It’s another round of NHL rumours as we roll towards the holiday season. Some clubs are trying to add things from their wish list in order to make a more complete lineup. Some teams are hoping to have a new piece for their lineup sometime during the holidays. Goalies, defencemen and forwards are always in demand and general managers don’t want to break the bank for their new toys. Today’s NHL rumours focus on the Winnipeg Jets and New Jersey Devils.
All NHL rumours come from the original source and are subject to change.
NHL Rumours
Winnipeg Jets
Rumour: The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman took a look at five places Nashville Predators defenceman Tyson Barrie could end up. Winnipeg is one of the five teams that are on the scribe’s list.
Tyson Barrie trade destinations: five teams who could or should be interested in adding the defenseman https://t.co/fZ22mQevjI
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) December 6, 2023
Analysis: The Jets are in third place in the Central Division and have weathered a couple of storms. Winnipeg survived the absence of head coach Rick Bowness for a short time and other things. However, there’s one thing the Jets need to fix and that’s the power play.
The team’s extra-man unit isn’t as bad as the division rival St Louis Blues. However, Winnipeg’s power play is in the middle of the pack at 18th with an 18.8 percent success rate. Jets brass know those numbers won’t cut the mustard if it gets into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Winnipeg also struggles at creating goals as it’s near the bottom of that statistic. Some offensive wizardry is going to be needed in order to make teams sweat a bit more in their own end.
Goldman adds that Bowness does a great job at sheltering his more offensive defencemen. Barrie would likely be on the third pair in even-strength situations and wouldn’t be put into a lot of high-danger situations.
The Jets aren’t the type of team that makes a big swing for the fences. Adding someone like Barrie might be a good low-key deal that could be good for Winnipeg.
Nashville has already given permission to deal the veteran blueliner to a new team and there could be some salary retention, which could make the trade easier to facilitate.
New Jersey Devils
Rumour: The Athletic’s Eric Stephens talks about the New Jersey Devils being a possible suitor for Ducks goalie John Gibson.
Analysis: Gibson has struggled so far this season with a 5-11-0 record and 2.82 goals-against-average. The Pittsburgh native has a .906 save percentage, but those numbers aren’t the full story with the veteran goalie.
He was part of the team’s fast start with a .927 save percentage in his first 11 starts. Stephens points out that Gibson’s goals saved above average is in the positive area for the first time since 2018-19 season. Anaheim had a historically bad season at the backend last year and that led to a 3.99 goals-against-average.
Looking at those numbers and some people think that Gibson is trending downward. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The veteran has struggled due to the bad play in front of him.
There have been rumours in the past with Gibson, but he has a 10-team no-trade list that complicates things. Teams like the Devils and Buffalo Sabres would love to get their hands on Gibson. However, New Jersey seems to be a better fit with where it is in the standings. The Devils don’t have a true number one between Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid. Adding Gibson could give the team a true veteran goalie that’s been through the playoff wars.
New Jersey has plenty of weapons on offence and Gibson likely wouldn’t be needed to win games by only allowing one or two goals a game. However, Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek isn’t going to just hand over Gibson without getting the right return.
Main photo by: Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports
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