NHL Rumors: Calgary Flames, Boston Bruins, Nashville Predators

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. 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. Trades/signings are slow for now, as a new Stanley Cup champion has been crowned. Look for trades to pick up as the NHL draft approaches June 28-29th. In this Sunday edition of NHL Rumors, we will look at the Calgary Flames, Boston Bruins, and the Nashville Predators.

Calgary Flames – Players not wanting to stay

Rumors: Per – Frank Seravalli – dailyfaceoff.com. With up to four players wanting out of Calgary, what is going on?

Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm, Mikael Backlund, and now Tyler Toffoli have all expressed no desire to stay with the Flames. Now, this is a group of excellent players. New general manager Craig Conroy has his hands full. Can he talk any of these players into staying?

🔥What does the future hold for #Flames 2024 UFA's?@frank_seravalli joined @GeorgeRusic and @MattRoseYYC with the latest on Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, and Mikael Backlund.

LISTEN: https://t.co/OVyvdWZt4l pic.twitter.com/X8ZoxOFu3J

— Sportsnet 960 (@Sportsnet960) June 22, 2023

Conroy’s nightmare is that all four of these players have contracts expiring after this next 2023-24 season. The salaries range from Toffoli’s $4.25M deal to Backlund’s $5.35M pact. The Flames are definitely hurting for cap space with only $1.25 million available. It seems that Brad Treliving got out while the “getting out” was good. Of course, it didn’t help that former head coach Darryl Sutter left a toxic environment in the locker room before his very timely departure.

The current day NHL players have begun to be more demanding about where they want to play. These four players are expressing their displeasure with how the team was treated, and there may not be anything Conroy or Sutter’s replacement Ryan Huska can do to influence their decision to move on somewhere else.

Not to throw another log onto the fire for #Flames, but the potential exodus continues.

I'm told Tyler Toffoli also plans on not re-signing in Calgary.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 22, 2023

The four players have a combined cap hit of $19.4 million. If Conroy can convince at least two of them to stick around, he can gather some much needed cap space and better yet some good players going forward. The Flames may be looking at how great the draft will be this year, and trading some of the players requesting out could be a solution. The team is at the mercy of waiting on the player’s decisions here. Lindholm has been of particular interest from other teams.

Boston Bruins – Still trying to sign Tyler Bertuzzi and Garnet Hathaway

Rumors: Per – Jimmy Murphy – bostonhockeynow.com. On the latest 32 Thoughts Podcast, it was revealed that the Bruins want to bring back Bertuzzi and Hathaway.

“We’ve talked about how Boston would like to keep Bertuzzi; I think they’d also like to keep Hathaway,” Friedman told Marek. “That’s another guy I think they really want to keep. I heard Sweeney’s burning up the phone lines. I think he’s got some interesting stuff going on.” The Bruins only have $4.9 million in cap space to try to persuade two players to stay. Bertuzzi seemed pretty adamant about testing the free-agent market.

Per an NHL source, “I know he made it clear to the Red Wings when they were discussing an extension with him that he was pretty intent on hitting free agency this summer. His camp knew what he can get out there, and that’s probably more now after the way he played for the Bruins. I know the Bruins are trying hard to keep him, but given his desire to test the market for the first time and their cap issues, that will be difficult.”

According to AFPA analytics, Bertuzzi could gather a six-year deal worth $5.26M AAV, and Hathaway is in line for a four-year pact good for $2M AAV. That right there eliminates any chance that the Bruins could keep BOTH of them. Hathaway maybe… and only if such players as Linus Ullmark, defensemen Matt Grzelcyk and Derek Forbort, and forward Taylor Hall may be headed elsewhere. With other free agents like David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron, and Dmitry Orlov all needing new contracts Sweeney has his work cut out for him.

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Nashville Predators – Pierre-Luc Dubois

Rumor: Per – Nick Kieser – nashvillehockeynow.com. With the trade of Ryan Johansen, does that allow the Preds a shot at acquiring PLD?

They have discussed trying to add more cap space by sending either Johansen or Matt Duchene‘s $8 million cap hit elsewhere. Now, they did retain 50 percent of Johansen’s salary but still have a good amount left. With $19.5 million in cap space, the Predators just got into the Pierre-Luc Dubois territory needed to meet the expected salary demands of the big forward looking to leave the Winnipeg Jets. His 27 goals and 36 assists in 73 games last season are sure to light up new GM Barry Trotz’s face. And now that Trotz has the cap space to make a bid at Dubois, we shall see how it all plays out.

Dubois has made it known he would like to play for the Montreal Canadiens, but other teams certainly have expressed their interest in adding him to their rosters. He is an excellent two-way player who has good puck-possession statistics to go along with his offensive skills. No doubt, that the Predators could absolutely use his abilities on their forward line. Be sure to watch for NHL rumors as they develop concerning this talented player.

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