TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger joins Gino Reda to discuss the closed-door meeting Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube had with the team’s leadership, the timeline for William Nylander’s return from injury and how the Sabres should handle contract talks with pending UFA Alex Tuch.
Reda: Craig Berube calls his team leaders into his office. What happened in there?
When will Willy Nylander be back on the ice and not upstairs flipping the birds? What do the Sabres do with Alex Tuch?
Here’s Insider Darren Dreger.
For more on those topics, Dregs, let’s begin in Toronto where things are so desperate, Berube actually had a closed-door meeting with his team leadership. What happened?
Dreger: The message that I received from some inside that meeting was that everybody is on the same page. The focus has narrowed to the task at hand and that starts with playing the Buffalo Sabres tonight on TSN and then into the teeth of a real important road trip, which starts Thursday in Seattle.
It could be a season-changing road trip, frankly, in terms of direction as to what Brad Treliving, the general manager, goes in depending on the outcome of the next five games.
So, the focus is where it should be. But as they say, the results have to come on the ice, so a lot of people internally interested to see how this leadership group responds, Gino, to that meeting and where they’re at, because where they’ve been at the last four or five games hasn’t been good enough.
Reda: Alright, let’s get to Willy Nylander. Hasn’t been around for the last five games, got a $5,000 fine. Now he just wants to get back onto the ice. He hasn’t played in almost two weeks, Dregs.
The Leafs have got a big game tonight as you mentioned, then a huge road trip before the Olympic break. Do we have any idea about his timeline to return to the ice?
Dreger: Well, we have an idea, but there’s no guarantee and the hope is that William Nylander would be able to return as early as Seattle. So that is Thursday.
The fact that he’s been on the ice is a step in the right direction. We know that he aggravated a groin issue and that takes time to settle down and to heal. But skating is a big part of the process of getting him back into the Toronto Maple Leafs’ lineup.
I think best-case scenario would be as early as Thursday, and you know that he is real eager to get back into the mix as he referred to his frustration flipping the bird on Sunday when he met the media on Monday, it was directed at the fact that he’s not playing and he’s not able to help his teammates or contribute.
So, the Maple Leafs need him. He wants to get back. Best-case scenario would be Thursday in Seattle.
Reda: Better to take out his frustration on the ice than up in the booth.
Six weeks ago, the Sabres were at the bottom of the East, clear-cut sellers. Eighteen wins though, Dregs, in the last 22 games. Now they’re in the hunt, six points up on the Leafs for a playoff spot.
Alex Tuch, their second-leading scorer, is a pending unrestricted free agent. So now they’ve got to make a tough call. Any sense of which direction they’re headed?
Dreger: I don’t think that Jarmo Kekalainen, Gino, has any choice but to let this thing ride out.
Obviously, if it was easy as the organization saying, ‘Yes, we’ll agree to your terms, your contract demands and let’s get an extension done.’ They just did that recently with Josh Doan.
Now, I know we’re talking about a different stratosphere in terms of the dollars. Alex Tuch is an incredibly important piece of the success story that is this season for the Buffalo Sabres and where it gets tricky is the obvious. I mean, you remove a piece like that, if you’re even remotely willing to consider a trade, is a significant decision.
Now what are you getting back for Alex Tuch? It would have to be a meaningful piece or pieces that could help this team this year. That seems like a bit of a stretch. And then the flip side to all of that is, who are the partners that you’re talking with if you’re willing to consider? Jarmo Kekalainen is not going to strengthen another team in the East by sending them Alex Tuch and, again, if he sends him to the West, best-case scenario to get a return if that is paramount to the direction of the Buffalo Sabres. But you do that and you weaken your existing roster.
I think back to Kekalainen, Gino, with the Columbus Blue Jackets back in 2019. When he knew that the Columbus Blue Jackets were a playoff-worthy team, he thought that they could go deep. So, he didn’t trade away [Artemi] Panarin or [Sergei] Bobrovsky. Now, it came at his expense because, as we know, those players moved on in the off-season. But he may have to steal a page from his old playbook in Columbus, specific to Tuch.
Reda: Alright, that’s it for the early edition of Insider Trading. The full version with Dregs, CJ and Pierre is coming up on the early edition of SportsCentre as we get set for the Leafs and Sabres on TSN.