TSN’s Hockey Insiders on the aftermath of the phantom tripping call in Montreal, the Leafs’ injured blueline, Edmonton targeting a Top 9 forward, Seattle seeking a Top 6 winger and if Shane Wright is in play, the Panthers making calls and the Russian Hockey Federation taking the IIHF to court.

Additional review would assist official in righting a wrong

Reda: With the insiders – Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun, and Darren Dreger.

So a blatantly missed call led to a Lane Hutson penalty where there was absolutely no contact, followed by an apology from the ref that could possibly lead to change, Dregs?

Dreger: Yeah, the National Hockey League is talking about that and whether or not they’ve got to kick start the process. Now we know that the game is fast, we know that mistakes are made on a nightly basis. But frankly, this is a mistake that could have been easily corrected by the officiating crew, on ice that is, having the 30-second flexibility to go to the penalty box, quickly look at it on the video tablet and recognize that the wrong call had been made.

I mean, we know that it’s already available to confirm the double minor for high-sticking or reduce a major penalty, so the NHL is having those internal discussions, and the thought is, what if this were to happen in a Stanley Cup playoff game? It could be viewed as disastrous. So, if Eric Furlatt had an opportunity to review this, obviously he would have changed the wrong call to the right non-call.

Leafs injuries on blue line: Ekman-Larsson and Carlo join Tanev on sidelines

Reda: Could have been so much worse. Okay, under two weeks to the Olympic trade freeze. Has the heat been turned up on the Leafs to make a move on the blueline, CJ?

Johnston: Well, I think it’s been there for a while if Brad Treliving could just, you know, flip a finger and make a trade, he probably would have already made one by now for that Leafs blueline, and it’s especially, I guess, under the microscope because they lost two players to injury following their game on Wednesday, and I can tell you as of Thursday morning, there was real concern about Oliver Ekman-Larsson only able to play the first 10 minutes or so against the Red Wings. Brandon Carlo got through the game, but he came through with concerns about a tweak.

If there’s some good news here, it’s at the end of the day Thursday, there was a little bit of optimism about where these two players stood and even a possibility perhaps they’ll be back on Friday for the game against Vegas. But regardless, with Chris Tanev still out long term, potentially for the season, he’s trying to get back. And obviously these kind of injuries, I mean, there’s there is a little bit of pressure building for the Leafs to make a move.

Oilers target top-nine forwards ahead of deadline

Reda: The Oilers’ brain trust just got together. What did they come up with, Pierre?

LeBrun: Yeah, the pro scouts met last week with the Oilers organization. They came out of that meeting, obviously with the list like all teams do for the trade deadline and the concrete plan of wanting to add a top-nine forward before the March 6 trade deadline.

The question is, are they adding a winger or a centre and they don’t have the answer to that. And part of it is you have to answer it internally. Is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins better at centre for the Oilers or better at wing when he’s on the wing with Connor McDavid? Guess what? There’s no bad answer. He’s really good at both. But that helps shape where the Oilers are headed here and the reality is, the fact that there are more wingers expected to be on the market compared to centres, it’s probably going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy where they trade for a winger.

Bottom line though for Edmonton is some of the guys on their list, they’re on teams that aren’t ready to sell yet, so I don’t think anything is imminent. They might have to be patient.

Seattle shopping for top-six winger. Is Shane Wright in play?

Dreger: Divisional rival Seattle, Pierre, is also looking for a forward. They’re aiming a little higher. Specifically, they’re looking for a top-three winger or a top-six winger. Now, if you look at the draft history of the Seattle Kraken, you can see that they’ve drafted well up the middle of the ice. I think of 2022 and getting Shane Wright fourth overall. They feel like they’ve got depth up the middle so they can use one of these centres as the capital to acquire the winger that I’ve already talked about.

Teams say that Jason Botterill, the GM of the Seattle Kraken, is listening on Shane Wright. But he is in no rush and understandably, the expected return for Shane Wright is incredibly high.

Two-time Cup champs making calls

LeBrun: Yeah, another team making calls, two-time Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. They are in one right now and it seemed like a month ago they were back and they had their mojo back. But they are five points out of a playoff spot as play began Thursday night. Bill Zito, the GM, has ramped up his calls around the league. He can’t force anything, he doesn’t want to force anything.

But certainly the Panthers would like to make a deal to help their team. The other thing I’d say is that they’re up against it cap wise. All the injuries they’ve had have really eaten into their accrued cap space. They have to keep space open for Sasha Barkov if he’s back for the playoffs, so they don’t have a lot of room to maneuver here. And by the way, that’s if they make the playoffs.

Russian Hockey Federation taking IIHF to court

Reda: Russia and Belarus have been banned from events from the IIHF since Russia invaded Ukraine, and now the Russians are pushing back, CJ?

Johnston: They are and this is a first. There was a meeting of the IIHF council on Wednesday and they decided to extend this ban through to 2027. The Russian Federation has since put out a statement saying that they’re going to take this to the Court of Arbitration for Sport because they can test the reasons for the IIHF ban, that with being the IIHF saying it’s not safe to include these countries and this is the first because since 2022, as you mentioned, Gino, they’ve just kind of taken these sanctions as they’ve gone along and that there’s a feeling in the international hockey community, Russia is really forcing the issue here ahead of the Olympics because the IOC has actually said that it’s time for Russia to get back. So this is something to watch here as we move forward.

Reda: They are the insiders – Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger.