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Kyle Turris

Minor Transactions: 11/22/17

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With everyone but St. Louis in action tonight before the day off tomorrow, it could be a busy day for promotions and demotions across the NHL. Keep up with all the action right here:

  • The Montreal Canadiens have recalled blue liner Jakub Jerabek from the AHL, according to TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. Jerabek is in his first season in North America after signing with the Habs this summer. However, the Czech native has yet to make his NHL debut, as Montreal has plenty of veteran albeit under-performing defensive depth. However, with the Laval Rocket, Jerabek has 11 points in 17 games and is a +10; impressive totals worthy of a recall. Jerabek also had the option of returning to Europe if he had not been recalled by mid-December, so there is strategy to the Canadiens’ move as well.
  • Another young import, Finnish forward Henrik Haapala, could also make his NHL debut tonight. Per NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti, the Florida Panthers have called up the small scoring winger. Haapala is in his first season in North America after scoring 60 points in 51 games in the Finnish Liiga last year. Thus far in 2017-18, Haapala has seven points in 11 games for the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds. The Panthers have been liberal with number of call-ups and variety of players called up so far this season, as Haapala is just the latest to join the list.
  • Philadelphia is bringing in reinforcements. The team announced the return of young defenseman Samuel Morin and the first recall for forward Danick Martel. Morin is a name most fans recognize as a former first-round pick of the Flyers, however it is Martel who may be more intriguing. In his fourth pro season, Martel has exploded this year, leading the AHL with 14 goals. Martel scored just 20 goals last season and already has half as many points in 17 games as he did all of last year in 68 games. The Flyers surely hope that his hot hand continues at the next level.
  • In a corresponding move, Philly also sent defenseman Mark Alt and veteran forward Matt Read to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms. It was only a matter of time (and health) before Morin replaced Alt on the NHL roster, but the demotion of Read is certainly a big deal. The long-time Flyer cleared waivers last week and will now head to the minors, his 400+ games of NHL experience not enough to keep him around.
  • Colorado has recalled goalie Andrew Hammond and the former Senators keeper could make his Avalanche debut sooner than expected. Hammond was acquired as more or less a salary dump by Ottawa in the recent Matt Duchene–Kyle Turris blockbuster. With Semyon Varlamov and Jonathan Bernier in the net, no one thought Hammond would be anything more than a depth asset for the Avs. However, with Varlamov too sick to even suit up, “The Hamburglar” will get his chance. After a remarkable run for the Sens in 2015-16, Hammond struggled greatly in both the NHL and AHL last season and could use a fresh start.
  • The Edmonton Oilers have made a flurry of moves already today, first terminating the contract of Ziyat Paigin, who predictably cleared unconditional waivers yesterday. Paigin came over from the KHL last season, but it was never a good fit between the two sides. Paigin failed to record a point in the only 12 AHL games he played. With no chance of a bump up to the NHL, Paigin wished to return to Russia and the Oilers were more than willing to oblige him. Edmonton then recalled defenseman Ryan Stanton from the Bakersfield Condors. A free agent acquisition this off-season, the journeyman rearguard could help out the struggling Oilers with his sound defensive game. In a corresponding move, veteran forward Brad Malone was reassigned to the AHL.
  • Julius Honka is headed back to the minors, as the talented, young blue liner was demoted by the Dallas Stars today in exchange for forward Curtis McKenzie, per a team announcement.  The Stars have been underwhelming in 2017-18, but their biggest issues continues to be goal prevention. As promising an offensive defenseman as Honka may be, he’s not what Dallas needs right now. Perhaps two-way forward McKenzie, who is also scoring at a point-per-game pace in the AHL, can help the cause.

Trade Rumors: Coyotes, Canadiens, Jets, Islanders

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In all likelihood, the recent three-way trade that sent Matt Duchene to the Ottawa Senators and Kyle Turris to the Nashville Predators will be the biggest deal made this season. Yet, that hasn’t stopped the whispers of an bustling trade market, especially this early in the season. At the quarter pole of the 2017-18 campaign, it’s been an unpredictable season, prompting an unexpectedly active market. The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch has had his ear to the ground and has plenty of input on who the buyers and sellers are right now:

  • To no one’s surprise, Garrioch states that the floundering Arizona Coyotes are “willing to talk about pretty much every player on their roster”. That of course doesn’t include Calder-hopeful Clayton Keller or many of their other 21-and-under starters, but the rest of the roster may as well be up for grabs. The big off-season acquisitions of Derek Stepan, Antti Raanta, Niklas Hjalmarsson, and Jason Demers have done nothing to change this team’s ability to win hockey games. At some point, GM John Chayka is going to go from “up-and-coming” to “up-and-went” and that pressure could force him to make some major moves as he rethinks his rebuild. While impending UFA’s like Raanta, Brad Richardson, and Luke Schenn would be the easiest pieces to move, the stakes are high for a Coyotes team whose core has done next to nothing for years and key pieces like Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Max Domi, Anthony Duclair, and Tobias Rieder could soon be on their way out.
  • Perhaps the only team more disappointing than Arizona in 2017-18 is the farthest team from them across North America: the Montreal Canadiens. Under new head coach Claude Julien, the Habs have fallen apart. However, the newly-signed coach isn’t going anywhere, putting GM Marc Bergevin, who Garrioch calls ” the NHL’s most active GM”, on the hot seat. Bergevin may be willing to make a big move to save his job, and of course the first name that comes to mind is young forward Alex Galchenyuk, who has predictably struggled under the defense-first Julien. Galchenyuk seems lost in Montreal, without an identifiable position, role, or spot in the lineup, and could use a change of scenery. However, he is not wholly to blame for the Canadiens’ struggles. Tomas Plekanec has long been on the block and if the team truly commits to a rebuild, big names like Max Pacioretty, Shea Weber, and (if anyone is willing to take on his monstrous new contract) even Carey Price could soon join the list.
  • Garrioch mentions both the Winnipeg Jets and New York Islanders as possible sellers, but given the surprising success of both clubs thus far, neither is likely rushing to trade pieces away unless they can make their teams better this season. Impending Jets UFA’s Shawn Matthias and Matt Hendricks may draw interest, but if Winnipeg is in playoff position come deadline time, they would want veteran depth for themselves. It seems more likely that GM Kevin Cheveldayoff could use his overflow of young forwards like Marko Dano, Joel Armia, Andrew Copp, Adam Lowry, or Brandon Tanev as trade bait to bring in another top-six forward for a team that doesn’t shoot the puck nearly enough. As for the Islanders, Garrioch singles out first-time UFA Calvin de Haan as the player to watch. Yet, de Haan is one of, if not the best shot-blocker in the NHL, can play major minutes, and is reliable in both ends. If the Isles can resign him, wouldn’t they? Obviously, John Tavares is the main focus and the team thinks highly of younger options like Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock, but the loss of a player like de Haan, especially with Travis Hamonic now in Calgary, could cripple a playoff-bound Islanders squad. Odds are de Haan sticks around, at least as long as New York remains playoff-bound.
  • So who’s looking? Garrioch mentions the Florida Panthers, Calgary Flames, Columbus Blue Jackets, and the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins as suitors for forward help, with the Dallas Stars potentially looking to make another big blue line trade to turn their season around. With that many buyers and several disappointed sellers, the trade NHL trade market may not wait until 2018 to heat up.

Central Notes: Fabbri, Forsling, Bonino, Turris

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Although he tore his ACL nearly seven weeks ago, Blues forward Robby Fabbri only underwent surgery to fix the ligament on Tuesday, notes Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  The team revealed that there were no complications with the procedure and that there is no timetable to return.  A return this season is highly unlikely as these injuries can take between six-to-nine months to heal while the team will likely want to be cautious considering this is the second time in less than a year that he required this surgery after also tearing the same ACL back in February.

Elsewhere in the Central:

  • Blackhawks defenseman Gustav Forsling is expected to make his return to the lineup on Thursday, reports Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times. He has missed the last three games with an upper-body injury.  To make room for him, the team is expected to shift Jan Rutta back to his natural right side which could push offseason acquisition Connor Murphy out of the lineup for a fourth time this season.
  • After landing Kyle Turris via trade over the weekend, the Predators are getting closer to getting another center back in their lineup as Nick Bonino is nearing a return to game action, notes Adam Vingan of The Tennessean. Bonino has missed the last ten games due to a lower-body injury sustained back on October 14th.  Considering the team gave him a four-year, $16.4MM contract back in the summer, it will be interesting to see if they deploy him as their third line center or if they opt instead to try him on the wing inside their top-six.
  • Speaking of Turris, Vingan reports in the same column that he has gone through the immigration visa process, freeing him up to join the team. The Predators are off until Saturday and it’s expected that Turris will make his Nashville debut in that game against Pittsburgh.

Poll: Who Won The Matt Duchene-Kyle Turris Trade?

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Matt DucheneYesterday brought the culmination of several weeks of work for the front offices of three separate franchises. Ottawa, Colorado and Nashville consummated the biggest trade of the season, and the first three-team trade in several years. Kyle Turris ended up on the Predators and Matt Duchene on the Senators while Colorado finally got their haul of prospects and draft picks. Nashville only made the deal contingent on a Turris contract extension, which came in the form of six years at $6MM per season. That deal will keep the 28-year old center in Nashville until 2024, and immediately improves their depth down the middle.

Colorado GM Joe Sakic has been criticized for months as the Duchene saga lingered on and on, as he seemed to be over-valuing him in trade. Duchene clearly wanted out of Denver, and it was frustrating for many to watch him struggle in front of the media for so long. Still, Duchene went about his work and showed early this season he was still an elite player. That allowed Sakic to stick to his price tag, which eventually resulted in quite the haul.

Ottawa on the other hand had been pursuing Duchene for quite some time, with GM Pierre Dorion saying he first approached Sakic about him at the 2016 GM meetings. The Ontario-born center has just one year on his contract after this one, but has elite upside and could help the Senators take the next step in the playoffs. Already they found themselves in the Eastern Conference finals last season, and if Duchene can get back to the nearly point-per-game player he has been at times throughout his career they could go even further.

So who really won this trade? All three could claim victory, but there are risks on each side. Cast your vote and explain in the comments why.

[Mobile users click here to vote!]

Six-Year Extension “Never On The Table” Between Turris, Ottawa

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In a press conference introducing Matt Duchene this morning, Ottawa Senators GM Pierre Dorion explained why an extension was never completed with Kyle Turris. Dorion believed it was never about the value of the contract, lauding praise on Turris for his play and everything he did in Ottawa, but announced that there was “never going to be movement from seven or eight years.” Turris of course signed a six-year extension with the Nashville Predators, but Dorion admits that length was “never put on the table” for the Senators.

In response to another question, Dorion reports that the Turris camp never requested a trade. He felt it was a “no-brainer” and even admitted he had a plane ready for Duchene on Friday night—when the first deal originally fell apart—and wanted him in the Senators’ lineup on Saturday.

Turris’ extension takes another name off the free agent market, as he would have been one of the top available players this summer. Well on his way to another successful offensive season, Turris has nine points in 11 games and could receive even more scoring chances in the Nashville system.

Interestingly, when Turris spoke with Nick Cotsonika of NHL.com he had a different outlook on negotiations with the Senators, saying that “it was very apparent things weren’t going to work out with Ottawa.” Turris also explained that a six-year deal wasn’t pushed forward from their camp either, making it clear that the two sides were headed for a breakup one way or another. Duchene will be under contract for the Senators for an additional year, while Nashville adds to their center depth on a long-term contract.

Reaction To Duchene, Turris, 3-Team Deal

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A lot of reaction has come across from sportswriters on Twitter after the three-way trade in which the Ottawa Senators got Matt Duchene, the Nashville Predators acquired a newly extended Kyle Turris and the Colorado Avalanche got Samuel Girard, Vladislav Kamenev, Shane Bowers, Andrew Hammond, Ottawa’s 2018 first-round pick (top-10 protected), Nashville’s 2018 second-round pick and Ottawa’s 2019 third-round pick. Take a look:

  • Elliotte Friedman, who was the first to break the story, tweeted that Nashville is obviously cashing it all in for the 2018 season, while Ottawa quite obviously badly wanted Duchene.
  • TSN’s Pierre LeBrun tweets that the Predators spoke with Turris’ camp this afternoon and had four conversations over three hours before finally agreeing on an extension.
  • Ottawa Suns’ Don Brennan tweets that the Senators definitely got the best player, but they paid a steep price of two first-round picks a third-round pick and Turris to get Duchene. There was a lot of question about whether Duchene was worth all that.
  • James Mirtle of The Athletic tweets general manager Joe Sakic’s comments on the trade, “We feel this trade brings us some top prospects as we continue to build for both the short and long-term future. We’ve said all along that we wanted to be patient and wait for the right deal, and this is the opportunity we feel is best for the organization.”
  • TSN’s Jason Brough writes that the real winner of the trade is Nick Bonino, who goes from being sheltered by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to now being sheltered by Ryan Johansen and Turris.
  • Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek tweets that the hidden part of the Duchene trade is that Colorado’s, now without Duchene, will be one step closer to getting defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, currently believed to be the top prospect in the 2018 NHL Draft.
  • The Tennessean’s Adam Vingan writes that the addition of Turris gives the franchise the best center depth in franchise history as Turris should fit perfectly on the team’s second line, which will force Bonino to move back to the team’s third line once he’s healthy and force Colton Sissons to center the fourth line. Calle Jarnkrok can now move to the wing.
  • NHL Network’s E.J. Hradek tweets now that the Predators have locked up Johansen, Turris and Bonino at center to go with their depth on defense, Nashville should dominate the West for many years to come.
  • Denver.com’s A.J. Haefele writes that while the Avalanche got a lot of good prospects, they really didn’t walk away with any blue-chip prospects. He does point out that Girard is close, but a grade on this trade still comes down to who the team drafts in the coming years with those picks.
  • BSN Denver’s Adrian Dater tweets that Colorado defenseman Erik Johnson had just one thing to say about the trade. “He didn’t want to be here.” Dater adds that he believes that J.T. Compher is likely to replace Duchene as team’s second-line center.
  • Postmedia’s Michael Traikos tweets that Nashville general manager David Poile doesn’t get enough credit for all his moves, including acquiring Filip Forsberg from Washington, Johansen from Columbus, P.K. Subban from Montreal and now Turris from Ottawa.
  • The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch writes that while the Senators did give up a lot to get Duchene, Ottawa general manager Pierre Dorion wanted Duchene badly and refused to allow this trade to slip by the team.
  • NHL.com’s Dan Rosen tweets that Girard is expected to join the Avalanche on the team’s trip to Sweden, suggesting that Girard will stay with Avalanche this season and not return to his junior team.

Matt Duchene Traded To Ottawa, Turris to Nashville

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The long-awaited trade, and I mean long-awaited, has finally happened as the Colorado Avalanche have traded their 26-year-old franchise center Matt Duchene to the Ottawa Senators in a three-team trade with the Nashville Predators, according to Elliotte Friedman. Ottawa will send veteran center Kyle Turris to Nashville, while Colorado receives a package of players and picks.

According to Friedman, the Avalanche will receive defenseman Samuel Girard and winger Vladislav Kamenev from Nashville and center Shane Bowers and goaltender Andrew Hammond from Ottawa. The Avs will also receive Ottawa’s 2018 first-round pick (top-10 protected), Nashville’s 2018 second-round pick and Ottawa’s 2019 third-round pick in the deal. Friedman adds that if the Senators 2018 first-round pick falls in the top 10, then it rotates to a 2019 first-rounder instead.

As part of the deal, the Predators have extended Turris with a six-year, $36MM extension that ensures him a long-term place as the team’s second-line center.

Those three teams attempted to complete a similar deal yesterday, but the deal fell through and after it was leaked to the press, many thought the trade could not be revisited. However, with two disgruntled players in Duchene and Turris, the three teams were able to get the deal done. In fact, the team made the trade in the middle of their game with the New York Islanders as Duchene was informed and removed from the game during the first period of action. Ironically, he will join his new teammates in Sweden when they face off against the Avalanche for two games on Nov. 10 and 11.

Duchene, the team’s face of their franchise for the last several years, was the third overall pick in 2009 and has been a key scorer for the team over the past nine seasons. The 26-year-old center has scored 178 goals and 250 assists in 585 games for Colorado. However, as the team has struggled especially over the past three years, combining for 100-126-20 record, the disgruntled center had hoped to be traded, but the high demands of general manager Joe Sakic made it difficult for teams to acquire Duchene. Instead, an entire offseason of speculation only created more drama and when training camp opened and Duchene was still in Colorado, he demanded a trade. Part of the problem was Duchene’s poor performance last year when the team had 56 losses and the center’s numbers were down. He tallied just 18 goals and 41 points last year. Duchene rebounded slightly this year, having put up four goals and six assists in 12 games.

In Ottawa, Duchene replaces Turris, a long-time member of the franchise who has scored 117 goals for the Senators in seven season. Turris, who would have been a free agent next year, wanted a seven-year deal with the franchise and at age 28, the team was hesitant to give him that type of long-term deal, especially when they have already committed a lot of money to aging players such as Dion Phaneuf and Bobby Ryan. Duchene gives the franchise more time as he is locked into his five-year, 30MM deal until after the 2018-19 season. And, at age 26, is a little younger than Turris.

Turris gives the Predators the second-string center they needed. This allows free agent acquisition Nick Bonino to center the team’s third line and Colton Sissons and Calle Jarnkrok to battle it out on that final line. Now locked up for the next six years after this one, Turris should provide stability for the franchise up the middle. He had an impressive year last year, putting up 27 goals and 28 assists for 55 points. So far in 11 games this year, Turris has three goals and nine points.

As for the Avalanche, it looks as if Sakic got exactly what he was hoping for as the team got a large haul for Duchene. The key to the trade was Girard, an offensively-gifted defenseman, who still needs to work on his defense. Sometimes compared to Will Butcher, who the team lost to New Jersey this offseason, he should help stabilize their defense. The 19-year-old blueliner made the Nashville team out of training camp, but has still only played five games with Nashville, which will force Colorado to decide whether to keep him with their team and burn his first year of his entry-level deal or send him back to his junior team and not get him back until his season is over. The Predators second-round pick in 2016 has been impressive on a team loaded with quality defenseman, but has found himself watching games from the press box lately. An elite skater with excellent passing skills, Girard should be a key member of the team’s defense along with 2017 first-rounder Cale Makar.

Kamenev, the Predators’ 2014 second-round pick, has been playing with the Milwaukee Admirals this year and has put up solid numbers with three goals and five assists in nine games so far. Last year, the 21-year-old prospect put up 21 goals and 30 assists for Milwaukee. A solid skater with excellent hands and size (6-foot-2), he could easily fit on one of the team’s lower lines to start off.

Ottawa also moved one of their top prospects. Already loaded with Colin White, Logan Brown and Filip Chlapik, the team felt comfortable trading Bowers, their 2017 first-rounder. Picked 28th overall, the 18-year-old center is currently playing for Boston University and has four goals and two assists in 10 games for the Hockey East team. Ottawa also got a break in sending Hammond to Colorado. The 29-year-old former backup goaltender lost his job to Mike Condon last season and was eventually put on waivers and sent to Belleville. Not long after, Hammond suffered a hip injury that required surgery. He will likely be sent to San Antonio, providing goaltending insurance for the Avalanche. It frees up logjam of goalies the team has in Belleville as the team already has 31-year-old Daniel Taylor as the two veterans are holding up the team’s young goalies.

Colorado also will get two extra picks in a strong 2018 draft and now will have two first-round picks, two second-round picks and a third-round pick. The extra third-rounder will have to wait until 2019.

Failed Trade Might Prompt Senators To Move Turris Quickly

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After Friday night’s attempt to deal Ottawa Senators’ Kyle Turris to Nashville in a three-team trade fell through, don’t be surprised if the Ottawa Senators escalate their search for a trade partner to fix this rapidly awkward situation. While no one was surprised that Turris was not available for interview after the team’s 5-4 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights Saturday, the situation has become much more tense in the past 24 hours. Not only that, but the team is

Bruce Garrioch of The Ottawa Sun writes that an extension with Turris is highly unlikely, especially now. And the fact that Turris almost got traded to Nashville suggests the team isn’t planning on trying. Supposedly, he is asking for seven years at $6MM annually, while Ottawa is offering five years at similar money. And while that doesn’t seem like the negotiations are too far off and a bridge could be found, there are definitely questions whether they ought to lock up the 29-year-old center to a long-term deal. They already have 30-year-old Bobby Ryan locked up for four more years after this one at $7.25MM and don’t forget 32-year-old defenseman Dion Phaneuf is signed for three more years at $7MM. To add another long-term deal where all of them could begin to decline at once, could place the team into a hole the franchise might not recover from. They also have to consider long-term extensions for Erik Karlsson and Mark Stone as well.

That leaves the trade option. And Garrioch writes they need to move quickly, because the team can’t afford to let him walk away at the seasons’ end for nothing and Ottawa needs to get as much value as possible for Turris, so they don’t even have the luxury of waiting until the trade deadline.

The obvious deal would be to still make a deal for Colorado’s Matt Duchene, who they were supposed to get in the three-team for Turris, but since a third team was needed to make the deal, it’s obvious that Colorado has no interest in Turris and why would they want a 29-year-old soon-to-be free agent to join their rebuild? Would the Senators move a player like Thomas Chabot and more to acquire Duchene?

The Athletic’s James Gordon (subscription required) writes that Nashville might still be a viable option. They are obviously interested in Turris since they were trying to get him yesterday. However, what will the Senators get back in return? Would they be willing to take a package of young players and hope that their young talent like Colin White and Logan Brown are ready to produce now? However, a trade for youth could also hold up the team’s success another year or two, which won’t help their core of veteran players.

While the questions remain unanswered for the time being, the team’s loss to Vegas today reiterates that the Senators are a playoff bubble-team at best, so changes might be necessary no matter what to improve the franchise’s long-term options.

Atlantic Notes: Turris, Panthers, Ristolainen

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While Senators center Kyle Turris has been seeking a max-term contract extension of eight years, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun reports that his camp is now aiming for a seven-year extension worth roughly $6MM per season.  The team, meanwhile, continues to offer a five-year deal instead.  The timing of this report is certainly interesting considering Turris was believed to be part of a recent three-team trade with Colorado and Nashville that would have had him going to the Predators but the deal fell through.

Turris is poised to be one of the top centers available on the open market this summer if he makes it to free agency and should be able to land a long-term contract wherever he signs.  Will this report affect negotiations between him and the Senators though?  It may be difficult for Turris’ camp to return to the table knowing that the team has been recently including him in trade discussions so that will be certainly something to watch for.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • The Panthers will be getting some help from the infirmary tonight as NHL.com’s Alain Poupart reports (Twitter link) that forwards Jared McCann, Colton Sceviour, and Connor Brickley are all set to return to the lineup. McCann (lower-body) and Sceviour (upper-body) have each missed the last five games while Brickley (upper-body) has sat out the last three games.  Florida made a pair of roster moves yesterday to free up spots on the active roster when they returned forwards Denis Malgin and Chase Balisy to AHL Springfield.
  • Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen suffered an upper-body injury on Thursday night and is listed as day-to-day, the team announced via Twitter. He joins fellow blueliners Zach Bogosian, Nathan Beaulieu, and Josh Gorges on the injured list; through 13 games this season, Buffalo has yet to dress a fully-healthy defense corps.  Ristolainen’s loss is a significant one as he is unquestionably their top defender and leads the league in average ice time per night at 27:09.  Taylor Fedun is expected to take his place in Buffalo’s lineup.

Major Three-Way Trade Falls Through

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As TSN’s Darren Dreger artfully puts it,  “things get complicated when big trades don’t go down.” It’s a rare occurrence in hockey that substantial details regarding a would-be deal are leaked, but such was the case yesterday. Late last night, Dreger reported that a massive three-team deal between the Colorado Avalanche, Ottawa Senators, and Nashville Predators had fallen through. Now, as Dreger says, teams are in “damage control” today as they try to clean up the mess that a rumored trade of this magnitude.

The specifics of the deal are allegedly this: Matt Duchene, the topic of trade rumors for the last year, would have gone to Ottawa. Kyle Turris, who the Senators have struggled to re-sign to their perceived fair value before he hits free agency this summer, would have gone to Nashville (probably with some additional considerations). Presumably, the bulk of the return headed to Colorado would then have come from the Predators. Some are speculating that one of Nashville’s “big four”, Mattias Ekholm, may have been involved in the deal, but considering that Avalanche GM Joe Sakic was the one who reportedly nixed the deal, unhappy with his return, it seems unlikely that Ekholm was part of the final offer.

So what now? It’s long been known that a) Duchene does not want to be in Colorado and is likely to be moved eventually and b) that Senators GM Pierre Dorion has taken a liking to Duchene and has been working to acquire him since this summer. Even without Nashville as part of the deal, this is a trade that can get done with a meeting of the minds. Ottawa has intriguing prospects like Thomas Chabot, Logan Brown, Colin White, and Filip Chlapik that have to interest a rebuilding Colorado squad, while roster players like Cody Ceci and Jean-Gabriel Pageau will inevitably enter the conversation as well. In the meantime though, these trade rumors will make the prospect of re-signing Turris at all, never mind below market value, a tough task for Dorion. Duchene deal or not, Turris’ days seem numbered in Ottawa.

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