The latest NHL trade chatter had a little bit of everything: a young defenceman making a fast impression in Edmonton, a familiar Maple Leafs blueliner looking for a cleaner fit, and a Boston rumour that may have been cooked up by Instagram itself.
Start in Edmonton, where Shakir Mukhamadullin has already done enough in preseason to earn praise from his new coach. Babcock liked the 6’5″ defenceman’s simple approach, saying he made smart plays instead of trying to get too fancy. That effort helped him beat out Spencer Stastney and Ty Emberson for a roster spot, at least for now.
Babcock also pointed to the value of a change of scenery, and he went a step further with Stan Bowman, saying he “could have made a hell of a deal” on Nurse in the Darnell Nurse trade. Whether that was a direct shot at Nurse or not, the result looks strong for Edmonton. Few expected the Oilers to move Nurse’s full salary, but Bowman did exactly that and brought back a useful young defenceman in the process.
Mukhamadullin’s new two-year extension comes in at $1.75 million per season, which is about 19% of what Nurse was making. If he keeps playing like this, that’s a tidy piece of business for the Oilers.
In Toronto, Morgan Rielly is looking for a different kind of reset. His last couple of seasons have been rough, and the source of a lot of that trouble was how he was deployed under Craig Berube.
Rielly has always been an offensive defenceman, but Berube’s defence-first setup pushed him into something closer to a true number-one role. He was playing more than 21 minutes a night and getting exposed in his own end, which showed up in a combined minus-26 over two years.
Now the hope is that Jim Hiller can put him in a spot that actually suits him. The setup appears to be more manageable, with Rielly skating alongside Darren Raddysh and moving to the second power-play unit.
That would mean fewer minutes and less pressure. If the Maple Leafs shelter him from tough defensive starts and let McCabe and Tanev handle the heavy lifting, Rielly could get back to being productive again.
A finish north of 40 points feels realistic, and 50 is in play if things break right.
There’s also a milestone waiting in the background. Rielly is 49 games shy of 1,000 with the Maple Leafs, which would make him the sixth player in franchise history to reach that number.
Then there’s the strangest item of the day: a possible Kirill Marchenko-to-Boston connection that seems to have started on Instagram. Bruins forwards David Pastrnak and Nikita Zadorov both started following Marchenko, and Marchenko followed them back. A bot account called the NHL Follow Tracker caught it, and that was enough to get fans talking, especially with Boston already linked to Marchenko and Columbus still in a messy spot.
Even ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski got involved, basically wondering if the Bruins were trolling everyone.
The sensible read is that it probably means nothing. NHL players follow each other all the time for all sorts of reasons, from training ties to agents to simple familiarity. But that’s not nearly as much fun as imagining a bot account beating the insiders to the punch.
In Other News...
Bruins Need JJ Peterka To Fix One Offensive Problem Fast
The trade market is starting to move again as the league heads toward its cap-compliant roster deadline, with Elliotte Friedman reporting that a deal involving Kirill Marchenko between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Toronto Maple Leafs could be close. For Boston, the ripple effect matters because the Bruins have already made their big swing, bringing in winger JJ Peterka to help address an offense that has lacked enough punch for too long.
Peterka arrives with real expectations attached, and the Bruins will need him to translate that upside quickly once the season opens against the New York Rangers at TD Garden. The fit is obvious enough: Boston wants more speed, more finishing and more reliable scoring depth, and Peterka is the kind of addition that can change the look of a forward group if he settles in right away. The only question is how fast that impact shows up, because for a team trying to reestablish itself, offensive fixes have a way of becoming urgent the moment the puck drops. [Read more 🡒]
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DiPietro took advantage of it in camp and preseason, where he put together the kind of showing that made the backup picture more interesting than it has been in a while. For a Bruins team looking to sort out the goal crease after last springs disappointment, having a second goaltender who earned the job on merit gives the season a little more stability, even if the long-term questions around the position are still very much part of the conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Still Have One Big Question Down The Middle
The Bruins still have a familiar question hanging over the middle of the ice, and Don Sweeneys latest comments only sharpened the picture. Boston begins the season with Matthew Poitras on injured reserve after a lower-body issue, but the 22-year-old center is still very much in the mix once he gets healthy. Drafted 54th overall in 2022, Poitras has already logged 33 NHL games over the past two seasons, giving the Bruins another young option to watch as they sort through their center depth.
Pavel Zacha remains part of that conversation, too, after a career-best season that ended with 30 goals and 65 points. Sweeney said extension talks are ongoing, while Elias Lindholm enters the year as the clubs top-line center and, in the GMs view, a good complimentary player. For Boston, the issue is less about finding bodies than figuring out which combination can bring some stability to a position that still feels very much in flux. [Read more 🡒]