Steven Stamkos to Nashville and Jacob Trouba to Detroit

The NHL draft took off yesterday and continues today.

It’s obviously a great showcase for young players, but we mustn’t forget that it’s also a gathering of all the leaders just a few days away from the opening of the autonomy market.

This opens the door to certain rumours.

One of the most important right now concerns Steven Stamkos. The Lightning captain will likely be a free agent in two days, and there’s no guarantee he’ll return to Tampa Bay.

Julien BriseBois has reportedly offered him an eight-year contract at $3 million a year, but Stamkos has refused.

LeBrun on Insider Trading: “The Tampa Bay Lightning do feel that they’ve gone as far as they can with their salary cap issues and what they’ve offered Stamkos, the two sides met on Thursday, but they’re a million and a half to 2M apart..it’s tough right now for TB to fit it in”

– NHL Watcher (@NHL_Watcher) June 29, 2024

Why such an annual amount? Because the key figure here is a total of $24M. The club would surely take it for granted that one day, he’d end his career on the long-term injured list…

But Stamkos would ask for about $2 million more per year, so that the $24 million total wouldn’t be spread over eight years.

All of which opens the door to the principal interested party leaving the Lightning. And under current conditions, the Nashville Predators are a club that often comes up in discussions.

We know that Detroit (original club, Steve Yzerman connection) is also interested, but Nashville is a Tampa Bay-like market. It makes sense to see TSN link the Preds to the case, then.

Johnston on Insider Trading: “The offer from Tampa is somewhere in the neighbourhood of $24M total, that’s on an extended deal, I think Steven Stamkos is going to be able to get that on a shorter contract. A team I’m really going to focus in on here is the Nashville Predators”

– NHL Watcher (@NHL_Watcher) June 29, 2024

That said, the Wings are not to be outdone.

First of all, the word out there is that Patrick Kane is looking at his options and that Detroit, with whom he played in 2023-2024, is still a strong possibility for him.

Johnston on Insider Trading: “Patrick Kane, still in discussion with the Detroit Red Wings… I think that there is at least a reasonable chance he ends up as a Red Wing”

– NHL Watcher (@NHL_Watcher) June 29, 2024

But Yzerman also has another player in his sights: Michigan native Jacob Trouba.

At $8 million a year until 2026, he’s definitely overpaid. Could the Rangers withhold salary to send their captain to Detroit? They might. And according to the NY Post, it’s up for negotiation.

“Indeed, a well-placed source has told The Post that #NYR GM Chris Drury is working on a deal to send the captain (Trouba) to #LGRW, a trade that the Michigan native would presumably accept after having played as a freshman for the Wolverines in 2012-13.“https://t.co/CO2wvVQD8b

– NHL News (@PuckReportNHL) June 29, 2024

Recently, the Rangers asked the defenseman to give them his list of 15 teams he would refuse to be traded to.

That would be a very Steve Yzerman trade. After all, it seems that in recent years, he’s liked to pick up veterans who are no longer in their prime to speed up his rebuild and get his team back into the playoffs.

Overtime

– Were the Coyotes poorly managed? No, no, no…

NEW: As more details surface from former Coyotes employees, Alex Meruelo has sealed a legacy of dysfunction and mismanagement in Arizona.

“He was involved in everything, all the decision-making.”@byajperez‘s feature story

– Front Office Sports (@FOS) June 29, 2024