Jeff Gordon | Post-Dispatch
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As NHL teams return to work this week, there’s uncertainty in the air.
After seeing star winger Mikko Rantanen change teams twice last season and elite forward Mitch Marner move as a free agent over the summer, the league could see some of the sport’s biggest names in play this season.
The NHL is not like the NBA — where star player movement have become the norm — but significant change could be afoot.
Oilers megastar Connor McDavid hasn’t signed a contract extension in Edmonton. He insists he is leaving all options open while pondering his future. That uncertainty has fans in the Great White North on edge.
Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov is considering his options in Minnesota, despite getting an eight-year, $128 million extension offer. That would be record-setting money, if he takes it.
Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes hasn’t committed to Vancouver for the long haul. Instead, he has talked about playing with his brothers Jack and Luke, who are currently employed by the New Jersey Devils.
Then there is Penguins legend Sidney Crosby, who hasn’t dismissed speculation that he could leave Pittsburgh to chase another Stanley Cup before retiring.
With the NHL salary cap rising steadily over the next several years, players hold tremendous leverage as their contracts wind down. They will have more options than ever before.
We could see craziness across the industry as a result. What was once unthinkable will become thinkable.
McDavid turns 29 this season, so he is heading toward the back side of his career. Winning is everything to him, and he is still seeking his first Cup.
If he stays in Edmonton, he would remain aligned with elite offensive talents Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard. But the Oilers blundered badly by losing Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to the Blues before they could break out in Alberta.
This team still must find its franchise goaltender too. The Oilers would gladly pay McDavid the biggest dollars, but could they give him the best chance to win after their near misses?
There has been some chatter about history repeating itself. The Los Angeles Kings could trade a package of younger players to Edmonton to bring McDavid to SoCal, just as they did back on the day with Wayne Gretzky.
But McDavid played for a Ken Holland-run team during their time together in Edmonton. Holland did little during that time to inspire confidence in his shopping acumen.
All he has done thus far as Kings GM is overpay for aging free-agent defensemen. It’s hard to imagine that team giving McDavid a better chance to win in the near term.
Kaprizov could become a free agent next summer at the age of 29. Like McDavid, he feels urgency to win. While he has not expressed displeasure with his life in the snowy Twin Cities, he realizes that Wild GM Bill Guerin still has work to do to build a Cup contender.
Matt Boldy, Brock Faber, Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Danila Yurov and David Jiricek form the start of a talented long-term nucleus, but the franchise is about halfway into a rebuild.
If Kaprizov pulls a Matthew Tkachuk and declares that he won’t re-sign, that would force Guerin to trade him from a position of weakness rather than lose him for nothing but salary cap space.
Hughes applauded the hiring for Adam Foote to replace Rick Tocchet as coach of the Canucks. But the Hughes Corp. might want to orchestrate a scenario when the brothers can unite on the same team.
That the Canucks underwent so much upheaval last season plays into this too. If Elias Pettersson can regain his 100-point form and if Thatcher Demko can remain healthy in goal, Vancouver would have a playoff-caliber team.
But if the team descends back into the sort of dysfunction that ruined last season, then Hughes may want to go elsewhere when his contract expires in 2027. And even if the Canucks reach their full potential, family ties could still pull him away
Then there is Crosby. Sid is no longer a kid. He turned 38 this month and his Penguins are toast. Evgenii Malkin is 39 and a shell of his former self. Kris Letang is 38 and plagued by health concerns.
The franchise held on to this trio for far too long. Now the team is for sale and the Kyle Dubas-led management team must engineer a long-haul rebuild, starting with the sell-off of Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell and perhaps Crosby.
The Penguins will stage a nostalgia night by rolling retired goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury out to play with Crosby, Malkin and Letang in a preseason game. But after allowing these proud veterans to take a collective bow, Dubas could reach for his dynamite.
Crosby’s buddy Brad Marchand moved on from the Boston Bruins and won a Cup. While playing an entire NHL career one franchise is a heck of an accomplishment, it can’t top riding a parade with new teammates.
While the Blues aren’t positioned to shop the elite end of the trade market, for reasons Armstrong has repeatedly outlined, a chain reaction of high-level player moves could impact their own bid to resume Cup contention.
Stayed tuned for potential drama.
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Jeff Gordon | Post-Dispatch
Online sports
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