BS Meter on Latest NHL Trade and Offseason Rumors
It's the playoffs.
Runs are lengthening. Upsets are happening. Cinderellas are emerging.
And in the cities whose teams have either been eliminated or didn't qualify for the NHL's postseason hijinks, rumors are flying.
Which means the B/R hockey staff's BS senses are tingling.
Toward that end, we took a look at a few of the hottest suggestions making the rounds these days and applied our BS Meter litmus test to gauge their voracity. Take a look at what we came up with and feel free to drop a take of your own (hot or otherwise) in the comments.
Artemi Panarin Leaving the Big Apple
1 of 5
This wasn't the way it was supposed to play out in New York.
The Rangers were coming off a playoff final four appearance last spring and had stocked the competitive cupboard for a run at least that deep in 2023.
And when they went to Newark and handled the host New Jersey Devils in the first two games of their first-round series, it would have been hard to find a nonbeliever.
But then the Devils won four of the next five to kick New York to the curb after just seven games, leaving general manager Chris Drury with some decisions to make about a roster bursting at the seams with salary.
Exhibit A: Artemi Panarin.
The 31-year-old winger has three years remaining on a deal paying better than $11.6 million per season, but his recent playoff output—two assists in seven games—after a 92-point regular season has some implying that a big deal could be imminent.
It certainly would clear cap room for a team about to deal with five unrestricted free agents and a handful of others due raises alongside their restricted statuses so it can't be dismissed entirely. But dealing away a guy who's been your leading scorer across the last four years seems more a knee-jerk solution than a prudent one.
BS Meter: BS, probably.
Evgeny Kuznetsov Wants out of Washington
2 of 5
It's a tale as old as time.
A rumor or a story surfaces. The player mentioned in the rumor denies it.
And within days or weeks, the scenario suggested occurs.
Will that be the case as it relates to Washington forward Evgeny Kuznetsov? We'll see.
But there does seem to be plenty of smoke to signal a fire.
Suggestions have been around for a few seasons that the 2010 first-round draft pick, now 30, was unhappy with the Capitals and had requested a trade. His role on the team has changed and his production has gradually ebbed from a career-high 83 points in 2017-18 to just 55 points in 81 games this season, alongside an ugly -26 rating.
A Russian television station reported in March that Kuznetsov had renewed his request to leave D.C. (h/t Russian Machine Never Breaks), alongside a report from The Athletic's Tarik El-Bashir in a mailbag piece that the organization is disappointed with the player's 2022-23 performance and that "trust is broken" between the parties.
Add in the comment by Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast that divorce is a likely outcome and Kuznetsov's conditional dismissal of the idea to NHL.com's Tom Gulitti seems a hollow response.
So the real question isn't if Kuznetsov and his $7.8 million price tag will be on the move sometime soon, it's when?
BS Meter: Not BS
Blowing It Up in Boston
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The Boston Bruins just finished the best regular season in NHL history.
They won more games and compiled more points than any team ever had and posted other statistics that suggested a run to a Stanley Cup was not only possible, but almost a lock.
Until it wasn't.
Fast-forward seven games into the playoffs and it was the Bruins looking dejected in the handshake line after blowing a 3-1 series lead and losing to the Florida Panthers.
And suddenly, GM Don Sweeney was hustled into a busy offseason.
Boston has nine unrestricted free agents and two more due raises as unrestricted players, not a ton of wiggle room under the salary cap and precisely one draft pick in the first two rounds across the next three selection meetings from this summer through 2025.
Could it mean they blow the thing up? Maybe. But it won't be a total demolition job.
Expect the Bruins to bid farewell to the likes of Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov after their short-term stays following trade deadline deals. And perhaps a mainstay along the lines of Taylor Hall, with two years left on a deal paying him $6 million annually could be made expendable to allow for the signing of RFA goalie Jeremy Swayman.
Speaking of goalies, even the idea of shipping Linus Ullmark out after his 40-win, sub-2.00 goals-against average season has been floated to both free the net for Swayman and take another deal worth $5 million for each of the next two seasons off the books.
And let's not forget Patrice Bergeron and David Krejčí, one or both of whom could retire after a combined 2,326 regular-season games in spoked-wheel sweaters.
BS Meter: Not entirely BS
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Trio Grande: Toronto, Pittsburgh and New York Exchange Suits
4 of 5
OK, folks. Fasten your seatbelts. This one's going to bumpy.
A scenario floated apparently second-hand by the New York Post's Larry Brooks on Twitter suggests that the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins would be well-served getting on one another's friends and family phone plans this summer.
Brooks tweeted Tuesday that he'd been "presented" a series of events in which Toronto GM Kyle Dubas would head to Pittsburgh to take the same role with the Penguins after Ron Hextall was fired. He'd bring coach Sheldon Keefe with him to replace Mike Sullivan, who's still under contract but has taken heat for the team's first playoff miss since 2006.
And Sullivan's sudden unemployment would be short-lived, because he'd then head to New York to take the Rangers' coaching reins after they were stripped from Gerard Gallant after two seasons and one enormous playoff flop.
Of course, none of this would occur without some financial entanglement.
Sullivan is under contract to the Penguins through the end of the 2026-27 season thanks to an extension he signed last August. Keefe is also committed to the Maple Leafs through the end of next season after his won extension that was signed in October 2021.
Dubas, though, is in the final year of a five-year deal and might be among the least popular men in Ontario if Toronto falls to the Florida Panthers after finally getting over their first-round hump by eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning.
So, if any of this is possible or conceivable or even likely, it's his part, especially if the early summer comes and goes without a parade on Yonge Street.
BS Meter: BS and...maybe not BS
Canadiens Climbing the Draft Ladder
5 of 5
It's been a disappointing couple of seasons in Montreal.
The Canadiens were the surprise story of the NHL's post-bubble playoffs in 2021, erasing the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and Vegas Golden Knights before losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final.
But any optimism that the mojo would continue has long since been snuffed.
Montreal has won just 53 of 164 games in the subsequent two regular seasons, finishing eighth in the Atlantic Division twice and failing to qualify for the playoffs.
They drafted first overall last summer and grabbed Slovakian winger Juraj Slafkovsky, but the 19-year-old's debut season saw him score just 10 points in 39 games.
They're fifth on the board for this summer's draft in Nashville, which means they won't get Connor Bedard. But they will have a chance to land a solid talent in what's thought to be one of the deeper drafts in recent years. Toward that end, Darren Dreger of TSN said during a recent radio spot that the team may be looking to creep up a spot or two in the draft if they can manage a deal without surrendering too much in return.
"I think they're interested in moving," he said. "I think they're more interested in moving up rather than moving down. ... You have to lean on your amateur scouts and figure out who the best possible player is that's likely to be available. If you're comfortable, then you don't want to have to spend assets to move up."
A move up may allow them a chance to pick someone other than Matvei Michkov, who's seen as a genuine talent but is under contract to a team in Russia's KHL until 2026 and wouldn't be a slam dunk to be available at the start of, or even during, the 2023-24 season. If they stay at No. 5 and he's there, he'd be hard to pass up while also being hard to take.
There have also been suggestions the Canadiens trade the pick to Winnipeg for Quebec-born winger Pierre-Luc Dubois.
With so many options, expect something to happen somewhere.
BS Meter: Not BS
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