NHL Rumors: Montreal Canadiens, Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings

Welcome to another edition of Full Press Hockey’s NHL Rumors! The 2022-23 regular season is nearly halfway done and players will be evaluated. Now, with the trade deadline 40 days away, rumors are still around. The NHL holiday trade freeze ended at 12:01 am on December 28th. That could mean trade activity or NHL rumors could be picking up.

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 possible. In this Sunday edition of NHL Rumors, we will take a look at the Montreal Canadiens, Columbus Blue Jackets, and the Detroit Red Wings.

Montreal Canadiens – Cole Caufield

Rumor: Per – tsn.ca. With the season-ending injury to their star player Cole Caufield, what does this do to the Habs Bedard chances?

While his teammates wish him the best, it is very obvious that Caufield’s offense will not be easily replaced. Not that this means the team will throw in the towel and go all-in for the Connor Bedard sweepstakes, but it certainly decreases the Habs chances of gaining wins for the rest of the season. Caufield was on target for tallying 47 goals and that definitely hurts the Montreal club’s future this season.

Not only does this young player dominate by scoring goals, he is an excellent puck possession payer. His 54.7 Corsi For, and 13.0 Relative Corsi For are indicators that when he’s on the ice his team has the puck. That will be extremely difficult to replace. Whenever a star player goes down, his teammates know it’s “the next-man-up” theory that must kick in, if there’s no other player in his caliber of play to do that… you’re stuck.

The interesting tidbit about this injury is where does this put the Habs in the hunt for Connor Bedard? They just lost both Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky, along with Brendan Gallagher (six weeks), and Sean Monahan (injured reserve). That’s a group of quality players (and it’s worse with Carey Price out too) to be missing.

The Canadiens have their own first-round pick and that of the Florida Panthers from the Ben Chiarot trade. That gives them an advantage over other clubs in the drafting of Connor Bedard. And, with the new rules which took effect in 2022, no team can get the first-overall pick twice within five years. Since the Habs won the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft, they will only be eligible to do so one more time between 2023 and 2026.

Can the Caufield injury contain a silver lining? We shall see.

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Columbus Blue Jackets – Vladislav Gavrikov

Rumor: Per – Chris Johnston – sportsnet.ca. The Blue Jackets D-man will get lots of attention at the trade deadline, and now he has decided to test the free agency market… if he doesn’t get traded first.

Gavrikov can help many teams looking toward the playoffs this season. The list of teams includes the Toronto Maple Leafs, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota Wild, Ottawa Senators, and Edmonton Oilers. His $2.8 million cap hit is reasonable even for teams having cap issues. Of course, he will likely want an increase. The excellent second-pair defenseman looks to have multiple suitors. It is doubtful that Jackets’ GM Jarmo Kekäläinen will allow the gifted Yaroslavl, Russian Federation native to walk to free agency.

The Columbus team is stuck in the NHL cellar with just 28 points this season. Allowing Gavrikov to be traded to acquire additional assets along with the possibility of adding Bedard, has to be enlightening. Look for the Jackets terrible 3.91 goals-against-average to increase after trading or losing Gavrikov. He’s been putting in 22:19 minutes of ice time too, so who will step up when he’s gone?

There’s only one direction for this Blue Jackets team to go… and that’s UP. Saying they are in on Bedard is like saying Connor McDavid is the best hockey player on the planet. Maybe Bedard will have something to say about that once he gets to the NHL. For now, the Blue Jackets look pretty horrid… especially without Gavrikov.

Detroit Red Wings – Tyler Bertuzzi

Rumor: Per – David Pagnotta – thefourthperiod.com. Pagnotta thinks that if Yzerman can’t sign Bertuzzi, he will need to be traded. 

Bertuzzi has stated that he wants to remain in Detroit, but he also desires a long-term, bigger deal to do that. With the Red Wings already working to sign their star captain Dylan Larkin to a huge deal, where does that leave Bertuzzi? He was making $4.75 million and Larkin has a deal for $6.1 million, with both players becoming unrestricted free agents at season’s end. In fact, the Wings have a total of 12 UFAs, to go along with three restricted free agents to handle this offseason.

While Steve Yzerman may be a genius general manager, he can’t work miracles… or can he? The club will have $41.6 million in cap space for the 2023-24 season, but that’s due to the high number of unsigned players.

The Dallas Stars have a need for a rugged forward like Bertuzzi, but can they create some cap space to trade for him? It will boil down to what a team interested in him can offer. Detroit knows that Bertuzzi is valuable, but this season he has been hurt, breaking his hand two different times. He’s only managed one goal and four assists in 15 games. Keep a close watch here with our NHL rumors to see what happens to Bertuzzi.

And, just out now… Bertuzzi will be out for Saturday night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Tonight vs. @NHLFlyers
– Tyler Bertuzzi out
– Kubalik w/ Larkin & Raymond
– It's @NicklasLidstrom bobble head night!!
– @KenKalDRW gives us his keys to another victory @DetroitRedWings @Athletico #LGRW pic.twitter.com/HyU5oF37wD

— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) January 21, 2023

That does it for this edition of NHL rumors. Be sure to watch for our next article, and thanks for reading!