NHL Rumors: Pittsburgh Penguins, Carolina Hurricanes, Vancouver Canucks

Welcome to another edition of Full Press Hockey’s NHL Rumors! The 2022-23 regular season is over and players as well as front offices will be evaluated. Now, with the season completed, the focus shifts toward deals that may go down this summer. What about free agency? Clubs are always working to improve their rosters for next season. Teams who were eliminated from the postseason need to assess what happened and make adjustments. Some teams are having difficulty creating enough cap space to make moves. Others are experiencing severe injuries to star players. Trade rumors/signings are over for now, while teams are competing in the playoffs. In this Sunday edition of NHL Rumors, we will look at the Pittsburgh Penguins, Carolina Hurricanes, and the Vancouver Canucks.

Pittsburgh Penguins – Kyle Dubas

Rumor: Per – Shane Seney – nhltraderumors.me. The Pittsburgh ownership has narrowed down their search for a new general manager, and Dubas seems to be the favorite. 

After moving on from GM Ron Hextall, and President of hockey operations Brian Burke, the Penguins are now inching closer to hiring Kyle Dubas as their next GM. It may be a role he had been looking for in Toronto, that never came to fruition. He would have full control to make moves, and that is appealing enough to him to take on a new role in Pittsburgh.

Dubas met with the Penguins brass earlier this week which included Sidney Crosby. Word is these conversations were very positive. The disappointing finish for the Pens missing the postseason did not set well with ownership. They are hoping that Dubas can direct them back to the type of Cup contending team they once were.  Meeting with Crosby is huge, as it seems in most major sports leagues, star players have a large amount of input if not pull when it comes to front office hirings.

One change Dubas may make if he is hired is to upgrade the Penguins netminders. There are NHL rumors that the Pens are looking to acquire John Gibson of the Anaheim Ducks. According to Seney, the Ducks could receive Casey DeSmith, Ty Smith, and a 2024 third-round pick. Per reports, Dubas is very high on Gibson and tried to obtain him while in Toronto, but they had little cap space to work out a deal. That shouldn’t be a problem in Pittsburgh as the Pens will have about $20.2 million to pay Gibson’s $6.4 million cap hit through 2026-27. Of course, the Pens also have seven unrestricted free agents as well as two restricted free agents needing new contracts. If anyone can use the cap space limits to the penny, it would be Dubas. Can we see a resurgence of the Penguins once again under Dubas?

Carolina Hurricanes – Free agent hunting

Rumor: Per – James Wilson – nhltraderumors.me. The Canes need to address their offense next season. They were 15th in scoring and need more punch.

Adding to the offensive firepower of the Carolina team will perhaps get them to the Cup Final next season. They could upgrade their offense through the acquisition of pending unrestricted free agents Tyler Bertuzzi of the Boston Bruins and James van Riemsdyk of the Philadelphia Flyers. Bertuzzi would be an excellent addition, as he adds scoring skills and is one tough customer. He collected four goals, 16 points in 21 games after he joined the Boston Bruins. He had a $4.75 million cap hit, but with his recent success, he could earn more like $6.56 million.

Tyler Bertuzzi cleans up Pastrnak's rebound for a power play goal, putting the Bruins up by 2!#NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/RkfAfvsBW3

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) April 12, 2023

Another player to perhaps add to the roster would be James van Riemsdyk. He has a $7 million cap hit, but his stats have fallen off lately. He only had 12 goals, 17 assists in 61 games. His projected new contract according to dobberhockey.com falls down to about $3.47 million. He is now 34 and that must be evaluated also. His experience could help the Canes’ top six.

That's career goal No. 300 for James van Riemsdyk (@JVReemer21)! 🚨

Not a bad shot either. pic.twitter.com/zxRD7wDBvc

— NHL (@NHL) April 11, 2023

The Hurricanes will have about $24.1 million in cap space but also have 10 UFAs and three RFAs to re-sign or move. It should be an interesting offseason for Carolina. Be sure to stay in tune with Full Press Hockey for all the latest NHL rumors.

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Vancouver Canucks – Brock Boeser

Rumor – Per – Lyle Richardson – bleacherreport.com. The talented forward has been in NHL rumors for a while now, placing fifth on the NHL trade board before the trade deadline. Where will he end up?

Projected landing spots for Boeser:

• Anaheim Ducks – The Ducks need scoring after a disappointing 31st-place finish in average goals scored per game at 2.51. The Ducks will have the cap space estimated to be about $39 million to meet Boeser’s contract requirements. He receives $6.65 million through 2024-25. Boeser’s career 139 goals and 172 assists in 398 games would definitely help the meager Anaheim offense.
• Minnesota Wild – While this would be very attractive to Boeser, who is a Minnesota native, his salary may not fit into the Wild’s $9.1 million cap budget. If they can find a way to shed Alex Goligoski‘s $2 million cap hit and/or Marcus Foligno‘s $3.1 million, it could work. Both are slated to become UFAs next summer.
• New York Islanders – The Isles only tallied 2.95 goals per game ranking them 22nd in the NHL. Boeser could certainly help add to that stat. The hangup (as usual) is the salary cap limitations. The New York club only has $5.3 million in cap space. One way they could swing a deal for Boeser would be to see if they can rid themselves of forward Josh Bailey‘s $5 million contract. That may be difficult seeing that Bailey only acquired eight goals and 17 assists in 64 games last season.

With the Canucks exceeding the cap limit by $700,000 with 18 players under contract, something needs to happen. Will the Boeser NHL rumors continue, or will he be dealt?

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