NHL Trade Rumours - Leafs, Ducks, Crosby No Rush to Sign? JVR To Leafs? Demko & Formenton Retires?

we have all kinds of NHL news and rumors to take a look at today in the rumor mill we're focusing on teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs and Anaheim Ducks plus the latest on Sydney Crosby have a big update from Eliot Freeman plus some injury updates on guys like Thatcher Demco and elas soken uh some big updates as well when it comes to Jeremy San uh lots of other updates around some pto's could jvr maybe return to the Toronto Maps one Toronto analyst thinks that should be a possibility we'll discuss all that and more coming up next so welcome back to another video here at topshelf hockey as I mentioned we have lots of NHL news and some rumors to take a look at here today uh we have lots to go over so let's get started first up we learned something new today that I didn't realize actually was part of the uh the courtroom documents for the players that are on trial for the 2018 World Junior Team apparently those court room documents revealed that Alex foron formerly of the Ottawa Senators he's played in Europe the past last couple of Seasons since not being resigned by the Senators which uh coincidentally happened you know pretty well right after this you know news kind of came out originally few years ago here uh that he's stepped away from his hockey career and Alex foron is kind of I don't know if you want to use the word retired uh the words I think in the document stepped away um but apparently he's living in Barry Ontario and working construction so I don't know what that tells us anything about Alex foron um certainly like I said he's probably you know at this point not really he knows he's not going to get another NHL opportunity for quite some time I mean at this point the trial for the world junior players is not going to be over there's a good possibility it could be late next year so not only this year but probably the year after so at this point he's already been out of the NHL for a few years he's probably going to have at least one more maybe two before everything's finalized and that's assuming he's found innocent at that point I I kind of think his hockey career is pretty much done uh and obviously if he's found guilty well that's a whole different scenario here he's likely going to you know good chance to do some serious jail time and while obviously hockey's probably the least of his concerns at that point but interesting to to learn that he's not even playing anywhere a lot of his counterparts that he's on trial with uh some of those guys have accepted contracts in the KHL like Dylan duay formerly the Calgary Flames is playing over there right now I think McLoud is as well there was some speculation that Carter Hart was going to but I don't believe he actually ended up going over so interesting developments there that trial right now would be theoretically scheduled to start next September so like a year from now but it is a possibility if they are ready for it that it could start as early as April but no guarantee that it gets underway until September uh lots of other updates today Elliot Freeman was back with his first 32 thoughts podcast of the Season uh we haven't heard from Elliot really on a podcast format in a long time he did not really want to address the Jeff Merck situation uh in case anybody is wondering about that he did say that uh you know he really thoroughly enjoyed his time working with Jeff and that Jeff's not only a great broadcaster but an even better person and he said that what went down is Jeff's story to tell and until Jeff has spoken about it publicly he doesn't want to uh and which you know what I think that's totally fair uh in all honesty uh like he's right it is Jeff Merrick's situation and until he's done that it's not really fair for anybody his other co-workers or friends that that may know the more intimate details um to really do that so obviously K bukasa of sports night has taking over the co-hosting duties with Elliots it was their first pod together and they went through all the teams it's a really long like two and a half hours um I didn't listen to 100% of it but I've listened to uh at this point more than half so there might be more details I discuss over the next day or two that I still have to go back and listen to it it's just a really long very informative very in-depth on a lot of teams here but some of the key things that we learned out of this one Thatcher Demo's injury with the Vancouver connects we heard from Chris Johnson earlier in the off season that it was really unique and odd and that it was like a one in a what did they say like a 50-year career you might see it one time or something like that um Elliot it's kind of saying the same things uh really weird he says that Demco basically needs to learn to play through this and to see if he can continue to play at a high level with this um that there's no surgery um to correct this issue whatever it is like I know CJ had mentioned that it's something to do with the back of his knee or something it's a really odd unusual injury so that doesn't exactly give you a lot of good feelings if you're Vancouver and you're you know a kak fan or Demco fan or what have you that that's just not promising uh the latest Intel on the kak's pursuit of another go tender it sounds like they're going to wait I mean that could change maybe they get an updated medical report on one of their goalies and if it's not good maybe they um change course here but it sounds like they're going to wait until Camp starts so they can properly evaluate before determining if they need to go out and get another gold tender but based on what Elliott's saying if Dem Demco has to figure out a way to play through this like that's that's super concerning uh for me for Vancouver so we'll see how things go we may not hear a whole lot more until we get to training camp another go tending injury that we didn't really know about until LA's podcast came out today is he believes that Islander starting go tender elas sokin is also battling some sort of injury but of course no big surprise he said it's really difficult almost impossible to get details out of the Islanders organization he said that he has tried contacting a few people like a few of his contacts and sources there and nobody's talking uh so it's hard to confirm but he does believe that soken is battling an injury so we'll have to see as Camp gets closer here like I said we're we're under two weeks away now from training camps opening up if the Islanders have anything to be worried about in that scenario as well obviously they have varlamov who's you know a well experienced capable starter who had to take on a lot more work last year because of sorokin's uh you know underwhelming play obviously the Islanders if they're going to have any chance of getting into the playoffs or having a better year this year they need a serious bounceback from soken so if he is hurt to start the year that's certainly not good news at all a couple of players looking for PTO some older veteran defenseman Kevin shattenkirk according to Elliot Freeman is very very interested in the situation with the Edmonton Oilers we know there's still a good possibility the Oilers may bring in a veteran dman uh to come in on a PTO this see if they can add some more depth to the position and there was some talk about Tyson Barry while he's ended up now signing that scenario with Calgary uh we heard Justin Schultz's name shaton Kirk also very much in the mix and would love a chance to go to Edmonton according to Elliott so we'll see how that goes another one uh Mark jordano according to Elliott his agent has spoken to a few teams including ining Eon and the possibility of coming back to Toronto of course you know uh you know he's played in Toronto the last few years obviously they know him very well I don't know what the odds of that would be his role was reduced during the end of his tenure there with to leave so you know I guess they could still maybe bring him in on a PTO I know like I said it's not the door's not closed on the Hawkin paaw situation um and with the other moves they've made it's just hard to find a spot for Jordan know without being maybe like a number seven guy but to be honest I don't think that he's going to do much better than that anywhere else anyway so I would suspect for him having a long career and somebody who hasn't won a staning cup that that would be what he would want there's the best chance to win if he's going to be able to continue to play but we'll see if Evon or Toronto gives him any sort of opportunity in that regard on a PTO cuz I would suspect it's going to have to be that rather than just a straight contract uh some updates as well on Jeremy Swan staying with the goal tending uh theme here so far early in this video Elliot does talk about swan in today's podcast as well um he says when uh spit and chicklets uh analyst Ryan Whitney talked about Swan earlier this week saying that there was a the latest offer was four years at 6.2 and they talked about how that's nowhere close enough to get the deal done and you know obviously a lot of Bruins fans have chimed in some feel like this is kind of getting out of control uh and obviously that it's uh you know not a good thing that it's not done and they're such far apart you know whatever uh Elliott says that after um hearing Whitney say that he said normally if that was not true he would have been hearing something disputing it and he has not so he feels that Whitney's information is accurate the current offer is four time 6.2 um he says at one point he was told that there was an eight-year deal on the table from the Bruins to swan but he believed that it was somewhere around the 6 million or so range so similar number than what they're talking about now so clearly if Swan's not accepting 6.2 on a 4-year deal there's no way he's going to take that on an 8-year deal they talked about the fact of swayman you know learned a lot in the last year going through arbitration didn't want to go through that again he's learned a ton about the business side of hockey and contracts and just kind of really study and take a lot of opportunities to learn a lot and really AG edate himself and like we've heard of his comment saying that it's not just about himself it's about other goalies too and making sure that this deal doesn't hurt anybody else's value um you know he wants to make sure he does right by the league and his fellow nut minders so we'll see what happens here but it sounds like there's a major Gap still between the sides now like we said yesterday as well uh I know there was part of Whitney's comments was that they're not returning his calls or his agents calls uh and Joe Hagerty who covers the Bruins as a Beat riter said I don't see how that's possible considering that Swan is working out at Warrior Arena you would think that um they would see each other all the time so they don't really need to be picking up the phone they can have lots of conversations in person so either way major Gap still and Swingman is going to be holding strong is what it sounds like going to be real curious to see how that goes and one other quick note on the Bruins before we move on of course we know Brad Maran we talked about yesterday how he had three surgeries in the off season because of that I don't think he was really able to do his normal training routine normally he spends a lot of time back in in hellofax Nova Scotia with Crosby McKinnon and that group that skates together in the off season and he wasn't really able to do that this year because of all the recovery time from the surgeries there sounds like there's a chance according to Elliot that Martian may not be ready to go come training camp or at least may not be a full participant in everything right from the get-go so um hopefully he's not delayed too much and if he is obviously that could impact you know the team as well so you know that's a couple of big question marks hanging over the Bruins franchise as we prepare for Camp to open here in a couple weeks time we just shy of that now um one big update as well with the map beliefs uh this is just an opinion from a you know TSN analyst but I believe it was first brought up by Frankie curado an overdrive and I've seen some other analysts talking about it as well on PO I think it was Jay Rose Hill mentioning it too uh talking about whether or not jvr should be an option to return to the Toronto map Leafs and to be honest we've heard the Rumblings and the rumors about the Leafs being one of the teams in a Max Patch already that the leftwing spot on the team is lacking some depth uh with the whole situation with Nick Robertson where he's not signed that's not helping matters either wants a trade and is not budging on it there's an opportunity there for somebody to grab a spot I mean you've got Matthew n you got Bobby McMahon you know and then you got somebody who can grab a fourth line spot there's a couple of options for that but really like that third line left wing spot is open really I would think uh with the uh you know the fact that they've lost bruzi that's one of the things they haven't really replaced so you know there's an opportunity for sure so a guy like Pat ready okay maybe that is the guy that they go for but to me I I agree with these other guys here saying that I honestly think jvier would be a better option he's a guy who's used to having a depth role uh he's still very skilled and very good around the net like he's not he's used to not playing big minutes he's used to having a role a depth role uh you know doesn't really play special teams anymore maybe power play to if you need them to that's about it and you know obviously at this point I think he's uh more productive than what we've seen at a pater ready and he's been a guy who's for the most part hasn't really had the injuries either like I said and he's played in Toronto before so he understands the pressure he knows what it's like um you know there's a lot of familiarity there so you know do you think that the Toronto Maple Leaf should be ping or or offering a short cheap contract to a guy like jvr instead of a guy like Max petti in all honesty I would um I mean overall in the longevities of their careers you could say that pater's probably had a bit more success with the goal scoring whatnot but he's not that same guy anymore to be honest like last year Wasing I've i' seen enough games to know that it was a struggle and he just I don't I don't know that he has it in him anymore to play in 82 game schedule I know he's looking to bounce back and continue his career I just don't know that Toronto's really the spot but you know regardless of who they bring in if it's not Nick Robertson then in all honesty uh somebody's got a great opportunity there that you especially with mcmah and nce still being young if they struggle and they get a chance to move up they could really have a you know good productive year so you know to me I think jvier would make a lot of sense for them you know one year cheap contract even if he has to go in on a PTO I would do it in a heartbe what do you think let me know in the comments staying with the leaves here for a moment uh obviously uh Ellie does touch on a few other updates here on Toronto one being Nick Robertson uh he says obviously the fact that you know Robertson does not want to sign does not want to be a map believe appears to all be holding steady there's no changes there but he honestly says at some point as we get closer to train training camp he wonders if we're going to see a change cuz he he made a good point saying that he doesn't think it's going to do Robertson any good to miss camp at the end of the day whether it's in Toronto or somewhere else Robertson needs to play missing time it's just going to hurt his pocketbook financially for one and it's just going to at the same time you know create a spot where you know are you really that big of a name that you can afford to sit out you know you need to be there to be keep teams as keep you top of mind um it's not going to do him any good at all to miss Camp even if he really doesn't want to be there you know go in and play well give it everything you've got and then you can have a little bit more leverage and be like teams are going to be more interested in you maybe they'll make the Leafs a good offer and they be like gez he's finally playing good we don't want to move him but at least we're getting a better offer now and maybe they'll pull the trigger and try to honor your request so I do agree with Elliot 100% that it's not going to do Robertson any good to miss time but like he said and some of the other insiders have said here in recent days nothing has changed he's still showing no indication of wanting to sign and in play for the leaps this year he also add some notes about Mitch mner uh he said that Mitch mner did take the summer extremely seriously trying to prepare himself as best as possible to have a big year of course it's a contract year for Mariner regardless if he stays in Toronto or departs it doesn't matter his next contract is not far away and he needs to have a big year for that perspective uh apparently he spent some time with Crosby and McKinnon I don't think that was in the the maritime training group in Halifax I think that was at a camp cuz there's there's different camps that they all appear at like I know they used to have the bio steel one uh in Toronto um obviously I don't think bio steel is sponsoring anything anymore CU they're been such skilled back there after their bankruptcy but some of the different uh you know Sports companies you know Bower uh maybe body armor I'm not sure which it was but there's numerous uh you know little small camps where a lot of NHL players appear and I believe that Mar did get spend some time with Sid and Nate training and uh obviously doing a lot of different practicing and stuff so uh clearly those guys are two of the most serious athletes in the NHL and take training and preparing themselves extremely seriously so if he's spending time with them that just goes to show you that he is 100% taking it very very seriously I know uh sometimes you hear fans giving him hard time because he's not you don't see aot a bunch of videos getting posted with all these hard workouts and whatnot doesn't mean it's not happening just not posted the social media but at the same time when it comes to marner's contract he says at this point he doesn't think the Leafs and merer really had much discussions of any over the summer on an extension uh and believes that the best thing uh for them and most likely scenario that has played out is that they go into the season uh he's obviously had some conversations with Craig bar Ruby they're interested in working together and at this point you know just to try to have a good start to the year see how things go and then you know if things are going well he's expects they'll probably pick up some conversations um and and maybe they hold off but he also goes on to say that if it does not work out for mner to resign and stay he thinks that eventually everybody involved here is going to regret it and then it's not going to be you know in everybody's best interest for this relationship to end so to speak so we'll see if at Le it's right or what happens with mner he didn't really give a take or prediction on where it's going to go just that we shouldn't really see contract talks pick up until the season's going and then that's assuming things are going well then at some point they will pick up but like he said like his agent Darren Ferris is notorious for encouraging his a his players to push it to free agency unless the team gives you an offer that just makes too much sense not to take it into to uh you know make it worth their while so unless Toronto comes with an offer to blow them away I would suspect that you know pushing it to free agency is probably a strong possibility I don't know I'm sure the Leafs if they things start good and even if things are trending that way they'll probably have at least some level of interest to resign him but you know are they going to blow him away with an offer that he can't refuse I don't know right so we'll have to see but certainly the fact that he's trained a lot with those two guys is is telling that he's uh you know really trying to push his game up a level you know so we'll see where it goes obviously getting it done in the playoffs is going to be the best way to quiet people down and to uh increase you know more positive reputation that you can get the the big time um production when it's needed the most so we'll see what happens with uh with Mitchie in Toronto some updates on the Anaheim Ducks of course we know that they have a lot of young talent and they've been rebuilding there for a while on their new GM Pat for beak one veteran named that according to Elliott is somebody that they're looking to likely move here in the near future is veteran defenseman Cam Fowler uh Fowler of course is a you pretty solid top four defenseman plays a lot of big minutes for them uh often times in their top pair uh but you know he's a bit older than a lot of the crew there they've got a lot of young defenseman that are uh pushing for more and more of a bigger role in ice time as well uh you know obviously you got to keep some veterans around they do have other veterans besides Fowler and Fowler is a name that I think for the most part is is at least at times in his career I think has been a while has really generated uh some trade Buzz um he has a four team trade list though is very limited here so he's going to have a lot of say if he does get moved he's got two years left at $6.5 million for the kind of minutes he lugs and how he plays I don't think it's really going to be that much of an issue if if they do want to move him but obviously he's like it's going to be a case of them working with him uh to see if they can find a fit because because of the trade protection that he was given he's going to have a kind of say in that transaction hard to say when things go I would suspect that he may be one of the top veteran defenseman maybe at this year's trade deadline so it's probably going to be scenario we see kind of play out and unfold throughout the year you never know things going to happen sooner but you know with a two-year deal you know if one of the the uh contending teams comes with a great offer that he's interested in and they could take him um it was a deadline deal for to have two shots at winning then there's good value there the Anaheim Ducks be better I think to trade him this year than to wait till he's in the final year and do it as a rental so we'll see but Ken Fowler is a name to watch throughout this year uh Sydney Crosby of course we talked the other night about the Travis y article in TSN about what if and I see some people and it happens all the time and comments getting all you know losing their minds oh this is clickbait oh this is never going to happen it's like if you just listen to what I say I'm not presenting this a hardcore rumor that you know Sid was going to get traded or anything like that it was an interesting article some articles are not necessarily rumors they're just entertainment and that's what we do here is we talk about things for fun because they're enjoyable because it's fun to think about gez what if this happened you know it could really shake up the league and it could really change how things look and isn't that kind of just fun to think about some people are just no fun Party Poopers like Get over yourselves like some things are just entertainment and some things come from insiders like Elliot that are legit rumors that are things that are more likely to happen um but Crosby's future like I said in that video there's a couple of facts here Sid is not signed beyond the current year that's not a rumor that's a for sure thing that's a real deal right so what basically what frean said was that Crosby's in no rush to sign and his comments did not necessarily I'm not going to go out and say well Elliot said he's he's leaving or Elliott said he's going to get traded he did not say that that's not what he said but he did plant enough of doubt that I think it's a scenario very much worth monitoring and for people to leave comments and say there's no chance that Crosby leaves I'm sorry I have to go ahead and say I disagree and that's fine and that's the other thing I like about the community on this channel is that we've kind of created uh I want people to be able to talk freely about their opinions I just ask you be respectful you disagree with me fine I don't I know that everybody watching this is not going to be like oh yeah that's bang on I agree with that I fully get that but you don't have to use language to be rude and to be just you know trolls like you know end of the day be respectful say I disagree I don't think I think this will happen we can talk about it that's what we like to do here and at the end of the day cross is a no rush according Elliot he took the summer to think about things and at this point it sounds like he's going to start the year and see where things go uh Freeman said essentially that the team has made some offers to him we heard the speculation about the three years around 10 million he believes that was that was on the table uh and it's not a case of the team and dubis like disrespecting him or lowballing him or anything like that this is not about the Penguins kind of you know not doing right by their Captain here this is a case of Sid just not sure what he wants to do and does not want to sign yet cuz he doesn't know and like like I've said before I I don't know Crosby personally but I know that he's one of the most competitive people I've ever seen and frean says the same sort of things that he still s Crosby still very much wants to win badly and isn't sure if he can handle the team being either mediocre or being you know a rebuilding team out of the playoffs and things like that and just want to see where the things are at with the team where are they at are they you know does he think they can be in the playoffs does he think they have a chance you know I don't think he's going to bail on Pittsburgh if he thinks there's some hope there but if he says you know eventually he starts thinking that gez there's just no way you know we're not anywhere good enough do I want to spend my remaining years of my career being being out of the playoffs and just you know in this kind of environment I don't see him necessarily wanting to go to Montreal per se there's a lot the reason there is cuz he grew up cheering for Montreal his dad was drafted there never made it and never played unfortunately but you know a lot of people are convinced and I can't say they're right or wrong I don't know like I said I don't know Sid personally that he would love to play one year in Montreal before he retires I don't know anyways at the end of the day whether or not that happens I can't say but you know there's only a few teams to me that make sense for him if he did leave Pittsburgh but the fact is now one of the top insiders in the game is talking about the fact that Crosby's in no rush and really seems unsure what he wants to do and wants to see where things go with the team before he makes a decision so if that doesn't give you that little bit of doubt that we already talked about and that just that slim chance that he might not stay I don't know what will now he did say he thinks at the end of the day there's still a better chance that he does stay and get and they figure it out but again seed of doubt that's all we talked about before until it's done it's not done and until it's not done there's a chance that it goes a different way at the end of the day it would be weird to see him a new uniform it would be do I think he's going to leave probably not but like I said until he doesn't or does we don't know so for some of the people in that other video that wanted to really be you know leaving hateful com comments just keep in mind what we do here that's all I ask and be respectful there's there's you know it cost you $0 to be nice and you know don't be um you know just just leave respectful comments leave your opinions we'll talk about it that's what we do here that is all for today let me know your thoughts on all today's news and rumors in the comments like I said so we can talk about it further we can agree disagree and have some fun conversations which is what we like to do with topshelf hockey thanks for watching and I'll catch you next time [Music]