NHL Rumors: Kane’s Two Teams, Savoie Talk, Root of Larkin’s Rift – The Hockey Writers – NHL Rumors

In today’s NHL rumors rundown, the Detroit Red Wings are dealing with the fallout of a front-office shakeup and a captain in Dylan Larkin who wants out. Some are trying to guess where things went off the rails and if the situation is repairable. Meanwhile, Patrick Kane’s free agency is down to two cities. The Edmonton Oilers might want to look at Matt Savoie‘s contract following the Perfetti deal, and the Philadelphia Flyers got a big piece of business done.

Red Wings’ Yzerman-Larkin Fallout Runs Deeper Than It Looks

Steve Yzerman has stepped away from his GM role into a senior advisor position, but the bigger story is what it means for captain Dylan Larkin’s trade request.

According to Helene St. James, she doesn’t believe the two sides can walk this back. And, team writer Ansar Khan reports that the rift didn’t start with Larkin’s public frustration over a quiet deadline — it traces back to 2018, when the captaincy sat vacant for two years after Henrik Zetterberg’s retirement. Everyone, including Larkin, thought he was the obvious choice. Yzerman snubbed him for two years.

If this is just about Larkin not liking Yzerman, that would be hard enough to come back from, given he’s still with the team. There’s a sense, however, that Larkin holds some bitterness toward the organization as a whole. Ellitotte Friedman says that time will tell if the two sides can repair things. At the very least, is there a world where somebody comes in and takes this job and wants to see if they can change his mind?

Patrick Kane’s Decision Down to Two Cities — With Buffalo Adding Firepower

Kane’s free-agent options have reportedly narrowed to Buffalo and Chicago, per Chris Chelios, who says he’s spoken with Kane directly.

Buffalo remains the presumptive favorite, and the Sabers’ pursuit just got more interesting: they’re also working the trade market for Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck, with reports indicating Hellebuyck is willing to waive his no-movement clause specifically to land in Buffalo. If both moves land, Buffalo becomes the talk of the Eastern Conference.

The idea of Kane returning to Chicago carries an emotional weight.

Detroit’s front-office shakeup adds a small wildcard, given the Red Wings’ cap space, though they’re unlikely to be a serious option.

Oilers Three-Goalie System and Matt Savoie Extension

Edmonton opens the season with three NHL-caliber goaltenders — Tristan Jarry, Devon Levi, and Frederik Andersen — and no clear starter. Early workload plans suggest the team may try to give each a similar number of starts, but none of the three goalies are proven workhorses. Andersen is 36 with a recent history of injuries, Jarry is coming off some of the worst goaltending metrics in the league, and Levi remains largely unproven at the NHL level. It’s believed a clear frontrunner will emerge pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, Cole Perfetti signed a five-year, $6M AAV extension after an injury-shortened down year, which raises questions about what a player like Matt Savoie might command on his next contract. The Jets bridged Perfetti to get to this point, but it is believed the Oilers don’t want to do the same and would prefer a long-term deal right away.

Did the Flyers Overpay for Trevor Zegras?

The Flyers locked up Trevor Zegras on a four-year, $9.125M AAV extension after his bounce-back season in Philadelphia. Some are wondering if the deal came about because the Flyers have real confidence in the player, or as a result of their offer sheet to Leo Carlsson.

It feels like the Flyers paid full freight and then some, but this could just be the direction contracts are heading — not that they slowed the climb by forcing the Ducks to pay $18 million to their top center.

Meanwhile, the Devils added scoring depth by signing Anthony Mantha to a two-year, $4.75M deal with no trade protection. The belief is that several teams were interested, but no one wanted to go more than one or two years.

Josh Yohe wrote, “Mantha let the Penguins know during the regular season that a three-year deal was his starting point for extension talks. The Penguins didn’t want to give him three years or more. Neither did anyone else, apparently.”