In today’s NHL rumor rundown, there is news on Chris Kreider and the New York Rangers, Puljujarvi’s statement he’ll play with Karpat might not be all it’s cracked up to be, and the Buffalo Sabres don’t seem worried about their cap issues.
Kreider to be at Rangers Training Camp
Dan Rosen of NHL.com is reporting that the expectation is, despite constant trade rumors, Chris Kreider will be at Rangers training camp. This update comes from Rangers President John Davidson who said he expects Kreider to start with the team this upcoming season.
Davidson said:
“It’s hard to make promises. Things change, but Chris is a valued member of the New York Rangers and I look forward to him having a great camp and a great run with us.
“He’s got one year left, and that should be a whole lot of importance to him to come in and have a great camp and a great year, and we’ll just see where it all goes.”
On whether or not the Rangers intend to offer Kreider a contract extension at the end of this season, general manager Jeff Gorton said, “We’ll deal with that.”
The buzz is that the Rangers will move Kreider because they aren’t prepared to extend his contract at around seven years and $7 million per season. Gorton added, “We’ll continue to talk to Chris and see what’s next for him, but we’ll start with training camp, get him going on the right path. Hopefully he’s helping us win games, and then we’ll figure it out.”
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Puljujarvi Bluffing Again?
We recently reported that Jesse Puljujarvi and his agent are hinting that he’ll play with Karpat if something can’t be figured out in Edmonton and a trade to move Puljujarvi to another organization facilitated.
David Staples of the Edmonton Journal notes there is a report saying that while Puljujarvi’s hometown team of Karpat is interested in signing him, the team’s GM said that there haven’t been any negotiations yet. In other words, Puljujarvi may be threatening to play there but he’s not talked to the team about doing so.
Still with the Oilers, Allan Mitchell of The Athletic says that outside of Puljujarvi, new GM Ken Holland will have a lot of items on his to-do list this season, especially if the Oilers are not playoff contenders. Among them might be seeing what’s out there for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Adam Larsson.
Mitchell writes:
Added to the equation are two veterans who will be a year and a half from free agency — it will be a checkpoint for Holland to gauge possible interest across the league for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Adam Larsson. If the team has no plans to sign either man, and remember the Seattle expansion draft could complicate things, then dealing one or both might be the right move at that time.
source – ‘Lowetide: Ken Holland’s roster construction options for the Oilers over the next seven months’ Allan Mitchell – The Athletic – 08/03/2019
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Buffalo May Hold Off on Trade
Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News reports that Buffalo Sabres general manager Jason Botterill said he doesn’t have to make a trade to become cap compliant before the start of the season. This despite the buzz the Sabres are looking to make a deal.
The Sabres say they could simply place an injured defenseman (Zach Bogosian, Lawrence Pilut, Matt Hunwick) on long-term injury reserve or send a player on a one-way contract to the minors to take care of their cap issues.
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