The NHL world seemed to wake up today as moments after we concluded the Illegal Curve Hockey Show this morning at 11 AM CDT a trade was announced between the Predators and Avalanche with Nashville sending centre Ryan Johansen (retaining 50% of salary) to Colorado for the signing rights of Alex Galchenyuk. This move would quash the thought that the Jets division rival in Colorado might be willing to take Pierre-Luc Dubois on a short-term deal.
Then the Kings sent right-shot defenceman Sean Durzi to the Arizona Coyotes for a 2nd round pick in 2024. There had been some speculation that Durzi could have been coming to Winnipeg as part of a package in a trade between the Jets and Kings. The move did free up some cap space (1.7 million) for L.A.
And there is a big trade reportedly brewing between the Flyers and Blues but it awaits players with no-trade clauses to waive. It would involve former Jets rental Kevin Hayes heading to St. Louis but is expected to involve a number of players. As per our good friend Anthony SanFilippo of Crossing Broad this deal isn’t expected to be finalized tonight.
Which brings us to a tweet from Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff who had this to say about the Jets:
Lots still floating out there tonight.
Sounds like #nhljets have a number of irons in the fire on this Saturday. Healthy amount of speculation connecting WPG to #LAKings, but don’t get the sense anything is particularly close.
Durzi trade helped setup LA for whatever’s next.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 24, 2023
Might this be the precursor to a Pierre-Luc Dubois trade? Maybe more?
Stay tuned to find out.
Update:
From Sunday morning we get a tweet from French reporter Renaud Lavoie:
“It appears the Kings continue to pursue Pierre-Luc Dubois. Question now is to see if they can do a trade and sign an extension at the same time.”
