NHL Trade Rumours – Habs & Kraken Trade? Xhekaj To Forward? Quinn Hughes To NJ? CBJ Sign Fasching

NHL Trade Rumours – Habs & Kraken Trade? Xhekaj To Forward? Quinn Hughes To NJ? CBJ Sign Fasching

We have lots to discuss in today’s video, including some offseason trade speculation around the Montreal Canadians. There is a new rumor circulating that they may be targeting a top six forward with the Seattle Kraken. We’ll discuss how the trade could work, what the asking price may be, and how that player may fit into their lineup should they get a deal done. Uh, plus we also have some other interesting topics, including uh Montreal Canadian defenseman Arbor Jackie. Maybe could we see his role change? And it was also discussed on the same podcast where the other rumor came from looking at uh the future of of Jackie maybe in a different spot in the lineup. Uh plus we have some more comments regarding the future of Quinn Hughes in Vancouver whether or not he’ll end up in New Jersey. So we’ll have a look at that. A big update from Elliot Freeman regarding the potential sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins. We have a couple of signings and an update on a junior player out of Kitchener that I want to talk about as well coming up next. So, welcome back to another video here at TopShelf Hockey. As I mentioned, we have a variety of NHL news and some uh rumors to take a look at here today. Uh first up, we got a couple of signings. Uh we have the Columbus Blue Jackets today uh signed unrestricted free agent forward Hudson Fashion Fashion. It’s a one-year 2-way contract. Uh league minimum at the NHL level, a 250 at the American Hockey League level, and a total guaranteed payout of 350,000. Uh Vashing spent the last few years with the New York Islanders organization where he kind of developed into uh you know a decent bottom six type of role. Um you know obviously somebody who can play in in a few different spots can be a decent role player. So, I I think with Columbus, obviously with his contract, I don’t know that they feel like he’s guaranteed to make their roster, but certainly somebody who I think can definitely play NHL games for them, uh, for sure, and somebody who can be a very good AHL player should he end up down there. So, you know, certainly somebody who’s kind of fringe, if you will, and can kind of go up back and forth and be impactful to some degree at both levels. Uh, we also seen a signing in Colorado. Uh they’ve signed a uh prospect, Alex Gier. Gets a two-year entry- level contract. Uh 23-year-old uh defenseman was most recently the captain at the University of New Hampshire um and is now ready to make the jump to pro hockey. So because of his age at 23, his ELC is only for 2 years. And as I mentioned, another prospect that was supposed to go to the Kitchener Rangers. I want to take a look at a statement today from the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers general manager, Mike McKenzie. Um, McKenzie, who is the son of Bob McKenzie, in case you don’t know that, of course, longtime NHL insider. Um, but Mike McKenzie statement basically goes on to say that uh forward Adam Valentini, who was also signed with the Rangers and was supposed to be on the team this year, has uh let them know about a week before training camp here that he is not going to be honoring that commitment even though he signed a contract that he has changed his mind and is heading down to the NCAA and is going to be playing for the University of Michigan. So, the Kitchener Rangers, um, they had some draft picks that they were supposed to be giving up, uh, for his rights. Um, they signed him. He’s not going to be showing up. So, they they’ll get those picks back. Uh, which, you know, McKenzie statement goes on to say that they’ll they’ll make sure they put those picks to good use uh for building the team up for the future. Uh but they are very disappointed with the very short notice given the fact that they’re only a week away from training camp for Valentini to kind of pull out and end up going uh to the NCAA route. Like I you know ultimately I think a lot of junior teams understand the options ahead of them and in front of these players now. Um, it’s a it’s a good get for the University of Michigan, but I know just listening to some comments around the NHL today, it sure sounds like, you know, if you’re an NHL GM, you might be a little hesitant on his player. You know, it’s just one of those things that kind of falls under uh character. You know, I’m not saying that he won’t get his NHL opportunities if he continues to play uh at a good enough level and all that. Like I’m sure there’s definitely teams that are are going to be willing to sign him or draft them or whatever no matter what. But there’s going to be some that probably might look at that and be like, geez, you know, is he going to do that to us? you know, is he going to, you know, go through his RFA years and then demand a trade or is he going to, you know, it’s it’s just one of those things like with this option now for junior players to be eligible for the NCAA, it’s it’s all good, but at the same time, like I hope we see players, you know, if you’re leaving junior, they give more notice so these teams can, you know, properly prepare for their season without uh, you know, such short notice and impacting the team in a negative way like that. So, um, so yeah, the Valentini will be going to the Michigan, which is good for them, not so good for the Kitchener Rangers, and I just didn’t overly love how everything kind of played out there. Wish they could have given them more notice. Uh, an update today from Elliot Freeman as well on the potential sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now, we had heard a rumor um around the Penguins and the potential availability uh of Fedway Sports Group selling the team back a couple months ago and that the Mariel Lemieux group who sold the team to Fenway Sports Group was very interested in uh reacquiring the franchise and getting back into NHL ownership. Um, and then that rumor was quickly shot down and Fenway Sports Group, I believe, even had made a statement suggesting that they were only looking for a minority partner in the Penguins that they weren’t necessarily looking to unload the franchise as a whole. Uh, but now this new update from Freriedman suggests that uh we could see a sale. Uh, it’s not to the Lemieux group though. It is a different group. It’s the Hoffman family uh who is based out of Chicago. Uh they are in the mix to buy the pens from Fenway Sports Group. Uh now they currently they own the ECHL’s um franchise of Florida Everblades who’s had a very successful run. Uh they’ve won a couple of league championships as well back to back and apparently when they bought the Florida Everblades at the time they were the um affiliate to the Carolina Hurricanes for that league and they did look and that was around the same time that the Hurricanes changed ownership when Tom Dundan purchased the the team. they were in the mix to possibly buy the Hurricanes at that time as well. They didn’t end up obviously getting it done. Tom Dundan became the successful bidder and bought the team. Apparently, they’ve also had kind of uh explored the possibility of buying an NBA team before. Um at this point, the the deal, if it should close, is expected to end up with a sale price approximately $1.75 billion. Now, Fenway Sports Groups owned this group for I believe what are we coming up on close to four years now. Three to four years. And they purchased the the Penguins for it was right around a billion. Uh I think it was just shy of a billion dollars. So that I think it was like 9 I don’t have the article from Elliot right in front of me, but I believe it was it was like between 950 and a billion. Um cuz I know when the Senators sold, which they not too long after that to Michael Landlau uh from the Melnik Estate, they were just shy of a billion as well, but the Penguin sale was just a smidge more. Um so yeah, so that’s that would still be a nice profit for Fenway Sports Group in, you know, only a handful of years here um to jump up. They, you know, be making like 3/4 of a billion in profit compared to what they bought it for. You have to wonder as well if this should happen um you know what does this mean for the direction of the team? Obviously Fenway Sports Group signed an extremely long-term deal with Kyle Dubis. I believe they gave him I want to say it was a seven or eight year contract when they hired him and he became um president and then named himself GM and of course brought in Jason Spetsza after assistant GM. But um but yeah, he was originally the president of hockey operations and then became GM um not long after. So, you know, at this point with the where the team is at, we talked yesterday about the possibility of Guinea Malcin uh maybe not finishing the season as a Penguin. Um, like I said, I know on a DFL rundown podcast the other day, uh, Jason Greger and Michael Russo were talking about, you know, would Crosby and Malca both finish the season as Penguins this year and they both kind of went with the idea that they thought the odds were more favorable than not that they would not. and they both made comments saying that they thought Crosby probably would, but with Malcad’s contract expiring that he probably would find an opportunity to go play um for another team and chase the Stanley Cup before he ultimately hangs him up. It’s expected that this is going to be Malcolin’s last season. I can’t say that with absolute certainty. That’s not confirmed by the player himself, but there’s just obviously with his contract expiring given his success, his age, everything like that. Uh that there is belief that he will likely will end up hanging him up, but again, like I said, I don’t I don’t know he’s firmly made that decision just yet. He could also go play in the KHL. So, when I say talk retirement, it could just be from North America from the NHL game. So, we’ll see where things go. But, there is a possibility after what we’ve kind of been led to believe wasn’t much of a rumor. Sounds like that rumor is more true than not. And if the based on Elliot’s wording of the article here that the Hoffman family is in the mix. Makes me wonder if the Lemieux group might also be in the mix as well. But uh you know, right now we don’t know if this is a done deal or not, but they’ve had obviously for Elliot to be reporting on it and where things are at. I I think it’s probably fair to say they’ve had advanced talks, but uh whether or not it actually closes, difficult to say for sure. Uh now, as I mentioned, we’ve we’ve heard lots about the future of Quinn Hughes. Uh Jim Rutherford, the G or president of the Conucks kind of opened that kind of worms himself uh earlier in the offseason when he in a media availability made the comments himself saying that, you know, all the moves that they were making that they really weren’t sure about the future of Quinn Hughes, that it was no secret that he wished to play with his brothers uh at some point in the NHL. So, you know, they didn’t really know what the future held out. He’s got another year before we could even talk about a contract extension. He’s got two years on his current NHL contract. Um, so I mean, Brother Rutherford’s comment kind of they kind of ignited the internet and kind of got everybody talking about, well, Jesus, he was going to end up with his brothers in New Jersey cuz Brother Jim even said like, you know, even talked about, you know, could they try to bring his brothers to Vancouver? Like, you know, he wouldn’t he couldn’t say too much and he should have probably been a little more careful those comments given, you know, the rules around that. I mean, you can’t be looked upon as being um you know, obviously kind of breaking breaking those rules talking about players that you don’t have under contract, but you know, um yeah, I mean, Ryan Whitney of the Spitt and Chicklets podcast here in the most recent episode in the last few days kind of got the the the uh beating the drum here again saying that he heard from a source uh connected to the Devils that uh he expects Quinn Hughes to be with the Devils u when his contract expires. here in 2027. Now, of course, on that episode, he was talking to one of his colleagues, Pasha, who is a Devils fan, and they were kind of had some bantering about, you know, he’s hopes he hopes for Pasha’s sake that Quinn doesn’t end up there cuz basically, you know, he doesn’t want his uh Pasha’s team to have more success and all that, just kind of, you know, teasing each other, whatnot. Um, you know, but ultimately, if Whitney is a well-connected former NHL player, I mean, they talk about rumors on that podcast at times. We haven’t seen a lot from them that’s been super accurate, but they have had a few things. And like I said, I don’t doubt some of the things they’re told. It’s just well, they’re not, you know, what they’re told is turns out to be true or not. But the fact that they’re hearing again about Quinn Hughes maybe landing in New Jersey in a couple years is not good. Um it’s not good for Vancouver. Now, I know the Conucks uh certainly I think they keep a lot of things in mind with Hughes. um trying to make that team better and trying to do what they can. Obviously, it’s their job to make the team as strong as possible and all that, but you know, they they definitely made some moves this offseason with him in mind trying to keep him happy and keep him interested in staying. So, we’ll see where it goes, but just more chatter about the future of Quinn Hughes and the fact that, you know, another connected NHL former player talking that he’s being told that Quinn’s likely heading to New Jersey in a couple years. Not good news at all for the Canucks. If they lose Quinn Hughes, that would be a major blow um for that franchise, no doubt. Now, as I mentioned, a couple of things around the Montreal Canadians, uh both of which come from the Tony Marinero uh sick podcast. Uh Tony had a couple of things on there. One, they were looking at uh they shared some information about the Habs apparently showing interest in Jared McCann of the Seattle Kraken. Now, we’ve talked plenty about different players that they’ve been rumored to be looking at or considering trading for uh when it comes to filling out a number two center spot, and you know, there’s been lots of debate on whether or not they will make a trade or they won’t. We know that Carrie Price’s contract is very likely to get traded sometime in early September after his bonus is paid, uh making that an attractive acquisition for teams that are going to be near the salary cap floor. So, you’re looking at Chicago, San Jose, Pittsburgh, those teams. And then of course that will give them some flexibility to maybe add another player. And if Kirby Doc is not able to start the season, adding somebody who can play center would be their first choice. There’s no doubt that’s the main hole in the roster that they’re definitely looking at. Now Jared McCann can play center. Uh he can also be a winger, but he is one of those players that um does have some versatility to him. He’s got a 40 goal season on his record from his time at the San or Seattle Kraken. I almost want to say San Jose there, but Seattle, um, you know, McCann’s had some good years. I mean, even if he’s closer to what he was most recently, like, you know, 20 25 goals, you know, in say 50 points, like that’s still pretty decent, right? Um, he’s still not that old either. He’s got a pretty good contract. Doesn’t have a lot of term on it. So, he’s a player that was been linked to other teams. There’s been a handful of other teams, including some other Canadian teams in the Habs division that have been linked to this player as well, including uh Toronto and Ottawa. Both have been uh rumored to have taken a look at this guy at different points throughout the offseason. I’m not sure where things stand with those teams here today, but I know that they’ve were linked to him in the last number of weeks here as they continue to kind of, you know, explore possibilities of making other moves. They’re both in the same kind of boat here. um they do have some cap flexibility but not a lot there probably especially Toronto looking to unload a little bit of contracts to uh to free up some more money and you know obviously he would make sense to be a player that they would be looking at and in Ottawa’s case like you know they were again u they don’t absolutely have to make a move but if they did want to try to add some more depth uh they would look to add to their middle part of the lineup and he would be a good fit there too so we’ll see uh he does He he would be a player that would make sense for Montreal though. I will say that the contract fits. The pedigree fits. Uh he’s not signed super long or super expensive. So, there’s a lot of things there that kind of make sense for them to kind of trial and see if it works out and if he could be a longer term player for them or if at the very least a placeholder or something like there’s there’s some flexibility with him. So, it makes sense. The other thing that they talked about, and it came in as a as a viewer question, but uh that they were talking about on the podcast, which was interesting, was should the Canadians consider moving Arbor Jackie to forward? Now, we know that he’s really big, and we know he’s big, strong, and likes to hit, and he’s not afraid to drop the gloves. So, you know, obviously there’s aspects of Jackie’s game that they like to have back there. They call him the sheriff for a reason. He’s there to defend his teammates and you know ultimately he’s gotten himself kind of uh out of favor at a few times with coach Marty St. Louis because of some big defensive miscues and mistakes which has a lot of goals against and kind of you know not been so good in that side. I’ve seen a few times where he was so focused on getting the big hit that just getting out of position or, you know, creating oddman rushes or different things that it’s been he’s he’s had his moments where he’s getting in the doghouse from a defensive standpoint. Uh sat out a lot in the playoffs as well, you know. Um but, you know, we’ve seen some other big defenseman be forwards in the past, not necessarily full-time. Some of them started as forwards and moved back. Look at guys like Brent Burns. Burns was a forward eventually went back to D. Dustin Bufflin’s another name that draws some comparison. I mean, Big Buff was just an absolute beast out there. Um, you know, and Jackey could be that guy as well. If you think about it, if I mean, if they can, you know, train him to get on the wing. I mean, he’s got the size, so he would be somebody you’d want to send in on the forche. Um, so there’s that aspect of his game could be good. um net front when it comes to, you know, battling in front of the net. You know, he’s used to being on the defensive side of it, but he’s big and strong. Should be able to, you know, battle in front of the net as well from the offensive side. So, that part of his game should be okay. He’s he seems to have a decent shot. So, you know, if he gets a chance, an offensive shot to to score, you know, he can shoot the puck. Don’t know about his playmaking skills too much. Probably not so much. But if you get him like on a on a line, I can know the suggestion was eventually his brother works his way up to the NHL and they’ve got some other guys as well that could be another like they could create a really big beefy fourth line forchecking kind of line that can be just a nuisance to play against, especially when looking at playoffs and whatnot and what it takes to win. And it could be uh something that proves to be very difficult to play against from other teams. Um it’s it’s not that crazy of a thought if you think about it. I mean a lot of people were convinced as much as not that long ago that Arborjack guy may not have a long future in Montreal given all the defensive depth. You know he’s he’s probably tapped out as a third pair guy and they’ve got a number of other D and some of which guys have already been moved along. Like look in the last couple years how they moved Kovichic, they moved Harris, they moved Mayu, you know, they they still have more guys, right? So like he’s probably going to be battling with like Jaden Strub uh for that third pair spot on the left side. Um it would get create an opportunity where they don’t have to move on from Jack eyee but he would be able to play a different role, you know, should in a way kind of cut down on his uh defensive miscues, you know, uh may not play a lot as a fourth liner, but I don’t know, just it’s interesting concept uh to me cuz otherwise if you if you don’t consider a move like that, I mean, as much as you appreciate his ability to defend his teammates and kind of drop the gloves once in a while when needed. I mean, he he might not be able to gain a full-time role. I mean, at the same time though, like he’s still young. um he’s still going to be able to have lots of time here to work on his defensive game, but it definitely needs work in order for the coach and the team to kind of create more of a um trust with him that he’s not going to be a turnover machine and be so focused on the physical side that he, like I said, he gets out of position or he misses the big hit or uh you know, creates oddman rushes, all those things that you don’t want to see. like you don’t want to be recognized as a defenseman for the wrong reasons, right? Uh usually in that kind of role, you want to have a game if you kind of fly under the radar and you don’t really hear your name talked about a whole lot unless maybe you’ve had a fight, that’s kind of what you want to see for Jack, right? So, you know, unfortunately, like I know in the second half of the year and into the playoffs, like he just had too many games where um he was getting recognized for the wrong reasons and St. Louis felt like he couldn’t trust to have him in there all the time. So, it kind of created a spot where he was out of the lineup a lot and when it mattered most and I’m sure that wasn’t fun for him. Uh, I don’t know if the teams actually discussed this. Like I said, this was just on a podcast. It was a viewer question, but the uh between uh Tony and Brian Wild, who was on with them, they seem to be okay with exploring it at least. Like to know what everybody else thinks. I know there’s a decent amount of Montreal fans that watch this channel. Should they consider this move with Jackie? create more of a role for him on that fourth line so that he can still do the things that you like but not worry so much about the defensive side of his game or do they leave him as a defenseman and just continue working away at trying to improve that so that he’s a more reliable third pair uh defensive guy back there. Let me know what your thoughts are on that whole concept in the comments. We’ll discuss further. If you’re new to the channel, of course, make sure you subscribe and stick around. We’ll keep you up to date with all the news, rumors, and an announces of all 32 NHL teams. Thanks for watching and I will catch you next time. [Music]

NHL Trade Rumours – Habs & Kraken Trade? Xhekaj To Forward? Quinn Hughes To NJ? CBJ Sign Fasching
Montreal Canadiens Trade Rumours
TIME STAMPS:
0:00 Intro
0:50 CBJ Sign Fasching
2:00 Avs Sign Prospect
2:30 Valentini Leaves Kitchener for NCAA
5:00 Pens Sale Soon?
10:00 Quinn Hughes Rumours resurface
12:50 Habs Interested in McCann
16:00 Could Habs Move Xhekaj to Forward?

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