NHL Rumours: Red Wings Owner Refused Stamkos, Canadiens’ Team-Friendly Deals & More – The Hockey Writers – NHL Rumors

In today’s NHL rumour rundown, we start with the Detroit Red Wings, who were close to signing Steven Stamkos before owner Chris Ilitch nullified the move. Next, we look at the Montreal Canadiens and how their players’ mentality is able to make them more competitive with team-friendly deals.

Finally, Brad Marchand has had surgery to end his offseason, and there are some questions around the Florida Panthers’ ability to stay healthy.

Ilitch’s Involvement Obstructing Red Wings Moves

One thing that can make or break a team across all major sports is an ownership’s involvement. When it comes to the Red Wings, that very problem has prevented them from improving, and everything that led up to the Dylan Larkin trade request could have been avoided.

Back in the 2024 offseason, as Stamkos was getting ready to hit free agency, the Red Wings were a team rumoured to be interested in his services before landing with the Nashville Predators.

In a report from the Detroit Free Press’ Carlos Monarrez, it was reported that the Red Wings pushed hard for Stamkos, but were unable to move forward with the deal after Ilitch was unwilling to shell out the money to sign him. (from Things are ‘chaotic at LCA’ as Red Wings GM search includes Tigers GM, Detroit Free Press, Aug. 15, 2026)

Throughout the last two seasons since Stamkos was a free agent, the Red Wings’ biggest hole has been as their second-line centre. While Stamkos wasn’t necessarily at his best at centre anymore, that could have changed if he landed with the Red Wings.

Either way, his leadership, goal-scoring abilities, and overall play would have been a big help for the Red Wings in finding any kind of success.

On top of the Stamkos issue, Monarrez also added that the Red Wings tried to sign Anthony Mantha this offseason, too, but the owner stepped in the way of that one, too.

Mantha signed a two-year deal with the New Jersey Devils worth $4.75 million annually, which was announced just 10 minutes before the firing of Steve Yzerman.

Monarrez stated, “On the same day Yzerman’s removal was announced, assistant GM Shawn Horcoff had a deal in place with Anthony Mantha, but it fell through while Ilitch deliberated.”

Is it going to be possible for the Red Wings to improve with the owner getting in the way this often?

Canadiens Players Signing Team-Friendly Deals Is No Coincidence

After seeing Leo Carlsson, Macklin Celebrini, and Connor Bedard sign for massive amounts of money, the eight-year deal signed by Ivan Demidov looked like one of the best in the league the moment it was announced.

With the forwards, Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Cole Caufield are all locked in to long-term deals at under $8 million annually, while defensemen Lane Hutson, Noah Dobson, Mike Matheson, and Kaiden Guhle are all on favourable deals for at least five more seasons.

The Canadiens’ core is locked into great deals, and while other teams are facing the impacts of a skyrocketing cap, the players have a team-friendly deal mentality, according to Slafkovsky.

After commenting on how the money they make is already enough, he added, “We’d rather just focus on collecting those [Stanley Cup] rings, because that’s a much bigger number, and I don’t think any amount of money can top that.”

In a world where the Canadiens are able to save upwards of 50 percent of the salary a player could be getting, it allows them to continue building and adding to their elite team.

Marchand Surgery Leads to Bigger Panthers Questions

As the Panthers look to bounce back after missing the playoffs last season, their ability to stay healthy is going to become a bigger and bigger question.

It was announced that Marchand has undergone surgery with an undisclosed recovery timeline.

Last season was looked at as a write-off as captain Aleksander Barkov missed the whole season, Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell missed 18 games each, Matthew Tkachuk played just 31 games, and many others missed plenty of time.

According to NHL Injury Viz, the Panthers had 540 man-games lost. The Vegas Golden Knights were second with 379 man-games lost, with the rest of the league well behind them.

Elite Prospects has the Panthers listed as the second-oldest team in the league, and with most of their core hitting 30 years old, they are just going to get older.

They have so many players locked into long-term deals that they will be able to benefit greatly from the rising salary cap, but having these players potentially unavailable may continue to hurt them.