TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joins Gino Reda to discuss the Senators’ injuries on defence as they head into a massive game against the Red Wings on Tuesday, the controversial overturned goal in the Blue Jackets vs. Islanders game on Sunday, and Erik Karlsson’s future in Pittsburgh.

Gino Reda: Good and bad news for the surging Sens, goalie interference a hot topic again, and what are the Pens going to do with Erik Karlsson? With the details here is insider Pierre LeBrun.

Pierre, let’s start with the Sens. They climbed to within two points of a playoff spot last night, but their blueline is now just getting decimated. So much so, that they’ve got a couple of callups that are ready to make their NHL regular-season debut. Carter Yakemchuk, who was selected seventh overall in 2024, and Jorian Donovan, the son of Shean Donovan.

Pierre, what’s the latest news on the injury front on the Sens blueline?

Pierre LeBrun: Yeah, obviously Thomas Chabot is the big news there. I’m told he’s going to be out longer term. Just devastating. I mean, if the Senators somehow make the playoffs here Gino, is Travis Green in the Jack Adams conversation? Seriously.

They’re going into this massive game in Detroit missing three of their top four defencemen. Jake Sanderson is a guy they hope to get back from those top D. He’s expected back within the next seven or eight days. That’s going to be huge for them. We know that Nick Jensen had knee surgery last week, he’s out for at least the rest of the regular season and probably a bit beyond. At the very least, six weeks from the time of surgery. So, they’re up against it.

Hindsight is 20-20, but if you look back at the trade deadline, the Senators, according to sources, were among a long list of teams that checked in with Philadelphia on Rasmus Ristolainen. But, the fact that Ristolainen didn’t move should tell you that general manager Danny Briere never budged from his very high price, which was believed to be a first-round pick plus a prospect. Montreal, Ottawa, a bunch of teams checked in on Ristolainen, but he didn’t move.

And you can’t look back now and say well the Senators should have done all they can to get him because how were they going to know that in the middle of this playoff race they’d be down three of their top four D because of injuries. You can’t plan for that, you can’t predict for that. It’s obviously notable that they were looking at the D market before the deadline. We’ll see where this goes, but great opportunity for some of these youngsters here as Ottawa tries to stay in the playoff race.

Reda: Pierre, when we were at the GM meetings last week, goalie interference was a really hot topic, as it seems like it always is. The league and teams really want to get this one right because no one wants this sort of controversy in a playoff game. But it’s still a significant point of debate right now.

LeBrun: It hasn’t gone away. And you know, you hate to be talking about this still a week later after the GM meetings but the reality Gino – and you know from being there – it’s not like there was some kind of resolution at the GM meetings.

There are a number of managers who left those meetings feeling like they weren’t exactly sure where the standard was right now on goalie interference coach’s challenges. That has continued to play out over the last few days. And listen, they’re not all easy calls. There’s a lot of 50-50 calls and grey area calls, but it’s troubling for some managers.

And I’ll tell you the latest example was Sunday night. The Islanders and the Blue Jackets, a critical game in that playoff race. And the Islanders think they have a goal, but the Jackets challenged it, and it’s overturned. Anders Lee was deemed to have impeded goalie Jet Greaves. And of course, he did. But I think the Islanders obviously feel that he was pushed by Jackets player Mathieu Olivier. The Islanders were pretty stunned, I can tell you, at that goal being overturned.

Especially because if there was any trend to look at this year it’s been that the league has not overturned a lot of these, right? The call on the ice has stood more often than not. So, there is concern, and we saw with Pittsburgh, now 0-for-8 on goalie interference coach’s challenges. The Penguins going to the unusual step of reminding their media of the rules of goalie interference.

So, it’s a huge talking point. And as one GM said to me on Tuesday morning, the uncertainty for him is at a point where they’re probably not going to challenge in the opening two periods of a playoff game and just wait for a third period where you can’t afford to go down, you know, two goals. And then maybe there they challenge a 50-50 call. Otherwise, I think it’s made some teams nervous about challenging.

Reda: It’s interesting because it seems like the league is trying harder and harder to leave the call on the ice as it is and not overturn it. We have so many precedents, so much video out there and we’re still having this conversation.

I want to get to a player right now in particular. Not long ago there was a lot of discussion about Erik Karlsson with the Pittsburgh Penguins. But despite all the reports at times, could we see him finish out the final year of his contract in Pittsburgh?

LeBrun: Well, here’s why there are teams around the league that have pointed out to me and I wrote about it recently when I had an article in The Athletic looking at all kinds of big names to keep an eye on this summer. I had Karlsson in there. And it was pointed out to me by other teams. He’s entering the final year of his eight-year contract – time flies – and in that final year, there’s a $6 million signing bonus payable July 1, and then he’s only owed $1.5 million next year. Well, look at the way he’s playing. I mean, it’s the Erik Karlsson of old.

There will be serious interest in Erik Karlsson this summer. Having said that, I will tell you that I chatted with Penguins GM Kyle Dubas, who is not happy to have Karlsson’s name out there in terms of trade chatter. He is adamant that Karlsson has been such a great player for them this year that he’d use Karlsson as a guy that they would continue to want to retool and put young players around. That he doesn’t seem himself wanting to trade him this summer. So he wanted to be clear about that with me and to spread the word I guess that he doesn’t view Erik Karlsson as a trade chip this summer. Interesting. We’ll see where it goes.

Reda: That’s the early version of Insider Trading, with Pierre and Chris Johnston is coming up on the early edition of SportsCentre.