always a possibility<\/a>, Sidney Crosby and his camp have remained steadfast that he wants to stay with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Crosby also has two years left on his current deal, so he won\u2019t even be a UFA at season\u2019s end. With a no-move clause, Crosby would be in control of the entire process anyway, and right now, he\u2019s given no indication he wants to be moved.<\/p>\nSo, why do people keep speculating that Crosby will eventually be traded? It\u2019s probably because it makes sense on a lot of levels and for all parties involved. The Penguins are headed for a rebuild, whether they like it or not, and have missed the playoffs for three straight seasons even with Crosby still playing at a high level. They also haven\u2019t won a playoff series since 2018. Pittsburgh could get a massive haul in return for Crosby, who is still a 90-point player and a top-six centre that so many teams are searching for. The pieces coming back could really put the Penguins in a better spot to turn the team around over the next few seasons.<\/p>\n
Plus, subtracting Crosby from their roster would immediately make them much worse, which might not be a bad thing at the moment. There\u2019s a lot of talent in the 2026 draft, and Gavin McKenna is right at the top of the list. If Crosby were to be dealt this season, and that\u2019s a big if, it would put Pittsburgh in a much better position to obtain the first-overall pick. Crosby is good enough on his own to help keep the Penguins out of the bottom five, so with him on the team, it would be considerably more difficult for Pittsburgh to bottom out. They could be stuck in the mushy middle for another season, which is the last place you want to be.<\/p>\n
For Crosby, he\u2019d get to go to a contender and be able to chase another Stanley Cup over the final few years of his career. How important that is to him remains to be seen. He could simply decide to finish his career with one franchise and scratch his competitive itch with the Olympics and World Cup of Hockey, much like he did at the Four Nations last February. That said, if it\u2019s another really rough season in Pittsburgh without looking like things are going to get better anytime soon, perhaps Crosby\u2019s line of thinking will change. As it stands today, though, Crosby still seems very much committed to the Penguins.<\/p>\n
If Crosby has been crystal clear about his intentions, Connor McDavid has been a little less definitive. The three-time Hart winner has been careful not to address too much regarding the Edmonton Oilers beyond the 2025-26 season, leading some to believe he could be considering a move next summer when his contract expires.<\/p>\n
McDavid has noted he believes in the Oilers this season, and why wouldn\u2019t he? They\u2019ve been to back-to-back finals and have come up just short of the Cup that McDavid appears to be consumed by winning. However, beyond that, it would be fair for McDavid to have some concerns. Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are rapidly approaching their mid-thirties and Mattias Ekholm will be 36 next May. Not to mention Ekholm, Jake Walman and Brett Kulak are not signed beyond this season. It was also a big blow losing Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to offer sheets last summer, as both could\u2019ve been significant contributors to the Oilers lineup and made the team younger. Then of course there\u2019s the goaltending, as Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard combined for an .888 save percentage in last year\u2019s playoffs. That\u2019s not championship material and the Oilers have yet to upgrade the position.<\/p>\n
These are all reasons why McDavid may be feeling some trepidation about signing with Edmonton long-term, but a shorter-term deal still makes some sense. The Pacific division is arguably the weakest in the NHL at the moment, and the Oilers’ path back to a Cup Final would likely be much easier than a team from the Central or the Atlantic. Leon Draisaitl is also a clutch playoff performer, and there are few better options for McDavid to play with in order to achieve his goal of a championship.<\/p>\n
If McDavid\u2019s number one priority is a Cup, it wouldn\u2019t really be smart to sign anywhere for a lot of term, given it\u2019s so difficult to predict the competitive landscape of the NHL year over year. Instead, a one or two-year deal that leaves him flexible would probably be a better path for McDavid, and right now, the Oilers should still be high on his list. At some point, that might no longer be the case and we could see a massive bidding war for McDavid\u2019s services, but it just may not be next summer.<\/p>\n
When you turn down an eight-year, $128-million contract, people are naturally going to assume you might not be interested in signing an extension with your current team. That may or may not be true where Kirill Kaprizov and the Minnesota Wild are concerned, but passing on $16 million per year to be the league\u2019s highest-paid player certainly raises a lot of questions.<\/p>\n
The Wild made it known they would pay Kaprizov more than anyone else, which probably wasn\u2019t the best negotiating tactic in hindsight. It\u2019s possible Kaprizov isn\u2019t actually set on leaving Minnesota, but simply wants as much money as possible. Now the Wild will have to decide how far they are willing to go to keep the 28-year-old superstar, and extending past $16 million a season would be pretty steep. Keep in mind, Minnesota just spent a few years in a cap nightmare after buying out Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, so do they really want to tie up an obscene amount of money in one player, even if it\u2019s for someone as good as Kaprizov? The cap is going up, so Minnesota could probably swing it, but let\u2019s not forget Filip Gustavsson is also due for a fairly substantial raise, too. If the Wild aren\u2019t careful, they could find themselves in a tight cap situation once again, sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a chance Kaprizov just wants a shorter-term deal, though that seems unlikely given his age and the fact he\u2019s battled injuries over the past few seasons. This is his best chance to maximize his earnings on an eight-year deal and secure the most guaranteed money possible. If the two sides can\u2019t come to terms by the time the trade deadline approaches, do the Wild have to consider trading Kaprizov? They can\u2019t risk letting him walk for nothing, and if he\u2019s already turned down a massive contract, Minnesota can\u2019t be confident in its chances to keep him if he reaches the open market.<\/p>\n
Despite Quinn Hughes still being under contract for two more years, he still tops this list as most likely to be on a new team for the 2026-27 campaign for a few reasons. The obvious one is that the Hughes brothers have been so vocal about playing with each other at some point and it\u2019s hard to envision that happening in Vancouver. Jack is locked up for five more years with the New Jersey Devils, and it sounds like Luke and the team are working towards a long-term pact as well. Cap complications aside, the simplest way for the three brothers to unite would be for Quinn to eventually sign with the Devils.<\/p>\n
The Canucks are going to want an answer from Hughes about his commitment to Vancouver long before his contract expires, though. That will likely come next summer when he\u2019ll be able to sign an extension, because if Hughes ultimately decides he wants to move on, the Canucks may have little choice but to trade him. Everyone is aware of what just transpired with Mitch Marner and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and you can bet Vancouver will try to avoid a similar situation. The Canucks won\u2019t want to lose Hughes for nothing, and trading one of the NHL\u2019s best defencemen could bring them back a huge return, whether that\u2019s to the Devils or another team as a rental.<\/p>\n
It’s also not an ideal time to pitch Hughes on the idea of staying with Vancouver. Last year was a nightmare for the Canucks with some friction in the locker room that ultimately led to JT Miller being dealt out of town. Plus, head coach Rick Tocchet and the team parted ways following the season. They took a big step back from the 109-point team they were a couple of years ago. It\u2019s a new campaign and it\u2019s very possible the Canucks have a much better 2025-26, but it will be an uphill climb to create an environment and situation that will make Hughes want to stay so quickly. Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford have a monumental task in front of them to sell Hughes on a long-term partnership with the Canucks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you were disappointed with how quiet this summer was for transactions, you weren\u2019t alone. A thin free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-170721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}