Ya know… A smart GM might be watching this situation carefully with an eye on throwing out an offer sheet to one of Elias Pettersson or Quinn Hughes… If they played their cards right, it might only cost them three draft picks in 2022.

Wasting Their Forwards’ Prime Years

Murat Ates of The Athletic: The Winnipeg Jets forwards have been in their primes and GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has wasted those years as he hasn’t been able to provide the team with ‘viable top-four’ defensemen.

The Jets have some young Dmen in Ville Heinola, Dylan Samberg and Logan Stanley, but haven’t been given a consistent, bigger role as Jets coaches Paul Maurice and Charlie Huddy have gone veterans over youth.

(LINK)

BLH’s Thoughts: As soon as Jacob Trouba demanded out of town, the team was doomed. Shortly thereafter Tyler Myers and Dustin Byfuglien were gone and subsequently replaced with Derek Forbort, Logan Stanley, Dylan DeMelo, and Neil Pionk over the following years. Aside from Pionk, Cheveldayoff didn’t exactly do much to address the colossal losses of Trouba, Big Buff, and Myers.

There’s a chance that he could redeem himself this summer though but it’d be expensive. I’d suggest big names like Matt Dumba, Rasmus Ristolainen, John Klingberg, Seth Jones, Dougie Hamilton, and Josh Manson be targets for the team and for them to say goodbye to anybody who is slated to be a UFA this summer.

If they started next season with Morrissey, Ristolainen, Heinola, and Pionk in their top-four, I believe they’d still be in good shape to continue being a playoff contender. I believe they gambled this season with their blueline group and nearly lost. They don’t want to be doing that again…