Quiet on the Bear front … Oilers and Nugent-Hopkins talking
Kurt Leavins of the Edmonton Journal: There is not much news with regards to Edmonton Oilers restricted free agent defenseman Ethan Bear. The Oilers did qualify Bear, but things are quiet with the contract extension.
With the flat cap and no arbitration rights, Bear doesn’t have a lot of leverage. He’ll be in a better position after next season even with the flat cap.
Have been lead to believe that contract extension talks between the Oilers and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are “on-going.”
Comparables for Nugent-Hopkins are wingers Timo Meier and Nikolaj Ehlers. If you toss in that RNH can play center if need be, maybe he can move up in the $6.5 million range over five years.
Teams are being patient … Hoffman’s defensive game lowing price?
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: Some teams have put their offseason on pause as they wait for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to make some sort of announcement for next season. They may then continue to add and tweak their roster later in the offseason.
Believe that we will see more trades and free agent signings in December when there may be a better idea of how the 2020-21 season may look like.
Mike Hoffman‘s initial asking price was more than $6.5 million. Though there are no questions about his goal-scoring ability, on the other side of the puck there are. This, along with the flat cap is bringing the price down.
Ducks in no man’s land
Adam Gretz: The Anaheim Ducks are stuck in no man’s land as they aren’t a playoff team and are not committed to a rebuild. They have a couple of nice prospects in Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale. The Ducks are a cap team with not a great roster.
The Ducks shouldn’t have any untouchable roster players this offseason. They have a group of players that still hold some value: Ryan Getzlaf, Adam Henrique, Jakob Silfverberg, Hampus Lindholm, Cam Fowler and Rickard Rakell.
Goaltender John Gibson may be the only player they shouldn’t consider trading.
The Ducks may need to take another step back before they can move forward.
