NHL Rumors: Flyers in on Vince Dunn, Mario Lemieux stunned, and Jim Rutherford’s cryptic comments
Anthony Scultore
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So what happens when two big names like Pierre-Luc Dubois and Patrik Laine are removed from the NHL Rumors mill in one fell swoop? Well, you add another name like Vince Dunn.
NHL Rumors: Flyers and others in on Vince Dunn
Vince Dunn is just 24 years-old and has a nice contract with an AAV of $1.875 million. He will be an RFA at the end of this season and according to Frank Seravalli, the Blues have engaged with a lot of teams on Dunn.
Elliotte Friedman noted that a first round pick is the starting point in a deal, and it appears at least three teams are interested.
The Flyers, Jets, and Canucks may have already made some calls to see if they can deal for Dunn. You can expect more names to be added like the Rangers and Penguins.
It’s believed the Blues would be seeking a first-round pick, or an NHL player the equivalent of Dunn, but a high pick seems more likely because of the Blues’ cap issues. Perhaps they’d accept a second-round pick, which Dunn was himself, considering they don’t have one in the 2021 draft after trading it to Buffalo in the deal for Ryan O’Reilly. Some teams that might be kicking the tires on Dunn might include Philadelphia, Vancouver and Winnipeg.
The Athletic
Fall out from Jim Rutherford’s resigning as Penguins GM
Whispers out of the Penguins organization has it they are “scrambling” to recover from Rutherford’s abrupt resignation. One person in the organization described Mario Lemieux as “stunned”.
As to what caused this sudden decision, it sounds like a giant philosophical difference between him and ownership on the direction of the team. Was Rutherford being forced to change his vision of winning now?
In a recent conversation with The Athletic, he responded to questions about the timing. “I agree with you if you think the timing is odd. I completely agree with you,” he began. “And you know what? I agree with you if you think the timing is weird because it is.”
Then Rutherford gave an open-ended response about why he left and in truth leaves one to speculate even more now.
“It’s important to me to leave the Penguins on a positive note, and that’s what I’m going to do,” he explained. “I’m not going to get into the details of the past couple of days.”
Your guess is as good as mine as to what happened here.