{"id":401247,"date":"2026-01-09T04:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T04:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401247\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T04:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T04:43:07","slug":"nazem-kadri-remains-happy-in-calgary-but-willing-to-consider-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401247\/","title":{"rendered":"Nazem Kadri remains happy in Calgary but willing to consider change"},"content":{"rendered":"

TSN\u2019s Hockey Insiders discuss the Flames and Nazem Kadri<\/a>, Blake Coleman<\/a> as a potential fit for the Habs, the struggling Devils, Canada\u2019s Olympic reserve list and what really happened with Jordan Binnington<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James Duthie: A pair of Insiders for you today, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger. Now that we\u2019re into the new year, TradeCentre starts coming at your fast in terms of weeks now, not months. Eight weeks away. And we start to stare at teams at or near the bottom of the standings. Calgary is one of those. Dregs, does a Nazem Kadri<\/a> deal still seem like a distinct possibility?<\/p>\n

Darren Dreger: Yeah, I would describe it as a possibility. And you\u2019re right, I mean the calendar has flipped, we\u2019re into the second half of the NHL regular season. You\u2019ve got another roster freeze that is looming with the Olympic break, and then you\u2019ve got the March 6 NHL trade deadline. My sense with Nazem Kadri<\/a> is this \u2013 that if an opportunity was presented to go to a top contender in the NHL, then he\u2019d be willing to listen to that. <\/p>\n

I mean the man is 35 years old and he wants to win a Stanley Cup. Now, he\u2019s not going to push it, and we know that the Calgary Flames<\/a> have other pieces that are probably drawing more of the attention from Craig Conroy<\/a>\u2019s perspective. But the intensity around Kadri is definitely heating up.<\/p>\n

Pierre LeBrun: Yeah I\u2019d say one of those pieces that continues to draw a lot of attention is Blake Coleman<\/a>. We\u2019ve talked about him before, but in this sense here I would say he\u2019s a guy that\u2019s pretty high up on the list of the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> as they start to assemble their trade target list ahead of March 6. You know, Coleman brings some of the skill set that perhaps the Habs feel they\u2019re missing in terms of his physicality, his versatility, his leadership. He\u2019s a two-time Stanley Cup champion and so on. <\/p>\n

I do believe the Habs end up playing into those conversations. And nothing imminent, for a couple of reasons. One, I think the Habs want to get to the Olympic break and see where they are in the standings and see where they are health wise before they decide whether or not to jump in on something like that. And certainly Calgary hasn\u2019t given up on the season either despite where they are in the standings. So, this is not something I think is imminent. <\/p>\n

One final thing on Coleman. He has a modified no-trade. He can say no to two-thirds of the league basically, so he would certainly have a say. And lots of teams have interest in Blake Coleman<\/a> if and when Calgary makes him available. <\/p>\n

Duthie: The Devils\u2019 9-0 loss to the Islanders a couple of nights ago, one of those moments or scores that can incite panic, anger or potentially change. What\u2019s the latest from New Jersey?<\/p>\n

Dreger: Well, you\u2019re right, I mean the New Jersey Devils<\/a> are floundering. That\u2019s plain and simple. And there are some in that market that are screaming for change. Both the general manager Tom Fitzgerald, maybe the future of Sheldon Keefe<\/a> as head coach in question as well. But look, job security isn\u2019t a primary concern for Fitzgerald. It just isn\u2019t. I mean, he talks to ownership on a weekly basis. They know the path that the general manager is trying to take with this team. <\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also abundantly clear that some form of change has to come if they don\u2019t turn this around immediately. And he is trying to shake things up, and shake things up in a significant way. He\u2019s looking to add a forward. A top-six piece that can help them in the goal scoring department. The problem is as we all know that the market from a trade perspective is a little thin and quiet right now. But Fitzgerald is wanting to be aggressive. <\/p>\n

Duthie: When Team Canada announced its Olympic roster they said they clearly have a reserve, but they didn\u2019t really say who is on it or how big it is. Just how big is it, how many potentials there?<\/p>\n

LeBrun: Well, according to the rules, if they wanted it could be everyone who\u2019s left from the original IOC longlist that had 90-plus names, so in theory it could be 60-plus names. Well it\u2019s not 60-plus names, obviously that\u2019s not realistic, so Team Canada went ahead and shortened that. They have about 15 names I\u2019m told on their reserve list right now. <\/p>\n

All of those players have been advised of that and made sure that they\u2019re comfortable staying in the IOC drug testing protocol. None of the Canadian players on that list have opted out to this point. So 15 or so gives them flexibility. Some guys might get hot, some guys might get cold. And depending on the injuries Doug Armstrong said on your panel, James, after naming the team, you know, that will affect which guy is called depending on the injury. Some of the forwards we know are on it, Sam Bennett<\/a>, Connor Bedard<\/a>, Wyatt Johnston<\/a>, Mark Scheifele<\/a>, Seth Jarvis<\/a>, Travis Konecny<\/a> are all a part of that reserve list up front. <\/p>\n

Duthie: Lastly, one of the wildest pieces of hockey video we\u2019ve seen in a while comes out of the St. Louis game last night where Jim Montgomery<\/a> seemed to be signaling for Jordan Binnington<\/a> to come out, Binnington doesn\u2019t come out, and then you get Joel Hofer<\/a> peeking out from the dressing room. Apparently the reality to what happened wasn\u2019t as salacious as it looked? <\/p>\n

LeBrun: No, there is in fact an explanation. And this wasn\u2019t Jordan Binnington<\/a> doing Jordan Binnington<\/a> things. In fact, he was ready to come out. But in talking to the Blues today, what happened is Joel Hofer<\/a> was half geared up. He wasn\u2019t ready to come into the game. He was in the dressing room in Chicago. That\u2019s not a great rink for the visiting team where the backup goalie goes. And by the time he got communication that it was time for him to come in, the puck had already dropped by the time he got his gear on. The trainer was whizzing around trying to get his gear. So when Binnington realized Hofer wasn\u2019t coming he said well, I guess I\u2019m going back in. And that\u2019s exactly what happened. <\/p>\n

Duthie: If nothing else Hofer has created a great meme that will likely last for years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TSN\u2019s Hockey Insiders discuss the Flames and Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman as a potential fit for the Habs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[16159,64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-401247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-apple-news","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}