Daily Roundup: Aleksander Barkov rumours, Jonathan Toews to the LTIR, and more

Welcome to Daily Roundup, your source for all of the news, rumours, and headlines from around the NHL. 

Teams are checking in on Barkov

According to TSN’s Frank Seravalli, multiple teams have checked in on Florida Panthers’ captain @Aleksander Barkov.

While Panthers’ general manager Bill Zito says that he has no intention of moving Barkov right now, there’s some skepticism that he’ll re-sign in Florida once his contract expires after the 2021-22 season. While Barkov’s camp says the player wants to win in Florida and will give the team a chance, the Panthers have been dysfunctional during the former No. 2 overall pick’s career.

The Panthers have made the playoffs just twice in Barkov’s career and they haven’t made it out of the first round. A trade likely won’t happen any time soon, but it’ll be something to monitor, especially if the Panthers struggle this season.

Montreal is Dubois’ ideal landing spot

Pierre-Luc Dubois’ desire to leave the Columbus Blue Jackets and start fresh elsewhere is well known, but when a deal is made and who it’s with is anybody’s guess.

According to Nick Kypreos, a former Sportsnet insider, Dubois’ ideal landing spot is with the Montreal Canadiens. Kypreos went on to say that the discussion right now between the Habs and Blue Jackets is centred around Nick Suzuki, while Brian Hedger suggests that Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Victor Mete is the ask.

Dubois is from Ste-Agathe-Des-Monts, so joining the Habs would be a homecoming for him.

Jonathan Toews and Kirby Dach hit the LTIR

The Chicago Blackhawks made a few injury-related moves on Thursday, placing both Kirby Dach and Jonathan Toews on the Long-Term Injured Reserve.

The Dach move comes as no surprise, as the former No. 3 overall pick injured his wrist while playing for Team Canada at the World Juniors back in late-December. Dach is on a four-to-five-month timetable and could wind up missing the entire season depending on how things go for the Hawks.

The Toews news is a bit more surprising and mysterious, as he’s listed on the LTIR with an illness. There’s no word on a timetable for Toews’ return or what he’s dealing with.

Sammy Blais suspended for hit on Devon Toews

Sammy Blais has been handed a two-game suspension for an illegal hit to the head of Colorado Avalanche defenceman Devon Toews. Here’s the hit…

Toews left the game but did return later on and said afterwards that he was suffering no lingering effects from the hit. It doesn’t appear as though he’ll miss any time.

@Connor McDavid scores a hat-trick in Oilers win

After the Oilers dropped their season-opener on Wednesday night, Connor McDavid exploded in the rematch on Thursday, scoring the eighth hat-trick of his career to help the team to a commanding 5-2 victory. This was just pure dominance on McDavid’s part…

McDavid’s career-high is 116 points. In this 56-game season, it would take over a two-point-per-game pace to break that total. Can he do it? I wouldn’t be surprised.