NHL Rumors: David Pastrnak, Rasmus Sundin, and Canucks eyeing free agents
Anthony Scultore
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David Pastrnak leads off the latest edition of NHL Rumors as he’s becoming a very intriguing name for this upcoming season. The 26 year-old scoring winger will be a UFA next summer and may be open to testing the market. This could leave the Boston Bruins in a tough situation heading into the next trade deadline.
This offseason, the B’s relieved Bruce Cassidy of his coaching duties and replaced him with Jim Montgomery. They then made sure to get Patrice Bergeron under contract and bring back David Krejci.
“There wasn’t much time for my new contract, Boston had some signings that they had to do,” Pastrnak told iSport.cz this month. “I’m focusing on the summer, I’m healthy for the first time in a long time and I can focus on preparation. I still have a contract for one year, so I’m not thinking about it right now and I want to prepare well physically.”
NHL Rumors: David Pastrnak
This past season was another strong campaign for ‘Pasta’ as he’s affectionately known by his teammates. He recored 40 goals and 77 points in 72 regular-season games. He added 6 points in 7 playoff contests.
He’s entering the final year of a 6-year contract signed in 2017-18 with an AAV of $6.667 million. Recent reporting has suggested Pastrnak’s next deal would be for max term and in the neighborhood of $8.5M per season.
“Reached out to agent JP Barry, who spoke today with Pastrnak and GM Don Sweeney,” Elliotte Friedman tweeted on June 8. “Plan is for everyone to sit down in early July to discuss an extension. Barry says premature to jump to conclusions beforehand. Boston priority is to sign Pastrnak, but if he won’t sign — then they’d definitely have to move him. We will see how it all plays out.”
Based on Pastrnak comments, it doesn’t appear any headway was made regarding a new contract. Additionally, if the two sides do decide to talk during the season, the direction of the team will play a significant role in what he decides.
“I’m going into my ninth season and I haven’t won anything yet,” he relayed to reporter Patrik Czepiec. “Time flies and I regret it every year.”
If the Bruins can’t work out an extension by next season’s trade deadline, David Pastrnak will become one of the top names to be had. Plus, he wouldn’t be viewed as a typical rental. Teams that will pay the price to acquire him likely have plans to offer an extension immediately.
NHL Rumors: Rasmus Sandin
It appears that things are not going well between the Toronto Maple Leafs and RFA defenseman Rasmus Sandin.
According to Luke Fox at Sportsnet, the two sides are not making any progress in contract talks.
“Negotiations are going nowhere,” Lewis Gross, Sandin’s agent, told Fox. “You know I don’t usually say much (publicly) anyway. But they’re just going nowhere right now.”
Toronto is currently over the cap and likely looking to create some room via a trade.
Sandin, 22, registered 16 points in 51 games during the 2021-22 season. The Leafs first-round pick in the 2018 Draft has 28 points in 88 career contests.
NHL Rumors: Vancouver Canucks
Rick Dhaliwal, of the Donnie and Dhali show on CHEK television appeared on the Sekeres and Price podcast with some interesting Canucks news.
“I was told this morning the Canucks are poking around on center Evan Rodrigues,” he revealed. “I also believe in my heart the Canucks are still in the mix to land UFA d-man Calvin de Haan. That could be in relation to Tucker Poolman’s health, I’m not so sure. There’s a lot of stuff going on.”
Rodrigues, 29, amassed 43 points in 82 games with the Penguins. The fact that he’s still unsigned is pretty shocking to me. Is it possible he’s asking for too much of a raise from his previous contract, which was only for one-year and a million dollars? There’s no doubt he deserves more and I expect he will find a home soon.
DeHaan, 31, only picked up 8 points in 69 games for the miserable Chicago Blackhawks. He was once considered a top defensive defenseman that can help a team like the Canucks.
