Will the Lull of the Offseason Continue or Will Trades Finally Happen?
Jim Biringer of NHLRumors.com, Full Press Hockey, and RG Media was on TSN Radio in Montreal and was asked about when things will start to pick up, as the offseason has not lived up to the hype.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
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Host: “Jim, just one more. It’s been a quiet offseason, relatively quiet offseason. We were promised it’s going to get noisy throughout the offseason. It hasn’t. Can we expect anything, though as maybe teams start to report to camp?
And maybe teams like, look at the Habs and their long-term contracts like Carey Price, perhaps some other teams out there that maybe want to move some salaries around to free up more space. It’s been quiet. We were told it wouldn’t be. Any chance that this gets interesting between now and let’s just say, when teams start to players start to report to camp?”
Jim Biringer: “I don’t want to promise anything again. We’re in that lull of the offseason, and I think we’re probably going to get it for a little bit longer. But there, as you mentioned, Mason McTavish still needs a new contract. Marco Rossi, still out there, needs a new contract. Luke Hughes in New Jersey still needs a new contract. There’s some guys that need, some RFAs that need some new deals out there. Plus, the extensions and we are all waiting on extensions, potentially for Kirill Kaprizov and Connor McDavid.
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I think it’s going to pick up a little bit as we get closer to the end of August and as we get closer to training camp. Because these teams are going to want those players in training camp, right? Look what happened with Boston last year with Jeremy Swayman; you don’t want a guy missing time. Similar to what the situation was in Anaheim a couple of years ago, when Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras signed their bridge deals. They missed most of training camps and both guys got hurt. You don’t want to be missing time, injuries, all that can add up.
And to me, I think this is where the negotiation process is going to start to ramp up a little bit. I think it’s just been such a long season. The season was condensed. Guys need some time off. Everything so packed at the end, going into July 1, that everybody just wants to take a little bit of time to see what’s out there. Relax a little bit. But now we got to get back into the business of hockey, and with training camp right around the corner, and I think things are going to ramp up a little bit.”
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