Pierre-Luc Dubois and Alex DeBrincat have given their clubs marching orders.
Dubois, a Jets forward and restricted free agent, won’t sign in Winnipeg and wants to be traded. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, who in all likelihood will also move franchise center Mark Scheifele.
DeBrincat, a Senators winger and also an RFA, won’t sign an extension with so many unknowns surrounding Ottawa’s sale process. As reported on The Athletic this past week, his agent, Jeff Jackson, has delivered a list of preferred destinations to Senators GM Pierre Dorion. DeBrincat doesn’t have no-trade protection, but the idea is that if he’s willing to re-sign long-term with a new team, Ottawa would get more value.
This is only the tip of the iceberg of what’s changed since The Athletic’s initial iteration of the NHL offseason trade board. Toronto and Calgary have new GMs. The Penguins have a new boss. The Blue Jackets have already pulled off two big trades, adding top-four defensemen Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson.
The Leafs change could mean fireworks with the Core Four. But the early sense is that new GM Brad Treliving will try to keep his top core players if possible.
What about elsewhere? Before we get to the 2.0 version of our trade board, here’s the latest The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, Eric Duhatschek and Michael Russo are hearing from around the league:
Pressure for Jets to trade Dubois, Scheifele, Hellebuyck
Cheveldayoff is the man to watch in the NHL right now.
The Jets GM was informed this past week by agent Pat Brisson that Dubois won’t sign in Winnipeg and that Brisson wants to help the Jets find a good trade out of this. Montreal has engaged, unsurprisingly, but the Habs aren’t likely to overpay — either in a trade or with the contract itself. It has to make sense for them. There are other teams in play, too, for Dubois, who moves up to No. 1 on our new trade board.