NHL Rumors: New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Colorado Avalanche

Welcome to another edition of Full Press Hockey’s NHL Rumors! The 2022-23 regular season is over and players as well as front offices will be evaluated. Now, with the season completed, the focus shifts toward deals that may go down this summer. What about free agency?

Clubs are always working to improve their rosters for next season. Teams who were eliminated from the postseason need to assess what happened and make adjustments. Some teams are having difficulty creating enough cap space to make moves. Others are experiencing severe injuries to star players. Trade rumors/signings are over for now, but teams are competing in the playoffs. In this Wednesday’s edition of NHL Rumors, we will look at the New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Colorado Avalanche.

New York Rangers – Joel Quenneville

Rumors: Per – Greg Wyshynski – ESPN.com./Darren Dreger – TSN.com. NHL Insiders link Rangers to 3-time Cup Champ.

Soon after a Game 7 elimination, it doesn’t take long for speculation about a head coach’s job status to start up. For the New York Rangers, Gerard Gallant‘s name will now be a hot topic of offseason discussion. And if the Rangers do decide to move on from him, one name that’s already been linked in NHL rumors is three-time Stanley Cup-winning coach Joel Quenneville.

To further Darren’s point: The Quenneville chatter around the Rangers this series was deafening. As was, in the end, the chatter that Gallant could have coached his last NYR game on Monday. https://t.co/9dJbUhlX2m

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) May 2, 2023

The Rangers did all they could do by adding rental players Patrick Kane (1-G, 5) and Vladimir Tarasenko (3-G, 1-A) for the playoff run. The run was short-lived, and whether or not Gallant will take full responsibility is an unknown. If the Rangers decide they need a new bench coach, Quenneville’s name may be out there if he is reinstated.

Quenneville led the Chicago Blackhawks to three Stanley Cups in the 2010s and had a 7-0-0 record with the Florida Panthers to start the 2021-22 season before his removal in October of 2021.

Pittsburgh Penguins – NHL rumors: five free agents to add to the roster.

Rumor: Per – Dan Kingerski – pittsburghhockeynow.com.

Age finally caught up with the Penguins, and now it’s time to evaluate what happened and determine the next steps to fix it. Here’s a list of players who could help in that endeavor.

• Jason Zucker – He is a free agent this summer and had a $5.5 million cap hit. He also tallied 48 points including 27 goals. He only missed four games all season compared to 81 over the previous three campaigns. The team will have about $20 million in cap space and keeping Zucker could be vital.
• Tyler Bertuzzi –  He proved his worth while with the Boston Bruins by scoring five goals, five assists in seven playoff games. He’s tough and angry, and the Pens need more of that. According to doberhockey.com, Bertuzzi may require about $6.56 million to sign him. He would be well worth it and adding him along with Zucker is a good start.
• Evan Rodrigues – He’d be a competent third-line center who shoots from the right side. He had 39 points this season, and it could be a reunion for him since he left the Pens after two seasons and signed as a free agent in Colorado.
• Noel Acciari – He is an affordable (around $2M) winger or center who is packaged with energy and physical play. He won’t add much to the offense, but adding him with Ryan Poehling on a fourth line with Drew O’Connor might turn out well.
• Ivan Barbashev – Here’s an ideal player for the Pittsburgh club. He added 16 points in just 23 games after joining the Vegas Golden Knights. There will be numerous teams after his services… let the bidding war begin.

So, that’s the players who could help the Penguins regain their lost recognition. Now, all they need is a general manager and President of hockey operations and they will be on the road to recovery.

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Colorado Avalanche – What does the future hold after being banished in the first round by a second-year expansion team?

Rumor – Per – Mark Kiszla – denverpost.com. The front-office brain-trust of Sakic and MacFarland, which never found a suitable replacement for Nazem Kadri, now owes it to MacKinnon, Rantanen and Makar to get the trio of superstars some meaningful help.

Injuries certainly played a role in the Av’s demise against the upstart Seattle Kraken. Not having Gabriel Landeskog out there was a loss they never recovered from. They also were without Valeri Nichushkin, who missed playing due to personal issues. Andrew Cogliano fractured his neck on April 29th.

Nathan MacKinnon summed it up well, “Tough year overall. During the season we’re going to say all the right things, but it’s hard missing guys.” If Captain Landeskog can’t regain full health and wayward son Nichushkin can’t be trusted, this Colorado roster might need an extreme makeover before it returns to serious Stanley Cup contention.

It seems they’re still reeling from the shock of losing to Seattle. Yet. they have excessive talent with Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar and MacKinnon. They’ll be back and may even get back to the Finals next year.

That concludes this edition of NHL rumors. Be sure to catch our next article and thanks for reading!