BS Meter on the Latest NHL Draft, Free Agency and Trade Rumors
The Stanley Cup has been awarded. The drunk parade speeches have gone viral.
And the craggy beards that were emblematic of the two-month struggle for NHL supremacy are being shorn, as we speak, to reveal pale skin.
In other words, folks, welcome to the offseason.
But as the days count down to summer's biggest off-ice event—the entry draft that'll cover two days next week in Nashville, Tennessee—it's not as if things have gone totally dark.
Rumors about trades, signings and other would-be transactions are keeping the B/R hockey staff's BS senses tingling. To 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 in the comments.
Sharks Open To Erik Karlsson Deal
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It's all over bar the press conference.
Probably.
Given the San Jose Sharks' 29th-place standing among 32 teams last season and defenseman Erik Karlsson's desire to be a part of a team with a chance to contend for a championship, it's hardly a revelation to suggest he will be dealt.
But the fact that the 33-year-old has four years left on a contract paying him $11.5 million per season—the highest rate in the league for a blue liner—it's not quite so easy to forecast a destination.
TSN's Pierre LeBrun reported that Karlsson and his representatives met with the Sharks brass and agreed that a trade was the desired outcome for all parties.
And San Jose GM Mike Grier said in April, as the Swede wrapped up a career-best 101-point season, that things were more likely to happen in the summertime when teams began formulating plans.
So, it's now a question of who's willing to meet the asking price that Grier has established, which is reportedly in the neighborhood of three first-round draft picks.
"It's not something that we're looking to give him away just to get cap space," he told The Mercury News. "I think we have an idea of what we think he's worth and what we should get in return and then we'll just kind of leave it at that.
"Like any deal, there's give and take on both sides and the balance of yes, getting some cap space, but also getting what we feel is a good return for him."
BS Meter: Not BS. Karlsson will start 2023-24 elsewhere.
Long-Term Money for Connor Hellebuyck
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It's a tough time to be Kevin Cheveldayoff.
The Winnipeg GM saw his Jets lose four straight games after taking their playoff opener against the eventual Cup champions and is now immersed in an offseason that'll play a large role in determining the franchise's long-term path.
Foundational players Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele are entering the final years of contracts with no guarantee that they'll remain in Manitoba. Young star Pierre-Luc Dubois is a restricted free agent whose future is also in question. And there's another guy, long considered among the league's best at his position, who's looking for certainty, too.
You know him as Connor Hellebuyck. A former Vezina Trophy winner. A three-time All-Star Game participant. And ranked high among last season's league leaders in wins (tied for third, 37), save percentage (tied for fourth, .920) and shutouts (tied for fifth, four).
Cheveldayoff, though, likely sees another player with one year remaining on a deal, and a monumental choice to make on whether he'll commit the sort of high-end money the 30-year-old could command—likely in the neighborhood of $9 million annually for several years—with so many other potential roster holes to fill.
And he can't be thrilled with Pierre LeBrun's Tuesday report that Hellebuyck has an interest in joining the New Jersey Devils and signing a long-term deal with them if he's sent to the Garden State as part of a sign-and-trade transaction.
The Devils were third overall last season, reached the second round of the playoffs and seem likely to contend for years with a strong core of young talent.
Adding an elite goalie to that mix could cement their status and give Hellebuyck the sort of playoff buzz he's not had with the Jets since they reached the 2018 Western Conference Final.
BS Meter: Not BS. If the Devils can meet his number, Hellebuyck makes sense.
Tom Wilson to Be an Ex-Capital
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It all starts with a phrase.
When podcaster John Hoven suggested he'd heard from a source that the Los Angeles Kings had "kicked the tires" on a would-be deal for Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson, the rumor sprouted legs.
The 29-year-old winger is coming off major knee surgery, after all. The Capitals missed the playoffs in 2022-23 for the first time in nine years. And GM Brian MacLellan has other concerns up and down the roster as Wilson enters the final year of a contract he signed in 2018 that's paying better than $5.1 million annually.
So, it's not crazy talk to suggest that Washington could be interested in shuffling its deck and that the Kings, who were bounced from the playoffs by the Edmonton Oilers for the second straight season, would covet the chance to sign a physical and productive top-six talent.
But it seems no one else who matters is on board.
MacLellan said he'd do everything possible to make sure Wilson remained in D.C., and the player himself showed his hand with a claim on the same day that he'd not be doing anything to force his way out of town.
"I'm not a guy that's going to play hardball and say that I don't want to be here," Wilson said. "Everyone knows I want to be here. No matter what happens, I want to help this city win games."
BS Meter: Hot podcast takes are nice. But this is BS, plain and simple.
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An Oilers Run for Jonathan Toews
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The Edmonton Oilers are reaching critical mass.
They've burned up the league in the back half of two straight seasons. They've gotten incrementally closer to joining the select group of teams deemed "Cup favorites."
And though they've gotten comically high numbers from Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the most important statistic for each player these days is how many seasons remain (three for McDavid, two for Draisaitl) before they can hit the market as unrestricted free agents.
Which means it's put up or shut up time for general manager Ken Holland.
The former architect of the Detroit Red Wings dynasty has improved the roster since his arrival in 2019, but his success going forward will only be measured by how many titles he'll bring to the "City of Champions" before riding off into the sunset.
Toward that end, perhaps Jonathan Toews is a missing piece.
The 35-year-old center played 53 games in what appeared to be his final season of 16 with the Chicago Blackhawks, who went public in April with the decision that they wouldn't re-sign him when he becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
His numbers have plummeted and his health has been a concern since he scored a career-best 35 goals in 2018-19, but Sportsnet's Mark Spector said Holland has assigned advisor Duncan Keith, a longtime teammate of Toews in Chicago, to monitor his old pal's interest in and capacity for returning for another season in Alberta.
If he's willing, Toews could serve a valuable role as a bottom-six producer and veteran locker room presence.
BS Meter: Unlikely perhaps, but not BS. And just imagine the Internet-breaking visual of a bearded McDavid handing the Cup to Toews.
Carolina on Tyler Bertuzzi's Mind
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It was supposed to go differently for Tyler Bertuzzi.
The burly winger was languishing through his final pre-free agency season with the Detroit Red Wings when the rescue came, in the form of a trade deadline deal that sent him to the chart-topping Boston Bruins for a pair of future-focused draft picks.
In his new city, it seemed, the former second-round pick could rediscover the mojo that made him a 30-goal scorer in 2021-22 and get a shot at a deep playoff run, and perhaps a long-term stay, with a team on its way to the greatest regular season in NHL history.
To say it didn't work out would be an understatement.
Bertuzzi did produce four goals and 16 points in 21 games with the Bruins at the tail end of the season, but his hoped-for Cup chase was snuffed by the Florida Panthers, leaving him with a stat line of five goals and 10 points in seven first-round games.
And with the Bruins pressed up against the salary cap ceiling and with decisions to make on nine other free agents—seven unrestricted, two restricted—it seems far less likely that the 28-year-old's stay in Massachusetts will last into the fall.
Enter the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Bruins outbid their Eastern Conference rivals for Bertuzzi's services at the deadline, but Carolina has better than $20 million in cap space heading into the summer and Jason Gregor, who covers the Oilers in Edmonton, suggests that the Hurricanes will be a factor in the chase to get him if he's looking for a big salary score.
BS Meter: Not BS. If Bertuzzi doesn't want to wait for the cap to go up, Carolina is the place.
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