NHL Rumors: Is Shea Theodore a key piece for Knights in Eichel trade; and will Donald Fehr leaves NHLPA
Anthony Scultore
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The Jack Eichel trade buzz that was non stop talk since late Friday night has cooled off. Or was it ever really close?
Top insiders from Elliotte Friedman, Kevin Weekes, and Frank Seravalli (to name a few) all said the Golden Knights were finalizing a trade for the Sabres center. Yet here we are on Monday morning waiting.
And waiting…
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NHL Rumors: Golden Knights package for Eichel
One thing all this has allowed is for more rampant speculation, at least as to what the Golden Knights might offer. The name that keeps popping up is Shea Theodore.
The 26 year-old defenseman has three points in 8 games this season. He has 174 points in 325 NHL contests and he’s been one of the Knights top defenseman since he was taken in the expansion draft.
So why Theodore? Primarily it has to with his $5.2 million cap hit for three more seasons. That will help with fitting in Jack Eichel’s $10 million hit for the next four. It will take a little more cap magic to make it work, as some feel a third party could be involved and thus slowing down the deal.
Vegas recently extended Zach Whitecloud and picked up Ben Hutton on waivers.
Mind you, it will take a lot more than Theodore to extract Eichel from Buffalo. I believe Peyton Krebs is also part of the deal.
As for when this deal will happen? When the story broke on Friday a team executive I spoke with said there’s no trade imminent and that the Sabres are claiming no deal had been reached.
NHLPA head Donald Fehr could be out today
National Hockey League Players’ Association executive director Donald Fehr became the latest figure in the Chicago Blackhawks scandal to apologize to Kyle Beach, saying “I am truly sorry.”
Fehr issued a statement early Thursday morning, hours after Beach identified himself as the “John Doe” who levied sexual assault allegations against former Blackhawks video coach Bradley Aldrich in 2010.
Beach was critical of Fehr by name during his interview with TSN.
“There is no doubt that the system failed to support him in his time of need, and we are part of that system,” Fehr said in the statement.
Today, Donald Fehr will meet with the NHLPA executive board, which will include a team representative from all 32 franchises. It is being reported that on the agenda will be the future of Fehr as the director.
His removal will not be simple, despite the anger among players over his handling of the Kyle Beach situation. There is no obvious replacement, but that may not matter to the NHLPA.
“According to the players’ association’s own constitution, the players do have the ability, if they want, to go into a private session,” Elliotte Friedman explained. “In that case, the executive board may continue its meeting in an executive session, and Donald Fehr would not be part of it. Twenty members constitutes a quorum, and if they decide to vote to remove him, they would need at least 18 yeses to do it.”
–Field Level Media contributed to this report