Early Trading: What does it mean that the Canucks are ready to deal?

Early Trading: What does it mean that the Canucks are ready to deal?

[Music] US Thanksgiving’s coming up this week. Traditionally, it’s the time that teams take stock of where they are, start making some big decisions, how they want to handle things moving forward on the trade front. Time to add, or maybe it’s time to sell. So, what’s going on? Here’s our insider, Darren Drager. Dragger, uh, let’s hit Vancouver first. Reports are the Vancouver Conucks are open for business. What’s that mean, Drags? Well, what it means is that the Vancouver Conucks management sent a note out to the 31 other clubs on Monday, Gino, to say, “Hey, look, we’re interested in talking about our pending unrestricted free agent players.” That doesn’t mean that the Vancouver Conucks and Patrick Alvine, the general manager there, is wanting or willing to sell off all of his veteran players. That’s just simply not the case. But I think we can appreciate where the Vancouver Conucks are in their process. The team is playing hard, but they’ve faced a ton of adversity based on injury. We know that Patrick Galvine continues to talk to clubs around the National Hockey League, identifying his need for a centerman. I mean, just look at David Camp as a prime example. I mean, he’s pulled off the scrap heap in Toronto, moved to Vancouver, and he’s now second line center for the Vancouver Conucks. That’s a tough spot for him, and that’s a tough spot for the Vancouver Conucks. The Canucks feel like they want to get younger and they’re willing to part with again some of those UFA targets. They sent that note out on Monday and I think that’s the basis now for all of the leaguewide speculation. As you throw those comments, Kuck fans are saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. What does this mean for Quinn Hughes?” Of course, he’s not a pending unrestricted free agent this year. He’s got this year and next. But it’s got to make Kuck fans a little bit nervous. How does the next couple of months affect Quinn Hughes? Well, it could. Uh I mean, based on the fact that we know the captain of the Vancouver Conucks is fully in, he’s committed to winning in Vancouver. That possibly could change if you get through this year and things don’t improve for the Vancouver Conucks. But right now, he’s under contract. He’s under contract for next season. But I think organizationally the Vancouver Conucks are embracing the importance of this season as it relates to Quinn Hughes. If you get through this year and there hasn’t been significant change or the injury bug continues to take its toll on that Canucks roster and they miss the playoffs, I think arguably all bets are off in the off season. But right now, I think Quinn Hughes also sees that this is a hardworking club. They need some pieces. They need to get healthy and if they do that then they’re going to win some hockey games and make it much more competitive perhaps than it has been through the first 20 plus games. Dre, so much going on right now. So T’s got to be swirling. Toronto dead last in the East. Now what there? Calgary second last in the West. What happens there? The Blues, the PRs imploding. Is there a lot of chatter going on behind the scenes right now, Drexs? Yeah, there’s a significant amount of chatter. The problem though, Gino, is that there are so few sellers, legit sellers right now that, you know, any trade dialogue isn’t really a negotiation. Sure, players who are wanting to be a buyer, we just talked about one of them, and that’s the Vancouver Conucks, are making those calls, but the asking price, if there is an available player, is really high. So, the sellers are few. But I’m looking at the teams that most notably are looking to shake things up. Of course, the St. Louis Blues with Doug Armstrong as their general manager. Army never leaves the Louisville on his shoulder. He always finds a way to swing that bat. And it wouldn’t surprise anyone if he does something of significance, I would say, in the days ahead. And historically, as you mentioned earlier, you get to US Thanksgiving and that seems to be the mark traditionally where teams know what they have and they know what they need. Maybe the line gets pushed back a little bit. You know, we’re watching the Nashville Predators, the Barry Trotz as general manager take it in the shins game after game. Yes, we know that they’re willing to listen on Steven Stamco or Jonathan Marshall. So, but despite the fact that those are pedigreed players, they’ve won championships. They’re also older players and they’re not getting any faster and the market isn’t that deep. So I think that you know the the teams who are struggling are open for business in the sense that they’re willing to listen but they’re not quite ready yet to part with primary assets. Leaf fans are desperate for some good news right now. Dregs Matthews NY Stlars Tana Carlo Ha their medical ward is just jammed. All this as they say from a team that’s dead last in the east. Dregs is there any good news on the horizon on the injury front from the leaf standpoint? Well, only that, you know, every day you’re getting closer to getting back to a full compliment and a full roster or at least close to that. And we’re talking about the primary pieces here, right? The captain, Austin Matthews, back on the ice. You know, the reality is that he’s skating on a daily basis. So, you know that what he’s dealing with has to be getting better, but he’s not going to be ready for Wednesday. It certainly doesn’t look that way. Uh, I’m a little bit surprised with Matthew Ny. It was expected, Gino, that he would miss a game or two. And here we are approaching the middle of another week. And it doesn’t look like Matthew Ny is going to be an option on Wednesday either. Uh Nicholas Raw is another one. So now you’re looking to the Capitals game on TSN on Friday. And is that possible? Well, we’re going to need another day to figure that out. But what’s amplifying the issue is the fact that their secondary players, their support players, their depth guys just haven’t been able to fill the void. You can’t expect any forward to replace the value of a Matthew Ny or an Austin Matthews. But the majority of that group just hasn’t been able to take advantage of the opportunity. So I think in part anyway, that’s what’s uh raised a bigger issue in Toronto than anything else. In fairness though, the Leafs aren’t the only team battling injuries right now. But is there a reason for this? Last year, the league played a full 82 games in the regular allotted schedule with a 12day break for the four nations. This year, same 82 games, same window, but 19 days of shutdown for the Olympics. Bottom line, hugely condensed schedule. Is some of this just a matter of guys bodies breaking down because the lack of recovery time? It depends who you ask. If you ask the players, if you ask their coaches, if you ask their training staffs, they would say yes. The condensed schedule is obviously having an impact. And as you’ve said, you’ve identified the the upcoming Winter Olympics. So, the schedule is condensed even that much more. Now, I reached out to the National Hockey League last week because the NHL does track team byte- injuries. Obviously, they’re not going to divulge specifics to individual player injuries. They don’t even like talking about the numbers. So, I pushed on it more earlier today and the acknowledgement is that yes, injuries by and large are up, but curiously man games lost to injury aren’t materially up. I’m not sure how those two things uh can occur simultaneously. So, there is an acknowledgement that injuries across the board are up, but man games lost are not. But again, the eye test tells us that you look across the league and basically every team in the National Hockey League is dealing with some level of significant injury. And we’ve talked about a couple of them here in early insider trading. The Vancouver Conucks decimated at times and the Toronto Maple Leafs in it right now. Way to go, Dre. Way to keep digging until they at least gave you a little bit of tidbit on the injuries. All right, that’s it for the early it. The full version of Insider Trading with Greg, CJ, and Pierre is coming up on the early edition of Sports Center.

TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger joins Gino Reda to discuss what it means for Quinn Hughes now that the Canucks are ‘open for business’, how the next couple of months could play out for the captain in Vancouver, the trade dialogue happening across the NHL right now, the latest on the Leafs’ injury front and more.