NHL Rumors: Golden Knights owner says Max Pacioretty not being shopped, Red Wings wish list, and more
Anthony Scultore
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Let’s be honest for a moment, did any of you expect to hear Max Pacioretty’s name bandied about so much at this point in the “season”? Yet here we are after days worth of Pacioretty rumors to the point where the team owner is commenting.
NHL Rumors: “We’re not shopping Patches”
Golden Knights owner, Bill Foley has been making the rounds lately in the media. In an interview with KLAS-TV, Foley hit on the subject and wanted to be clear.
“We’re not shopping Patches,” Foley said. “We do have cap issues. And so, some of those things have to be resolved as we go forward and we start getting into the season, but he definitely is not being shopped.”
This should stop any more discussions around the 32 year-old, but it won’t. Not until the Golden Knights fix their cap situation which will require a trade. That could be fixed by trading Jonathan Marchessault and Alec Martinez as well.
RELATED: Knights invade DGH’s Trade Bait Board
Detroit Red Wings Shopping List
‘Tis the season as they say, a recent report in the Detroit News as relayed by Kukla’s Korner states the Red Wings have a 10 player list. Thanks to their near $10 million in cap space, they can shop around.
The names of consequence on that list include; Alex Killorn, Sami Vatanen, Mike Hoffman, and Anthony Duclair.
Alex Killorn, F, Tampa Bay: Killorn, 31, is an assistant captain, and scored a career-high 26 goals last season. With three more years at a manageable $4.45 million cap hit, Tampa could get decent value for Killorn, though the Wings may not be an ideal fit. A playoff contender might be interested, if it has some cap space. Killorn, with his leadership ability and playoff success, might be a good acquisition for a team closer to the Stanley Cup than the Wings.
Detroit News
NHL Rumors: Does Ryan Strome have a future with the Rangers
This seems to be a talking point that won’t go away with Ryan Strome and the NY Rangers. Recently, Rick Carpiniello of The Athletic wrote about Strome’s future in a piece projecting the 2022-23 Rangers lineup.
We don’t know if Pavel Buchnevich will still be around (doubtful), and we’re pretty certain Ryan Strome will be gone, unless he proves to the Rangers that he can be one of their top two centers (and then that they can somehow afford to re-sign him in the summer of 2022).
The Athletic
No matter what, it almost always seems to come down to Strome being a goner. However, over at Forever Blueshirts I dove into it further.
The truth is that young center Brett Howden hasn’t shown any signs of being better than a third line center. Same for Filip Chytil, who for all his size and talent is still very inconsistent and may be better as a winger.
In the pipeline are players like Morgan Barron, who appears solid but no one seems to think he’s a top two center. Same for highly touted, but small center prospect Karl Henriksson. The jury is out on all those guys.
So unless the Rangers use Strome in a trade to upgrade the second line center spot, he could very well still be with the Rangers for the next two seasons and beyond.