NHL Metropolitan

The Buffalo Sabres are reportedly seeking "at least four pieces that would be equivalent of first-rounders" in order to move star center Jack Eichel in a blockbuster trade.

Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported the asking price Monday, and noted the New York Rangers are among the interested NHL teams and have had "preliminary talks" with the Sabres about Eichel, but they're awaiting further medical information after he missed the end of the 2020-21 season with a neck injury.

In his season-ending press conference, Eichel expressed frustration about how the organization handled the treatment of the herniated disk in his neck. His side preferred a surgical procedure, while the Sabres wanted to take the more conservative route of rest and rehabilitation.

"My No. 1 interest and my No. 1 goal is Jack Eichel,” he told reporters. "... You've got to look after yourself, you've got to look after what you think is best for yourself, and the organization has a similar job to do, but it's to look after what's best for the Buffalo Sabres."

He added his main goal was "just trying to get healthy and figure out a way to be available to play hockey next year...wherever that might be."

In turn, the trade rumors that had already started to circulate during the Sabres' struggles en route to their 10th straight playoff-less season kicked into overdrive following the three-time All-Star's comments.

Trying to determine fair value for Eichel could prove difficult for Buffalo and interested teams, though.

The 24-year-old Boston University product is one of the NHL's best centers when healthy. He's tallied 355 points (139 goals and 216 assists) across 375 games since the Sabres selected him with the second overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft.

Eichel has compiled those numbers despite playing on some lackluster Buffalo teams, and there's a real chance he could take his game to an MVP level alongside more talented teammates.

On the flip side, he's coming off an injury that caused him to miss the final two months of the 2020-21 campaign and still doesn't have a definitive treatment plan or timetable for a return to full strength. Opposing general managers will probably also point toward his own remarks to suggest he may want out of Buffalo.

The other factor is his eight-year, $80 million contract. The Sabres will argue teams are acquiring an elite center under team control through 2025-26. Interested front offices will say his $10 million cap hit each season is difficult to navigate in the NHL's uncertain financial waters coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eichel is the Sabres' most valuable asset by a considerable margin. If the team ultimately moves him, Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams' opportunity to turn the struggling franchise around will likely hinge almost entirely on the return he gets for the team's current captain.

The equivalent of four first-round picks—the same compensation as the maximum possible via a contract offer sheet to a restricted free agent—is a fair baseline value for a player of Eichel's caliber, but the surrounding circumstances make it unclear whether teams will meet that asking price.

If not, the Sabres may have to grapple with the question of lowering their expectations or asking a clearly disgruntled player to return for the 2021-22 season with no guarantee the team as a whole will be prepared to take a significant step forward.

A resolution figures to come before the 2021 NHL draft on July 23, where Buffalo will make the No. 1 overall pick in a year without a consensus top prospect.

Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin has won the 2020-21 Lady Byng Memorial Trophy.

Hockey Hall of Famer Ron Francis, a three-time Lady Byng Trophy winner who served as Carolina's director of hockey operations when the 'Canes drafted Slavin in 2012, presented the award to the defenseman:

Ron Francis presents the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy to this year's winner, Jaccob Slavin. #NHLAwards pic.twitter.com/qdzewZbIoq

— NHL (@NHL) June 19, 2021

Per NHL.com, the Lady Byng Trophy is given "to the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability." The Professional Hockey Writers Association chooses the winner.

Per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Slavin is the fourth-ever defenseman to win the award. The other finalists were Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews and Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon.

Hurricanes beat writer Sara Civian of The Athletic placed Slavin first on her Lady Byng ballot, calling the honor "well-deserved":

Jaccob Slavin won the Lady Byng. First defenseman to do so in like a million years idk I’m not at my computer. Well-deserved. I voted for him. My ballot: pic.twitter.com/hDKUZO9p7M

— Sara 'pepcid ac lover' Civian (@SaraCivian) June 19, 2021

NHL reporter Frank Seravalli also reported these remarkable Slavin statistics:

#Canes’ Jaccob Slavin is just the fourth defenseman, and the first since Brian Campbell in 2012, to win the Lady Byng Trophy.

Slavin earned 73 of 100 first place votes by taking just one minor penalty in 1195 minutes on-ice this season.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 19, 2021

The entire voting result sheet can be found here, via ESPN's Greg Wyshynski:

The Lady Byng voting. There were a lot of options! #NHL pic.twitter.com/Pn6NPYPFjZ

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 19, 2021

Slavin finished second on the team with a plus-22 mark. The Hurricanes allowed the fourth-fewest goals in the NHL and reached the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

New York Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury made his first major move on Monday when he hired Gerard Gallant to become the team's next head coach.

As the team looks to transition from a rebuilding philosophy to a playoff team, Gallant is a logical pick. The former head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights has manned the bench in 541 regular-season NHL games.

He has a lot of clout with veteran players but also has experience dealing with young players, of which the Rangers have many. Gallant was head coach of the Saint John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL from 2009 through 2012, winning the championship twice.

When the Rangers' season ended with dramatic upheaval, much was made of the team's supposed need to become harder to play against.

Typically, this comes in the form of suggesting the team bring in players who are big, brawny skaters who will strike fear in the opposition. 

There is no doubt the Rangers need to become a tougher team, and there is room for additions of that type. However, by hiring Gallant, the Rangers brought in someone who has the qualifications to fix many of the problems with the players already within the organization. 

      

Defining Toughness

The problem with proclaiming that the Rangers need to add some toughness, or grit, or a north-south style, is not that it's necessarily incorrect. Rather, it alone is a list of platitudes that are insufficient in diagnosing in what areas of the game the team struggled in and how those can be addressed. 

If a team was in dire need of an elite playmaker, it would be insufficient to proclaim that team needed "skill." After all, Alexander Ovechkin is very skilled, but passing is not his game. Along the same lines, "grit" players are not a monolith.

Matt Martin throws a lot of punishing hits. Jordan Staal is a puck hound below the goal line. Mikko Rantanen is incredibly hard to knock off the puck. Joe Pavelski is one of the best net-front players in the league. All of these players conceivably fit the label of "tough," yet they provide different abilities. 

Marek and Friedman talk about #NYR's "Tom Wilson Problem" and if it gets addressed. Friedman adds it's not just Tom Wilson, but in games vs. the Islanders they didn't match what the Isles did. Believes that gets "addressed".

I guess they're talking about adding "toughness".

— NHL Watcher (@NHL_Watcher) June 15, 2021

Grit is an amorphous concept, but the Rangers won't be improved by adding just any big, physical player. The task for Gallant and Drury will be in evaluating how the team struggled tactically last season, what adjustments Gallant can make to fix the issues and which players are needed to fit that plan.

When the two brainstorm on those matters, and they likely already have, they may find that a lot of the solutions are already in-house.

       

The Lack of a North-South Component

The 2020-21 Rangers were often described as being heavily reliant on east-west plays but lacked a north-south style to complement it. This is true, but it requires more specific analysis what this actually meant in practice.

The Rangers have a number of forwards (plus one Adam Fox) who are very good, if not elite, at carrying the puck and making high-difficulty passes. Either through a transition rush or by carrying past defenders in the neutral zone, the Rangers would enter the offensive zone with clean possession, and then score off the rush, often with a pass across the slot.

This is an effective way to generate offense and score goals. When it works, it really works. The Rangers punished teams that were slow, disorganized or conservative in defending the neutral zone. 

However, sometimes there isn't space to carry in the neutral zone. The puck needs to be sent past the opposing defense and then recovered in the offensive zone. From there, an offensive team can either recover the puck and make a quick strike while the defending team is unprepared. It can also cycle the puck, wear them down and wait for a defender to make a mistake.

This is where the Rangers struggled. When pucks were dumped into the offensive zone, they didn't win many races, and when they didn't win those races, their forecheck didn't do enough to put the opposition under pressure and create turnovers.

Tracking data recorded by Corey Sznajder over a random sample of games during the regular season reveals that the Rangers ranked 28th out of 31 teams in generating shots off forechecks and cycles (compared to 19th by rush chances). 

Another bellwether is the lack of shots coming from defensemen. Curated data available at Evolving Hockey shows that Rangers' defensemen averaged 13.23 shot attempts per-game at five-on-five, a number which ranked them 27th among 31 NHL teams. 

There will be multiple reasons for this. Personnel plays a part—are more defensemen needed who have the skill and mentality to shoot more? Perhaps, and more on that later. Still, most NHL defensemen are at least competent at directing the puck towards goal in hope of finding screens, rebounds and deflections. Missing during the season was the low-to-high pass to defensemen, which is often generated from forechecks and cycles that start near the goal line. 

The Rangers were predictable offensively last season. They relied on carrying the puck cleanly into the offensive zone and then moving it laterally through the slot for shooting opportunities. With so much talent, it often worked. But the limits of this style showed against the Islanders. Their rivals in Long Island knew the type of plays that were coming and had the ideal composition and tactics to thwart it. The Rangers had no Plan B, and it showed. 

     

How Gallant Can Fix the Rangers' North-South Game

The Rangers could and likely will make an addition or two to fill the need for a more vertical game. That discussion will come. However, the Rangers already have some personnel capable of playing this style. They just need a leader like Gallant to steer them in the right direction.

Gallant's yet unnamed assistant coaches will have a lot of input into the team's tactics, and his full vision won't truly be understood until the team gives some hints on the ice during the preseason. Nevertheless, one can look at his preferences in past NHL stops and make some educated guesses.

In all likelihood, players will have a more aggressive forechecking style. Under David Quinn, the Rangers were fairly passive. Under Gallant, the Vegas Golden Knights forwards were more frequently given the green light to pressure the puck in the offensive zone and try to create numbers advantages.

Buchnevich makes it 4-1 and Lafreniere extends that point streak. pic.twitter.com/6TujoDVhOa

— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) March 5, 2021

One aspect that will almost certainly change is in how Gallant deploys his defensemen. Under Quinn, the Rangers' defensemen played it safe and almost conceded the neutral zone and blue line on purpose. Gallant will ask his defensemen to play a higher line and break up opposing rushes and send the puck back in deep, allowing for another attempt at a forecheck against more fatigued opposition trying to once again recover the puck and move it up the ice. 

Under Quinn, the Rangers were so fearful of getting beat up the ice that they backed off. This succeeded in preventing odd-man rushes but did so at the expense of the team's ability to pressure the puck. Expect Gallant to implement systems that encourage his five-man units to more aggressively suffocate the opposition, create turnovers and lead to more cycle opportunities.

     

Internal Solutions Are Available

Maybe the Rangers aren't overly big and aggressive like the Islanders or Carolina Hurricanes, but it's difficult to believe the forwards already on the roster aren't capable of sustaining forechecks and cycles. Mika Zibanejad, Pavel Buchnevich, and Filip Chytil (the latter two are restricted free agents this offseason) are among the team's forwards who possess varying size and speed, while Chris Kreider is the ideal archetype of a north-south winger. None of them maximized their potential in that regard. What gives?

Equal to Gallant's tactical changes will be the implementation of a respected voice in the locker room. Sometimes it's not what's being said but rather who is saying it and how. For whatever reason, Quinn, a rookie NHL head coach, struggled to get his message through to the team about wanting a more vertical style. Even if that was not Quinn's fault, perception matters. Gallant has built a reputation as a great communicator who commands the respect of even the most successful veteran players. 

Perhaps counterintuitively, incoming reinforcements on defense will better prepare the Rangers for initiating successful forechecks. Much like an NFL receiver can only make plays if his quarterback makes the right throws, forechecking forwards can only make the most of their abilities when defensemen put the puck into the best spots for them to retrieve it.

Blindly throwing the puck below the goal line isn't an ideal strategy. The best puck-moving defensemen can read the players in front of them and see where mismatches or overloads are developing. Some situations call for hard wraps around the boards. Some call for purposeful caroms off the end boards into the slot. Occasionally it's a light flip into the near corner. Purposeful placement of the puck can help a forechecker win a race or can turn a 50/50 battle into a 60/40 one. 

The Rangers have one of the best in this regard in Adam Fox, but he needs help. Gallant can look to two rookies. Zac Jones, who made his debut at the end of last season, and Nils Lundkvist, named the Swedish Hockey League's best Swedish-born defenseman, are both likely to play some if not all of the 2021-22 season at the NHL level. Both are excellent puck distributors who will make the right decisions to create these entries into the offensive zone and then eagerly shoot the puck from the point when it comes to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJoW_O2d6DQ

K'Andre Miller is also a great fit for a more aggressive forechecking system. With his strength, skating and long reach, he was almost born to aggressively check in the neutral zone. His puck skills will also develop more as he plays.

Some of the Rangers' hopes for becoming tougher to play against depend on being patient with Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko (Kakko turned 20 on February 13). Those two were among the Rangers' better forecheckers and cyclers of the puck last season despite being teenagers. There's good reason to believe they will become forces in this regard as they grow up physically and adapt to the NHL style under a qualified head coach.

The 6'4" Morgan Barron could also play a role for the Rangers next season, while defensive prospects Braden Schneider and Matthew Robertson are close to NHL-ready and play a hard-nosed game in the neutral zone. 

         

The Blueshirts Are Already On Their Way

Drury has a win-now mindset, and that's a fair expectation. He'll explore the trade and free-agent markets to see what external help he can find. The danger is in overcorrecting and amassing a number of players who ostensibly fit "gritty" profiles but who don't coherently fit into the structure of what the Rangers are trying to do. This team's bread-and-butter will be about carrying the puck and making skilled plays laterally in the offensive zone.

Finishing checks and standing up for teammates after a "Tom Wilson incident" arguably have their roles in hockey, but that's not where the Rangers need to become tougher to play against. It's about diversifying the way the team can generate offense so that it's not predictable and becomes more adaptable to different styles of play.

The Rangers need a curveball to match their fastball. Ironically, establishing that north-south game will open up more opportunities for them to carry the puck and make plays off the rush as teams will be forced to back off amid a guessing game. The Rangers already have a number of great options to begin this fix internally, and new head coach Gallant is a strong choice to lead the team to add a north-south component to its game without straying away from who they are as a unit of immensely skilled players.

New York Rangers executive chairman James Dolan cleaned house this spring because he felt the club's general manager, team president and head coach weren't going to get the team to the playoffs. 

"Honestly, we have enough talent now to compete for a Stanley Cup," Dolan said in an interview with the New York Post. "I'm sure we can always do better and add more, and I will tell you that both [John Davidson and Jeff Gorton] did a good job of putting talent into this organization, and we also got lucky along the way too [with lottery victories the last two years]."

So he hired a coach for a win-now team. But are the Rangers ready? Is the rebuild complete? Whether or not the roster is built to win next season, Gerard Gallant's hiring signals the Rangers' intent to contend. 

The team reportedly made the move Monday afternoon, per Larry Brooks, having fired its previous coach, David Quinn, in May after three seasons. New York brought in Quinn to help develop the young core during the early stages of the rebuild, and he bridged the gap to Gallant, the premier bench boss on the market. 

Gallant is coming off a gold-medal coaching performance in the IIHF World Championships, leading Canada over Finland in Latvia earlier this month. It was a notable accomplishment, considering Team Canada started the tournament 0-3, but Gallant's resume extends well beyond one international tournament. He's best known for leading the upstart Vegas Golden Knights to an improbable Stanley Cup Final berth in 2017-18, the club's inaugural season. 

Gallant is 270-216-4-51 as an NHL head coach after stints with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers and Golden Knights. Yet he's also been fired twice during a season with good teams. 

The Panthers kicked him to the curb in November 2016. The images of him with his bags outside a hotel on a road trip with the team after an 11-10-0-1 start proved to be some terrible optics for the team but good PR for Gallant, who bounced back quickly with the Golden Knights. 

https://twitter.com/GMillerTSN/status/803235256686047232

And yet, less than three seasons into his stint with a team that is looking more and more like a juggernaut, he was surprisingly let go with a 24-19-0-6 record. Peter DeBoer, a coach he once called a "clown," replaced him.

The Knights are in the semifinal round for the second straight year, and while management deserves much of the credit for building this team, Gallant undoubtedly laid its framework. This is a copycat league, and DeBoer likely knew he was inheriting a structured club. Sure, it's a different voice and maybe some tweaks occurred, but most teams run some variation of the same power play, the same penalty kill, neutral-zone systems, etc. 

It makes you wonder just how important an NHL head coach actually is as far as X's and O's. That's not to diminish their role, but to say a coach is all that's standing between a team and a championship is a romantic notion. Gallant is a good coach because of what he gets out of players, how he manages his dressing room and how he relates to his players. 

Something I've spoken to a few people about recently is the idea that, in the NHL, it's a lot more important to not have a bad coach than it is to have a good coach.

I think Gallant is certainly not a bad coach. Perfectly good hire for the Rangers.

— Adam Herman (@AdamZHerman) June 14, 2021

By all accounts, Gallant is effective at managing these aspects of a team, as the overwhelming sentiment is that he is a great guy and a great coach. In a recent interview with The Athletic, Gallant emphasized a balance in being there for players but also holding them accountable. 

"I'm tough, but I'm fair … that's the way I look at myself, anyway," Gallant told Aaron Portzline. "Some people call me a players' coach, and you hear people say, 'We don't need a players' coach.' Well, I'm a hard-ass, too, when I need to be, when the situation calls for it."

Gallant's teams also typically play with grit. The Rangers had little of it last season, so Gallant addresses that. 

When Vegas fired him, the underlying numbers showed the team was very good but suffering from bad luck. The Golden Knights' goals-for percentage ranked 22nd, but their expected goals-for percentage was actually second in the NHL. Some say you create your own luck in hockey; some say the puck just doesn't favor you. The answer is somewhere in between, but it's clear from those numbers the team was generating offense. 

It's not a scorching take to say Gallant was the right hire for the Rangers. Kris Knoblauch, the coach of the team's AHL affiliate in Hartford, might have been a good choice as well because he could've grown alongside the team's youthful core. The top prospects have a familiarity with him, and he knows the foundational aspects of the Rangers' systems.

Would he have been any better than Quinn? We'll never know, but it's clear from the seasoned coaches the club targeted that the Rangers feel ready to move past the development phase and move into the playoff phase. 

Which is fine. The club has been building since the spring of 2018 when it issued The Letter to fans detailing its intentions for the next few years. The Rangers wanted to rebuild the right way, and it worked: They have one of the best, if the not the best, prospect pools in the country. They also have a group of talented young players on their NHL roster, like 2019 No. 2 overall pick Kaapo Kakko and 2020 No. 1 pick Alexis Lafreniere, as well as other strong supporting cast members in that same age range, such as defensemen Adam Fox, 23, and K'Andre Miller, 21. 

And yes, the Blueshirts have one of hockey's most prolific scorers in winger Artemi Panarin, plus a strong leadership group with Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba. No one is doubting the talent. But it's still not a roster that is ready to compete for a Stanley Cup. 

There are questions about the two young goalies, Alexandar Georgiev and Igor Shesterkin, both 25. There are big questions on the back end of the blue line and regarding the forward depth. And Lafreniere and Kakko have been inconsistent at best. 

Maybe Gallant can unlock their potential. Based on what he did in Vegas, it's clear he knows how to get a mix of players to play as a cohesive unit. But maybe they're still just…young. 

They better grow up fast, because the patience for the rebuild appears to be wearing thin. 

When Dolan fired general manager Jeff Gorton and team president John Davidson, he was unhappy with the lack of progress since the rebuild began. Chris Drury, the associate general manager who was elevated to president and general manager, said the next step is becoming a postseason squad. 

"I think it's an exciting time for the organization," Drury said in May during his introductory press conference. "Just like every organization does when the season ends, we're going to take a look at everything to take the next step and make ourselves a playoff team."

Gallant can help them get to the postseason. The Rangers were probably monitoring the situations of a few other coaches, like Mike Sullivan of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Rod Brind'Amour of the Carolina Hurricanes, because every other team in need of a coach is also monitoring those situations. But Gallant was the right move at the right time.

It's a big hiring in what it conveys to the fanbase (the team is ready to contend), yet one that is seemingly at odds with the roster (not there yet).

So what's a realistic expectation for the Rangers under Gallant? They will get better and be competitive in the Metropolitan Division. To expect a Stanley Cup in 2022 would be a reach, though. 

Progress will be made. But if Dolan and Rangers fans anticipate a lot of it overnight, they should temper their expectations. 

Following their elimination from the playoffs to the New York Islanders, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced star forward Evgeni Malkin underwent successful knee surgery and is unlikely to be ready for the start of training camp.

Evgeni Malkin underwent successful surgery on his right knee.

Malkin is expected to be unavailable for training camp in September. The team expects to have a more definitive time frame for his return at that time.

Full details: https://t.co/XKwvOIf4CP pic.twitter.com/RS0A6RQgkx

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) June 4, 2021

The 34-year-old injured his right knee on March 16 against the Boston Bruins and did not return until May 3 for the final four games of the regular season. In the Islanders series, Malkin hardly looked like himself, netting just one goal with four assists in four games after missing the first two. 

The Russian center was in the midst of a slightly down year at the time of his injury. He played just 33 games during the regular season and netted 28 points (eight goals, 20 assists) while winning 42.5 percent of his faceoffs. 

It was the fewest games Malkin has played in a season since 2012-13, when he appeared in 31 because of a concussion and a shoulder injury while recording nine goals and 24 assists. Two years earlier, Malkin's season ended after 43 games when he tore the ACL and MCL in his right knee following a collision with then-Buffalo Sabres defenseman Tyler Myers—the same knee that required surgery this week.

There's no question he remains a large part of the Penguins organization as a franchise cornerstone along with Sidney Crosby. 

Malkin has one year remaining on an eight-year, $76 million deal and will become an unrestricted free agent following the 2021-22 season. Before he and the team talk about extending his time in the Steel City, Malkin will need to prove he's healthy and able to continue contributing to Pittsburgh's quest for a fifth Stanley Cup. 

Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan will reportedly return for the 2021-22 NHL season even though the team has failed to advance beyond the second round of the playoffs since winning the Stanley Cup in 2017, including three straight first-round exits.

A source told Mike DeFabo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Tuesday that Sullivan is "100 percent" expected to retain his job with the "full support" of president of hockey operations Brian Burke and general manager Ron Hextall.

Sullivan took over as the Pens' bench boss in December 2015 after the in-season firing of Mike Johnston, and he proceeded to guide the franchise to back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2016 and 2017.

Pittsburgh's performance has faded since that initial dominance under the former NHL center. It was eliminated in the second round of the 2018 playoffs while seeking a three-peat and has followed with the early exits from the postseason the last three seasons.

The Penguins have still found plenty of regular-season success in recent years, posting a 121-65-21 record since the start of the 2018-19 campaign, but leading a franchise that's become accustomed to championship-level success during the Sidney Crosby era still landed him on the hot seat.

Sullivan didn't shy away from questions about his status after the team was eliminated last week by the New York Islanders, per DeFabo.

"Ultimately, you get judged on your success," he said Friday. "Our performance in the regular season, I think it would have to be acceptable that we won our division. But having said that, we have higher expectations in Pittsburgh. ... We didn't ultimately live up to that. We all have to take ownership for it."

In all, the 53-year-old Massachusetts native has led the Pens to a 251-131-43 record in the regular season and a 41-34 mark in the playoffs across six seasons. He went 70-56-15-23 during a prior two-season stint with the Boston Bruins (2003 through 2006).

All of the Penguins' key players, led by Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel and Kris Letang, are under contract to return next season, so expectations will be high once again.

The biggest point of emphasis in the offseason with no coaching change on the horizon could be finding competition for goalie Tristan Jarry, who posted a lackluster .888 save percentage in the playoffs.

Seth Jones' time with the Columbus Blue Jackets may be coming to an end.

Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reported Columbus will likely trade the defenseman this offseason "barring a change of heart by Jones."

Portzline noted two teams reached out to Columbus Sunday.

Those reports come after Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported Jones told the Blue Jackets he does not plan on signing a contract extension and instead intends to become a free agent when his contract expires following the 2021-22 campaign.

Frankly, this is another blow for a Columbus team and market that is starting to develop a reputation as one where notable players are not staying.

Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky and Matt Duchene all signed elsewhere right after the best playoff run in franchise history in 2019 when the Blue Jackets stunned the powerhouse Tampa Bay Lightning with a first-round sweep and pushed the Boston Bruins to six games in the second round.

Columbus also traded Pierre-Luc Dubois after there was some apparent tension with then-head coach John Tortorella.

Blue Jackets president of hockey operations John Davidson discussed the situation with Jones in comparison to the one with Panarin, per Portzline:

The No. 1 thing we'd like to do is keep Seth. He has every right in the world to leave if he wants to not extend the contract, but we'll do what's best for our team. We just want players who want to be here.

This is a different scenario (than in 2019). We were in a position (then) where we thought we had a chance to make a pretty good run at (the Stanley Cup). Beating Tampa Bay (in the first round) was great. Losing to Boston in six ... it was a good series, and they lost in seven in the Final.

The Blue Jackets finished in last place in the Central Division during the 2020-21 campaign and may be headed toward a rebuild, especially if they move Jones.

The three-time All-Star is one of the best overall defensemen in the NHL as someone who can anchor the blue line, get involved in the offense and be a factor on the power play. He was an integral part of the 2019 run for the Blue Jackets and is just 26 years old in the middle of his prime.

Losing someone like that would be a blow for the organization, although he could also bring in quite the return in a potential deal.

Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones has reportedly informed the team he plans to leave once he hits free agency in 2022. 

"We can tell you that sometime in the last week or so, Seth Jones informed the Columbus Blue Jackets that he will not be re-signing," Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada. "I’m saying 'for now' at this point because I don’t like to deal in absolutes. But it does appear as if he is prepared to test free agency, and we’ll see how Columbus decides to handle this over the next little while."

Jones is under contract through the 2021-22 season. His decision to inform the Blue Jackets of his plans now could give them the opportunity to trade him this summer.

Columbus finished 18-26-12 during the regular season, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16.

“It was just a tough season in general for everybody,” Jones told reporters earlier this month. “Really, nothing went right for us right from the start. Whether it was injuries, or myself not playing well, some other guys not playing well or up to the standard we needed to, we just didn't jell in time."

Jones was noncommittal when asked about his future, though he called testing free agency "a situation that you only get once in your lifetime." It's clear the allure of being recruited is appealing to the 26-year-old, who has made four All-Star teams during his career.

Jones likely would be in consideration to become the highest-paid defenseman in the NHL once he hits the open market. Erik Karlsson ($11.5 million) and Drew Doughty ($11 million) are the only two defensemen in the league who have an AAV of greater than $10 million.

It's possible the Blue Jackets could break the bank and convince Jones to stay, but it's more likely we're hearing the first of several trade rumors about him this summer. 

Longtime Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang told reporters he wants to retire with the club alongside fellow core members Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin as he prepares to enter a contract year. 

Following the Pens' first-round elimination by the New York Islanders in six games, Letang said he's yet to speak with Pittsburgh's front office about an extension but doesn't want to play anywhere else. 

Kris Letang has yet to hear from Penguins management about his future. Emphasized he, Malkin and Crosby want to finish career in Pittsburgh.

— Rob Rossi (@Real_RobRossi) May 28, 2021

The 34-year-old is finishing up an eight-year, $58 million deal. Malkin is also scheduled to reach unrestricted free agency in 2022 after completing an eight-year, $76 million deal. Crosby, meanwhile, is still under contract through 2025. 

Each of the three franchise cornerstones have spent their entire NHL careers with the Penguins, helping the club win three Stanley Cups. 

In 15 seasons with the Pens, Letang has played 863 games with 582 points (134 goals, 448 assists) and 1,286 blocked shots. He's been named an All-Star in six seasons 

His 5.7 defensive point shares in 2010-11 rank as the third-best season by a Pittsburgh defenseman in team history and he leads the time in all-time defensive point shares at 45.7. 

Whether or not he can maintain that level of play entering his age-34 season remains to be seen. Most long-time defensemen who have stayed in the league into their late 30's and 40's have done so by changing their style of play. Chris Chelios is a prime example of someone who developed into a steady stay-home defenseman by taking shorter shifts and focusing his efforts on clearing the puck out of his zone. 

Yet Chelios wasn't able to finish his career with one team.

Letang, the Penguins' 62nd overall pick in 2005, has made clear he wants to only play in Pittsburgh.

That might require him—and Malkin—to take a pay cut depending on where the salary cap is after next season and how competitive Pittsburgh is up until that point. 

This marked the second time in three years the Pens didn't advance out of the first round of the postseason. Last year the club failed to advance out of the qualifying round inside the league's bubble. 

That leaves the front office with plenty to consider as their core pieces begin entering the later stages of their careers. 

UNIONDALE, New York — Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin cemented their legacies long before the 2021 postseason. That happened back in 2009 when they won their first of three Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

But there was still something unsettling about the way they were eliminated from the 2021 postseason Wednesday night with a 5-3 loss to the New York Islanders in Game 6 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series.

The Penguins probably have enough firepower to win another Cup. They have the center depth and the blue line. It's not the deepest roster, but they possess enough weapons to supplement Sid and Geno. They have the scoring, and they have the stifling defense to make it stand up. Maybe.

Pittsburgh had one of the best records over the final two months of the the season despite injuries to key players—Malkin included—but then was eliminated before the Eastern Conference Final for the fourth straight year. The games were close, including one overtime game, one double-overtime game and two others decided by one goal.

Either no one seems to know exactly what went wrong or no one is willing to point any fingers.

"I don't know if it's one thing," Crosby said in his postgame Zoom press conference. "I thought we got better as the series went on, and I think you look at two overtime games that we lost, being able to win one of those would have been huge. But I think we did a lot of good things. The last couple games we played really well."

It's not much of an answer, and it raises the question of whether this group has accomplished all it can together. We might be seeing the end of an era in Pittsburgh, or maybe the beginning of the end.

Malkin and Kris Letang each has a year remaining on his contract, so there will be talks of extensions this summer. But the club is right up against the salary cap, and with a new regime in charge, it's fair to question whether general manager Ron Hextall and team president Brian Burke might want to make changes to the roster or behind the bench.

If they can't extend Malkin or Letang, is it worth keeping them? Is it time for a roster shakeup?

"They've been saying that for four years, right, so I don't know if I'm going to change anybody's mind," Crosby said. "I think we did a lot of good things this year. You can look at every year and analyze it differently. We had a good group, and we easily could have made a run. I feel pretty confident about this group...with the way that we were trending and the way we finished the year. But it's a fine line in the playoffs."

All involved say this core has another deep run left in them, but they're running out of time to prove it.

"I believe in this core. This is the best core groups of players I have ever been around, bar none," coach Mike Sullivan said. "They're a passionate group, they are generational talents, they still can compete at an extremely high level and they've shown it game in and game out."

So if the core isn't the problem, then what is it?

You could point to a lack of roster depth, which is what happens in a flat-cap league when a team's money is tied up in its stars. The Penguins got vintage performances from Jeff Carter, whom they acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings at the deadline. He turned out to be a driving force in this series with four goals and an assist.

But what will he be capable of next year at 37? What does the depth look like with one of the talented young role players likely headed to Seattle next season via the expansion draft?

Of course, it would be impossible to look at this series and not think that the goaltending was a problem.

When the Penguins won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, they had a franchise goalie in Marc-Andre Fleury and a 1-A backup in Matt Murray. They were both cleared out to make room for Tristan Jarry.

If you didn't know Jarry's name before this first-round series, you certainly do now. How could you not after the way the packed Coliseum crowd chanted his last name? It's not his fault his last name is exceptionally easy to chant, and with a group of fans at long last reveling in live hockey, you had to know it was coming with even the slightest of miscues.

And unfortunately for Jarry, there were miscues. And they were costly. One of them in particular cost the team Monday night in double-overtime, gifting the Islanders and Josh Bailey the game-winning goal with a poorly timed turnover in Game 5.

A five-goal Game 6 did little to inspire confidence.

Sullivan chose to protect his embattled goalie, declining to elaborate on any conversations he might have had with coaches about using Maxime Lagace to start the third period after the Islanders scored four times in the second.

"You win games as a team and you lose games as a team," Sullivan said. "It's not any one person's fault."

There is little reason to throw him under the bus after the last game of the series. Besides, he's not wrong. While many fans will blame Jarry for this series, it was not the goaltending alone that bounced Pittsburgh out of the playoffs in the first round.

The vaunted top-line was noticeably absent. Crosby was on the ice for three of the Isles' five goals and got burned in an odd-man rush on the second one.

Letang and others took some bad penalties that resulted in power plays, and discipline was an issue through some of the middle games as the Islanders were easily able to bait the Pens into skirmishes that resulted in their top players going to the penalty box. A player is useless if he can't stay on the ice.

And, of course, there was Barry Trotz's frustrating system. Everyone knows it, yet somehow few can get around it.

"They've done it for years. They play a very structured game, a very simple game, a patient game," Carter said. "When they get opportunities, they capitalize on them."

You can't blame Jarry alone for this playoff exit, and you definitely can't blame him for the past three. You can blame the people who made the decision to let Fleury go to the Vegas Golden Knights and traded Murray to the Ottawa Senators thinking Jarry would be good enough to supplant both of them. But that general manager, Jim Rutherford, isn't even in Pittsburgh anymore, having left the team in the middle of the season for "personal reasons."

So where do the Penguins go from here? What will they look like next season? The front office already has to be preparing for life after their heralded core, but it's difficult to do that without any first-round draft picks. With Pittsburgh constantly in win-now mode, they haven't had a lot of those—only six since 2009.

It's a tough balancing act to try to win now while also building for the future, but as long as Crosby is around they have no choice. There is no damage done to his legacy, but the expectation in Pittsburgh is he and the Penguins will continue to try to build upon it.