NHL Rumors: St. Louis Blues, Vegas Golden Knights, Winnipeg Jets

Welcome to another edition of Full Press Hockey’s NHL Rumors! The NHL 2022-23 regular season games have begun and players will be evaluated. Now, with free agency moves mostly done, rumors are still around. Clubs are always working to improve their rosters for next season. Some teams are having difficulty creating enough cap space to make moves. Others are experiencing severe injuries to star players. Trade rumors/signings are still prevalent. In this Wednesday edition of NHL Rumors, we will take a look at the St. Louis Blues, Vegas Golden Knights, and the Winnipeg Jets.

St. Louis Blues – Changes coming?

Rumor: Per Mark Easson – nhlrumors.com. Eight straight losses may mean it’s time to make some changes.

Blues general manager Doug Armstrong has never seen his team lose five consecutive games during his tenure dating back to 2010. Well, the Philadelphia Flyers prolonged the Blues struggles by handing the Blues their eighth loss in a row.

Even captain Ryan O’Reilly called his own play out recently. It’s time to figure it out.

“Myself, I’ve been absolutely horrible. I’m not really doing anything, got to fight to stay in this league. I’ve got to do a lot more leadership-wise… my own play. If I can do that, that will make a big difference. Doug’s message was clear. This is unacceptable, what’s going on, and he’s absolutely right. We all have to look inside and find our own way out of what’s going on. But yeah, for myself especially, it’s pretty pathetic.”

Per hockey insider Elliotte Friedman, “Doug Armstrong is a really fascinating guy to watch because the year they won the Stanley Cup in 2019, he was this close to blowing it all up and he didn’t.

So, what that says to me is, you know my rule, the surest predictor of future behavior is past behavior, right? And you can’t automatically assume that he’s going to blow it up. I mean he could. He’s not afraid. He is not afraid.”

So, we shall see if Armstrong has seen enough and starts to attempt to salvage the season by making some changes. At this point, he could be getting desperate.

Vegas Golden Knights – Goalie trade?

Rumor: Per Owen Krepps – vegashockeynow.com. With three goalies, the Vegas club may need to trade one.

Technically speaking, they could trade any one of their three goaltenders. But based on the play of Adin Hill and Logan Thompson so far this season, Brossoit is likely the odd man out.

Meanwhile, the traditional backup to Lehner, Laurent Brossoit, has been recovering from his hip injury. He was assigned to the Henderson Silver Knights of the AHL on a conditioning stint on Monday.

Brossoit is coming off of injured reserve, not long-term injured reserve, which means the Golden Knights do not have to free up any cap space for his return. They will barely have enough cap space with just $16 million remaining, but they can still manage Brossoit’s $2.325 million cap hit.

There is definitely no shortage of teams needing some help between the pipes. The Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, and Minnesota Wild are all looking. Seems like in the early parts of this new season goalies are falling faster than expected. No worries, Vegas has you covered.

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Winnipeg Jets – Ville Heinola

Rumor: Per Jacob Stoller of The Hockey News. The agent for Winnipeg Jets defenseman Ville Heinola, Allain Roy, said that Heinola is frustrated again at starting the season in the AHL.

In the past three years, Heinola has only participated in 17 NHL games and feels he’s been in the same spot with the organization. They aren’t looking for a guaranteed spot in the lineup, but he at least wants an opportunity.

Allain Roy, Heinola’s agent has not requested a trade as of yet. Roy stated, “Ville doesn’t deserve a guaranteed spot in the lineup. He deserves a shot to play a run of games to show he can do it. And that’s all we’re asking for.”

“At some point, that decision’s going to have to be made because the asset (Heinola) is going to stagnate and start to go backward,” Roy said. “That’s going to be the issue. I don’t think it’s going backwards yet, but definitely, the frustration’s setting in, and that’s never a good sign.”

Heinola has four assists in nine games this season with the AHL Manitoba Moose. He tallied five goals, 21 assists in 41 games last season. If the Jets aren’t interested in giving him a shot, they should at least see what they can get for him on the trade market.

That concludes this edition of NHL rumors. Be sure to join us for our next article, and thanks for reading!