The Rumor Mill

Interesting read on mercer 

ca.news.yahoo.com/dawson-mercer-becoming-mr-reliable-175757144.html

If the devils may not be able to afford him , then I’m not sure how they’re going to afford matheson, Allen, when Hamilton eventually returns. But I guess that what GMs and capologists are for 😂

The problem is they dont have a lot of bad contracts.  Meiers, Hughes, Bratt, Hischier - are all well paid but they produce. Palat is probably the only guy on the roster who is overpaid ($6m) but thats a long contract to take back (3 more after this I think). I suppose you could try to trade him again but he's probably the guy you have to take.

So Mercer + Palat
for
Allen + Matheson

Its still not enough money-wise but much closer. Im not sure i want 3 years of Palat though - so hughes would have to be sure he could trade him fairly quickly. 

I didn't mention him for fear of jinxing him. LOL

www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/nhl/oilers-2023-24-trade-targets-jake-allen/ar-AA1mwIYz?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=dab5dbb0b7ac4fcdac31ea867d8d2824&ei=36

Oilers 2023-24 Trade Targets: Jake Allen
Story by Jesse Courville-Lynch, The Hockey Writers •
5h

Who Is Jake Allen & What Would It Take To Acquire Him?
Allen is a 33-year-old Canadian goaltender from Fredericton, New Brunswick currently playing with the Canadiens. He was drafted in the second round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft at 34th overall by the St. Louis Blues after a strong showing in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) with the St. John’s Fog Devils where he posted a 3.15 goals-against-average (GAA) and a .901 save percentage (SV%) through 30 games. He remained in the QMJHL for two more seasons before jumping to professional hockey in the Blues’ organization.

Allen got his first taste of professional hockey during the 2010-11 season with the Blues’ minor-league affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen of the American Hockey League (AHL), where he played 47 games and posted a 2.52 GAA and a .917 SV%. He played the following season with the Rivermen, as well, posting a 2.93 GAA and a .915 SV%. He got his first shot in the NHL during the 2012-13 season when he split the season between the Blues and Rivermen, then followed up in the 2013-14 season by playing another full campaign in the AHL.

Allen earned a full-time spot in the NHL in the 2014-15 season with the Blues and hasn’t been back down to the AHL since. He played with the Blues until the conclusion of the 2019-20 season before he began playing with the Habs. He is in his fourth season with the Canadiens and has a 3.52 GAA and a .900 SV%. Throughout his entire NHL career, he has played 409 games, winning 187 of them, and has posted a 2.74 GAA and a .908 SV%.

Allen’s $3.85 million cap hit makes acquiring him a little tougher for the Oilers, who are tight for money at the moment, but it’s not impossible. They would have to find a player making the same or more amount of money, someone like Cody Ceci, to move out to make this work. The Habs would likely ask for a prospect or two and a second or third-round draft pick to make this deal work, which is something the Oilers should be willing to pay.

This season, Allen is posting a worse GAA but a better SV% than both Oilers’ goaltenders. The reason he would be an upgrade over Pickard is that he can play many more games and remain consistent between the pipes, taking some of the pressure off of Skinner. Pickard has only played in six games this season and has only started five of them. While he has been solid, Allen has much more experience and has proven he can be more trustworthy in pressure situations come the postseason.

What’s Next For Allen and The Oilers?
The Oilers have a little break until their next game, which is on Saturday (Jan. 6) in a matchup against the struggling Ottawa Senators. Allen and the Habs don’t play again until Saturday either, when they take on the powerhouse New York Rangers, but he isn’t expected to play in that game. The Oilers are expected to make a strong push for the postseason now that they’re only two points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference, but the Habs are a much different story, and they’re expecting a much less successful finish as they’re in the midst of a rebuild. Hopefully, the Oilers will make the right moves before the trade deadline and can turn this team into a championship roster, and maybe bring a Stanley Cup back to Canada.

That Gauthier for Drysdale trade could have big repercussions, and I'll again throw out there that this could well end up affecting the Habs. Here's what we know:

1. The Ducks took their time negotiating with both Drysdale and Zegras this summer and didn't end up signing either guy to a max deal. They were players drafted by the old regime and the feeling was that they may not be guys who fit into Verbeek's longterm plan. Now Drysdale is gone.

2. The Ducks now have a center pool that includes Mctavish, Carlsson, Gauthier, and Zegras. Mctavish is already displaying star qualities. Carlsson was a player they just drafted and viewed as superior to Fantilli. Gauthier's a guy they just traded for. None of those players are going anywhere. Now they could well play 1-2 of those guys on the wing, but ultimately you're probably not getting max value out of those 4 players to do that. They're all legit centers in their own right. Zegras is by far the most expensive to keep around and the least likely to still be with the team in 4-5 years. I can't see him willingly sign a longterm deal in 2.5 years knowing where he stands on the depth chart, nor can I see Verbeek paying him 7-8M+ at that time to have him be a winger or a 3rd line center (add on that they also have Nathan Gaucher coming to fill a bottom 6 role in all likelihood). So I personally feel like this Gauthier trade seals Zegras' longterm fate as being somewhere else other than Anaheim.

3. Anaheim traded away an NHL defenceman. Cam Fowler will likely be gone in the next 2-3 years as well. The Ducks still have a strong pipeline of D men coming, and the talk among the NHL pundits is that Verbeek wants to add more beef to his blue line. He has Tristan Luneau, Noah Warren, and Drew Helleson coming on the right side. He has Mintyukov already here on the left side, and he has Owen Zellweger coming. But that's more size on the right and more puck movement on the left, without having much toughness there. When I look at that group, I can see a player like Kaiden Guhle being a perfect complement to what they have going on and a player who still fits their window to win in a few years.

4. From Montreal's end, I've already addressed the team's need for a top 6 center as well as their logjam at LHD. I'll repeat it once again, but this has nothing to do with any burning desire to want to trade Guhle, it has to do with moving a player who has trade value from a position of strength in the organization for a player that addresses a high area of need. Is Guhle going to improve over his career? Likely. Will he make us regret trading him? Maybe, maybe not. He could be the next Ryan McDonagh or Kevin Bieksa, but he could also end up being a 2nd-pairing defenceman. He's got an intriguing skillset, but he's far from being a sure thing to be a top pairing guy. So it's a gamble to trade him, sure, but you have to give to get. For his part, Zegras has his flaws too. He's not quite a PPG player. His defensive game has holes. He has no playoff experience to talk about. But we know the skill is there, and he's a definite upgrade over what we have in our system. And there are ties here to think about. Zegras played on the US national U18 team with one Cole Caufield and is still friends with him to this day. He even visited Caufield in Montreal this summer. He also played his year of college at Boston U. Ah yes, he was in the same city where Hughes was based at the time he was there and playing for the same university that now features Lane Hutson, Luke Tuch, Kent's son Jack Hughes, and Macklin Celebrini. So there is no doubt Hughes will have had some connections to people who were there at the same time as Zegras and who can give him some background on the player and the person. And we all know Hughes loves players he's familiar with.

So I know Zegras might not be everyone's first choice. Maybe we luck out and land a Celebrini or a Lindstrom in next year's draft. Maybe we could go after another young center like Kent Johnson. But I've said it before, top 6 centers don't grow on trees, and it's not common to get a shot at one via trade when they're in their prime. It looks exceedingly likely that Verbeen would be open to trading Zegras if the right offer came along, and I think Guhle as a feature piece could be intriguing to Verbeek. One of Guhle's junior coaches was also Marc Habscheid, who was teammates with Steve Yzerman (whom Verbeek worked closely with for many years in TB and Det). So again, if Verbeek wanted info on Guhle, he could probably get it.

If you're the Ducks, maybe you want to recover the 2nd rounder you just lost in the Gauthier trade. So would Guhle + a 2025 2nd rounder (and Montreal has two that year) be fair compensation for Zegras? Or Guhle + Newhook? In any case, I think there is a deal there that could be mutually beneficial to both teams. From our end, that could leave us with a forward group next year that could look like this:

Caufield-Zegras-Slafkovsky
Heineman-Suzuki-Dach
Roy-Dvorak-Ylonen
RHP-Beck-Anderson

(and yes, well aware that there are spare parts that I didn't squeeze into this line-up, it's just an example of where we could be headed...)

Before trading away Drysdale I felt like the Ducks had moderate defense but there's definitely a need there now.  So, if we're seriously in talks with them over Zegras, the return is almost certainly a defensman. Mintyukov is their best young dman (LHD) & Luneau is promising (RHD) beyond that they have a number of middling, older guys like Gudas, Fowler etc.  

The real question for me is:  Is Matheson too old?  He'd be there best dman, no question & allows Mintyukov (who is already being sheltered) some time to develop. But is 29 too old?  Probably.  My guess is that they want Guhle (or Hutson or Reinbacher). I dont think they would settle for Harris or Struble.  Maybe if we included a 1st but we're still potentially a lottery team so... 

The other option would be to send them 2 dmen... Harris + Kovacevic? Would need to include a pick but you'd be adding to Anaheim's young core & they are lacking in anything beyond #4-6 dmen. 

I would be pretty surprised if Hughes isnt seriously considering an offer for Zegras - unless, of course, our pro scouts think he's not able to develop more. Will be interesting to see. 

I've been talking about Guhle vs. Zegras as the base parts of a trade since last off-season as a deal that makes sense for both teams. It's not necessarily saying I endorse the deal or what other parts might need to be included, just that the main elements there both give teams players that fit their needs. It's a logical thing to put together. I see a number of media and fan accounts have also picked up on this thought today and it's one of the subjects trending on twitter now. It's funny, because a lot of Habs fans are completely against trading Guhle for Zegras even heads up. There are comments about how Zegras is past prime and that he's no good any more and there are comments about how Guhle is already a top pairing D man or comments about how he's the next Weber. It's all a bit unrealistic. Fans of any team tend to overrate their own players and have trouble trading something of value to get a good return. Everyone wants to trade their spare parts for a superstar. The bottom line is that the Ducks are not trading Zegras for Jordan Harris or Justin Barron or a 2nd rounder. They're going to want younger players but they'll want a guy has the potential to be a top 3 D man and as mentioned, they seem to want a player who carries a bit more physical presence than the likes of Mintyukov and Zellweger that they already have down the left side. They don't necessarily need a PP guy, they just need a guy who can play both ways, eat up minutes, and play the PK while providing a physical element. It's almost describing Guhle to a tee.

I've mentioned this before too, but the Habs (if they are interested in acquiring Zegras) really need to make this trade before the season ends and the draft order is set. Once Anaheim has a good idea of where they'll be picking, they will have a good idea of what players will be available to them in the draft. If they know they're going to get a good shot at a Levshunov, Silayev, Dickinson, Buium, or Parekh, then maybe they won't be so interested in Guhle any more. I think if Hughes wants to maximize value in this trade, he makes this deal before the trade deadline this year, and as I said, it could end up being something like Zegras for Guhle and a 2025 2nd rounder (ideally you send Pittsburgh's so that you retain your own ability to offersheet an RFA if you really want to). Maybe people don't want to make that trade, but I think that's about what it might take (I mentioned Guhle + Newhook as being another possibility that might interest Anaheim). And yes, Montreal could keep Guhle and come out of the draft with one of Lindstrom, Helenius, Connelly, or so on, but they could also trade for Zegras and come out of the draft with one of the 6-7 D men who project to be top 4 and maybe top pairing guys. Also a possible bonus that the D men they might come away with could be a RHD and fill more of a need. Ultimately, I think the top 4-5 D men in this draft have higher ceilings than Guhle whereas I'm not sure that the 4th or 5th best center in the draft has a higher ceiling than Zegras. So there's some amount of gamble there.

So just imagine we trade Guhle for Zegras and have the forward group I listed yesterday and then on top of that, the Habs walk out of the draft with Levshunov or Parekh. Now your D corps in 3 years could well be

Hutson-Reinbacher
Struble-Levshunov/Parekh

with one of Xhekaj/Harris/Engstrom paired with one of Barron/Mailloux as your 3rd pairing. It would be a D with a very high amount of potential to be a star group. Conversely, if you keep Guhle and don't trade for Zegras, you're stuck with the logjam at LHD and a hole at RHD and you might be relying on a Helenius or a Catton to become better than Dach. IMO, trading Guhle for Zegras may not get you the ultimate elite 1C we were hoping for, but it's a significant upgrade over what we have, it shifts Dach back to a position he excelled in to strengthen the wing, it opens up room for Hutson, Engstrom, and Struble to play, and if the draft falls the right way, it could allow you to improve the right side of your D while choosing the BPA and without having to reach for a center...

Not sure what you were expecting from Adam Engström's progression, but he seems to be still trending in the right direction. 6'2' 193lb. left shooting D. Still 20yo. averaging about .5 points per game. I'm not finding any negatively charged articles inre to his development or lack there of.

eprinkside.com/2023/12/11/film-room-how-adam-engstroms-leveraged-his-skating-and-skill-to-become-one-of-swedens-top-defence-prospects

Trevor Zegras.................                   

Probably not the place to put this but I thought it kind of funny.
The Kitchener Rangers have acquired forward Eduard Šalé and defenseman Olivier Savard from the Barrie Colts in exchange for forward Kyle Morey, defenseman Blair Scott and eight draft picks.