Rumour Report: Edmonton Oilers ‘would love’ to have Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin may make a decision soon, and more!
5 months ago
Who doesn’t love some good ol’ rumours?
This is Rumour Report, where we look at rumours related to the Calgary Flames and their players. Let’s dig in!
Notes from Tuesday’s Insider Trading
There were a few interesting Flames tidbits on the latest edition of TSN’s Insider Trading, which you can watch here.
Chris Johnston expects left-shot defenceman Noah Hanifin to make a decision soon. As you may know, the 27-year-old is in the final year of his contract and has a cap hit of $4.95 million. It’s believed that the Flames want to keep him, even offering him around $60 million earlier in the season.
With that being said, if Hanifin has no desire to sign with the Flames, or doesn’t give an answer, it’s assumed by most in the media that the Flames will have to cut bait and trade him. Hanifin is a great player and will no doubt get a great return, but it would significantly weaken the Flames’ defence, which isn’t great considering they may want to contend for a playoff spot in 2024-25.
In the same interview, Pierre LeBrun stated that Chris Tanev is seen as the top defenceman in the rental market. The Flames want a second-round pick for him, plus another asset. The Toronto Maple Leafs are one team that has interest in the 34-year-old right-shot defenceman, but without a second-round pick for the next three drafts, they’ll have to move a first-round pick for him..
Eight landing spots for Chris Tanev
On Wednesday, Julian McKenzie and Shayna Goldman released an article for The Athletic highlighting eight locations that make sense for the Flames’ soon-to-be unrestricted free agent.
The eight teams listed are the Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks, Dallas Stars, Winnipeg Jets, New Jersey Devils, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Tampa Bay Lightning. All these teams have a need for a defenceman, and all could use Tanev.
It would be funny if the Senators traded for the 34-year-old defenceman, given the fact that they are tied for the fourth-fewest points in the league this season. Still, there’s been some smoke around the Senators and Tanev, as Elliotte Friedman has mentioned them multiple times. The Senators are a young team, and they wish to bring in veterans, but it may make more sense to make a run for Tanev in the off-season.
The most logical location would probably be the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have a fairly weak defensive core. Of course, the Leafs were interested in Tanev as well as former Flame Nikita Zadorov early in the season, with the former being traded to the Canucks. Will the Leafs settle on moving their first-rounder? Well, that’s to be seen.
Oilers one of “many” teams interested in Chris Tanev
According to Darren Dreger on Wednesday’s episode of OverDrive, the Edmonton Oilers are “one of many” teams interested in the right-shot defenceman.
He noted that the “Oilers would love to have Tanev”, and that it “would come at the expense of Cody Ceci.” Dreger also made sure to note that he isn’t putting the Oilers as the front runner. This can be found at around the 22:40 minute mark of the show, which you can listen to here.
Of course, there are some problems in that hypothetical trade scenario. First off, Tanev on the Oilers makes them even more of a contender for the Stanley Cup as Tanev is the perfect defence partner for Darnell Nurse. The Oilers winning the cup would be awful, especially if the Flames played a part in it.
The second issue is Ceci himself. He’s not a bad defenceman by any stretch, but he is a downgrade on Tanev and he has a cap hit of $3.25 million until the end of the 2024-25 season. On top of making the Oilers better, if Ceci was to come back the other way, that’d free up $3.25 million in cap space for the Oilers next season.
With the provincial tax on any trade, as well as taking back Ceci’s contract, you’d have to imagine the Flames would want more than a second-round pick and another asset.
Rumours from around the league
The New York Rangers wish to keep their first-round pick in the 2024 draft. Not because they wish to get low-cost players, but because Rangers’ owner James Dolan owns the Sphere in Las Vegas and wishes to be a part of the draft festivities, according to Darren Dreger on the same Insider Trading as previously linked.
There may be a few more right-shot defencemen on the market, as LeBrun believes that Montréal Canadiens’ defenceman David Savard and Buffalo Sabres’ defenceman Erik Johnson could be traded at this season’s deadline.
Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Twitter @Brennan_L_D.
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